Originally Posted by sunnyside

Actually I'd say those would tend to be correlated. Specifically both deal with rights (i.e. the right to chop down some trees and the right to carry).

I'm not saying they have to go together. But I'd be willing to wager that there are few in the NRA that are also full on tree-hugging, bust the minks out of their cages, throw acid at the whalers type people.

I think the republican platform is composed mostly the three "chunks"

1. Showing favor for those making more money (not sure exactly where this kicks in, somewhere between $20,000 and certainly by $120,000 household income. Exact point where republican policies favor you varies by indaviduals. I'd guess around $40,000)

2. Support of morals (vaguelly as defined by tradiotion and/or the Catholic church or other religious set).

3. General willingness to take a hard line stance on something. (War, death penalty etc).

I think every republican plank falls into one or more of those catagories. And the three catagories are correlated. The "moral" set tends towards being more hardline. They also tend to actually go and get a job. Often putting them into the republican earning brackets.

(In case your wondering environmentalism policy would fall into the "money" bin)

Democrats I have a harder time defining catagories for. I think I'd go with.

1. Obviously support for those not making enough money.

2. General bleeding heartedness.

3. Morals and values roughly as held by an atheist urban college student on one of the coasts. (This will change over time)

(I think gun control falls under a blend of 2 (the victims) and 3 (how many atheist urban college students on coasts do you know who are packing heat?)

Again these general catgories are also correlated. #2 directly leads to #1 And #3 will have some tendency to produce the others at the time being.