Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do

In his illuminating new book Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State, Columbia political scientist and state-of-the-art number cruncher Andrew Gelman explodes persistent myths about American voting patterns just in time for the 2008 elections. Gelman, with co-authors David Park, Boris Shor, Joseph Bafumi, and Jeronimo Cortina, shows that rich states lean Democratic while rich individuals still lean Republican. The real culture war, he argues, is being waged between affluent Democrats and affluent Republicans, not between the haves and have-nots. Gelman explores how religion does and doesn't affect rich and poor voters and how the rich-poor voting divide differs in "red" and "blue" states. And what about all those "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" voters? Please join us for an eye-opening discussion of the changing face of the American electorate and its implications for the politics of tomorrow.