I've decided to start annotating why I mark someone as a friend or foe, for what little that's worth. In the case of the Old Burke, it's for his signature equating patriotism with voting Republican. That is a completely false equivalence, more suitable to the Stalin's Soviet Union, simply substituting "Communist" for "Republican".
My own observations are that the "modern" GOP voters are mostly in three classes: Greedy rich bastards, single-issue fools, and people who always vote that way.
Statistically, I believe the first group is actually quite small, mostly because rich people are scarce, but also because not all rich people are greedy and nasty. However, this first group is where the GOP money comes from--they don't donate to politicians. They invest in bribable ones like Bush. Dubya's largest contributor = Enron. I rest my case.
The last group is the largest (for both parties), and least "helpful" for real democracy. Though numerous, they are most effectively neutralized by low turnout, because most of them are rather apathetic. Why should they care? They already know which way they're going to vote. My theory here is that the balance is most influenced by conditions when they were growing up. If they grew up poor, as in the Depression or in a poor family, they tended to become Democrats, but if they grew up in a rich family, they are more likely to be Republicans. Historically, the GOP was weaker here, but these years it's shifting in their favor.
The second group, though smaller, is large enough to be crucial for swinging elections through special interest appeals. They are also the ones that can be motivated to deliver large and reliable blocks of votes. These are the fanatics like gun nuts or anti-abortionists. Just appeal to their issue, and they'll deliver their votes. They go beyond being unhelpful to real democracy--they act to destroy it.
