On Sun, Feb 23, 2003 at 04:11:59PM -0600, Julia Thompson wrote: > If it were the Congressional district I live in, I doubt that the > current Congressman would have much to worry about from that group, > because the demographics of this district would likely have a much > smaller representation than the 10% given above. If I lived in > the Congressional district Marvin lives in, I would be a lot more > concerned, because there's a much higher proportion of them than the > 10%. Then again, *that* Congressman feels more closely to the way > that 10% feels than *my* Congressman does, so he has less to fear > from that group than a challenger probably would. (These are the two > members of Congress I know the most about off the top of my head.) > > Beyond that, at the state or national level, I'd go with the study on > how likely they were to vote before I changed my actions with respect > to their opinion. > > Politics gets to be a very pragmatic game. Figuring out just who > you're dealing with goes a long way.
Julia, you are forgetting the most important thing: the group I was talking about holds relatively extreme peace views. They are actually outnumbered more than 2 to 1 by people that hold the opposite hawkish views. While I'm sure it isn't exactly zero-sum, it is probably close -- if you court one group you lose the other. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
