#monkey cage

[markonpark]

Etsy, MARKonPARK: Cape Cod Monkey Cage. Faded 1970s vintage photo of two children enjoying a theme park attraction.

[loksrocs]

Please enjoy this video I made.

[cogitoergofun]

Seniors Are More Conservative Because the Poor Die Off

Sometimes older voters aren’t just naturally more conservative. It’s just that wealthier and whiter people tend to live longer and healthier lives.

Political participation of the poor is overall lower because of poverty, bad health and many other factors, but millions of impoverished Americans across the country also die prematurely. For instance, in 2015, research funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Social Security Administration revealed that, since 1990, among the bottom quarter of Americans with the least education, life expectancy has either stagnated or decreased. That’s for well over 40 million people.

Add to this negative trend the fact that mortality among the poor increases during middle age — which is when citizens generally get more involved in politics. The premature disappearance of the poor, then, occurs precisely at the moment when they would be expected to reach their “participatory peak” in society. But they don’t live long enough to achieve that milestone.

[tzifron]

Seniors Are More Conservative Because the Poor Die Off

One of the many reasons why taking care of each other is a radical act.

Political participation of the poor is overall lower because of poverty, bad health and many other factors, but millions of impoverished Americans across the country also die prematurely. For instance, in 2015, research funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Social Security Administration revealed that, since 1990, among the bottom quarter of Americans with the least education, life expectancy has either stagnated or decreased. That’s for well over 40 million people.

Add to this negative trend the fact that mortality among the poor increases during middle age — which is when citizens generally get more involved in politics. The premature disappearance of the poor, then, occurs precisely at the moment when they would be expected to reach their “participatory peak” in society. But they don’t live long enough to achieve that milestone.

[…]

And as the authors of the new study discussed at the Monkey Cage note, age and lifespan disparities can become self-perpetuating:

Inequality in the U.S., in other words, is not solely the result of economic difference. Health, too, has considerable potential to stack the deck against the poor. Socioeconomics, longevity and political participation mutually reinforce each other, making it especially difficult for poor Americans to gain political clout.

So it’s not just a matter of people naturally growing more conservative as they grow older. It’s also a matter of the wealthier — and more conservative — people surviving more often, and for longer.

[progressiveactiondaily-blog]

Article of the day: by now you've surely seen a theme in much of what's been shared here: calling your representatives and trying to meet them in person is more effective than signing online petitions.  However, this doesn't mean that petitions are useless!  At the Monkey Cage, Daniel Carpenter notes that they have several benefits for both the signers and organizers of the petition.  Most notably, petitions help activist groups create lists of potential members -- and many people get their start in activism simply by putting their name on a petition.  So don't feel badly about signing the next petition that comes through your inbox.

[calicojack1718]

Putin in Ukraine: Predicting a Personalist Ruler using Groupthink

Can we predict what Putin is going to do? Groupthink is the best tool we have in predicting Putin and figuring out the best way to stop him!

Meme: A Single-Party, Pseudo-Democratic Authoritarian Regime Just Like in Russia In a newish piece in The Washington Post‘s Monkey Cage, political scientists, Erica Frantz and Joseph Wright, write about Putin’s mental state that led him to invade Ukraine. They describe him as a “personalist” leader, meaning that he has successfully cast off any of the checks and balances that accompany the…

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[room-where-it-happens]

I know I’ve been pretty inactive on this blog, and especially regarding international stuff as IR is not my field. But I do know people for who it is, and for anyone interested in what international relations work has to say regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the linked thread has some of the recent (if a few days old) Monkey Cage blog posts on the subject.

[pern-dragon]

Seniors Are More Conservative Because the Poor Die Off

Sometimes older voters aren’t just naturally more conservative. It’s just that wealthier and whiter people tend to live longer and healthier lives.