Great Graphic: How Disparity Contributes to US Political Dysfunctionality

The disparity of wealth and income in the United States is not simply an economic (and moral) problem, but a social and political challenge as well.  

Many bemoan the partisanship that has partially closed the Federal government and is threatening to lead to a default.  Part of that partisanship itself seems like a function of the disparity of wealth and income as reflected in higher education.  

This Great Graphic, posted on HappyPlace.com, shortly after the last year's election, highlights the voting discrepancy between the ten states with the largest percentage of its residents with at least a college degree and the ten states with the smallest percentage of its residents with at least a college degree.  This is not meant to be pejorative.  The purpose here is not to be a partisan, but to understand the partisanship. 

There is a clear geographical divide:  largely the northeast and the south.   Moreover, and perhaps counter-intuitively, many of these southern states have tended to grow faster than the country as a whole (in terms of GDP).   Much of the revival in US manufacturing, for example, appears concentrated in the South.  Lower wages, less unionization, willingness of state government's to make concessions to attract producers are important considerations.  

Perhaps the success of the Tea Party Movement, and why it is likely to survive whatever compromises are struck to re-open the government and avoid default, is that it is not simply a protest movement or a one-issue party, like the Occupy Movement, Pirate Party of the 5-Star Movement.  It is the modern expression of the old south's antipathy to the federal government.  

The political realignment in the US, that can be traced by to Nixon, in which the Republicans re-captured the South from the Democrat,s has also caused a transformation in old battle lines. Previously, there was a profound split between northern and southern democrats.   Appreciating this split is integral to understandings the post-WWII American politics.  

However, now that the Republican Party dominates the South, that split is taking place within the GOP.  The southern wing wants to expand its influence and will run candidates in northern primaries next year.  Either it can win and capture control of the party, or it will remain an important force, which can lead to a more sustained fissure (a third party?).  

In order to minimize being outflanked by the Tea Party movement, many northern Republicans may not have exerted their leadership as they may have done in the past. Although US government has been shut 18 times now since 1977, this is the first time since 1995-1996.    

All political parties are coalitions.  The Republican Party also does well in rural communities. Drawing from census data, a recent Bloomberg report concluded that 62 of the 75 most rural House of Representative districts are represented by a Republican.   

A key shift leading up the the Civil War took place when the northeast industrialists allied themselves with western farmers and workers, shifting from supporting the landed elite in the south.   Now the future of the Republican Party may rest on the ability to sustain the coalition between the Tea Party Movement and rural voters.  

It was not a large and sustained drop in the stock market, as some observes thought would be necessary to get Republicans to change their tactics.  It was the polls.  The Republicans were being blamed and their disapproval ratings have soared.   They were alienating independent voters.   The risk of sharp defeats in next year's elections loomed and typically in a non-presidential year election, the party that occupies the White House tends to lose seats in Congress.