Purple America

A merica, we are told, is a nation divided. Maps of the electoral votes cast by the states in recent U.S. presidential elections reveal a striking pattern. The base of the Democratic Party is firmly rooted in the northeast and upper Midwest—a region stretching from Maine to Minnesota—plus the Pacific West, anchored by California. The Republicans are said to own an L-shaped region covering the South, the “breadbasket” states, and Mountain West, extending from the Carolinas to Arizona and up to Montana and Idaho. The cartographers who draw up the maps of U.S. election results have inadvertently branded a new division in American politics: Republican red versus Democratic blue. What is the source of this division? Most observers point not to the bread-andbutter economic issues of the New Deal alignment but to a “culture war.” America, it is argued, is torn by a struggle over issues such as abortion, gay marriage and school prayer that has transformed the geography of American elections and has eclipsed the traditional political questions of peace and prosperity (for example, Hunter, 1991; Wattenberg, 1995; Green, Guth, Smidt and Kellstedt, 1996; Williams, 1997; Walsh, 2000; Brooks, 2001; Shogan, 2002; Frank, 2004; Greenberg, 2004). This view challenges economic theorizing about elections and government policymaking. Most models assume that voters care first and foremost about economic issues: taxation, public goods, regulation, income redistribution, unemployment, and growth (Myerson, 1995, Persson and Tabellini, 2000, and Mueller, 2003, provide surveys and additional references). Many models focus on income redistribution, making the natural assumption that voters with higher incomes favor