I'm currently working on my Ph.D., and it's shoddy "research" like this that drives me batty. Granted I haven't read the actual research, only the story about it so maybe the authors are just mentioning the pieces they think the readers want to hear.
They argue that low income voters support Democrats because low income voters prosper when the President is a Democrat. Many commented on the story that we don't know if they included transfers in income or not or really any kind of detail at all. But I think this misses an important point. Past studies have shown that the economy itself does better when the President is a Democrat, which they point out here, too. Additionally, this means high income earners also prosper during Democrat administrations. So by their own logic, shouldn't high income earners vote Democrat? Why don't they.
What would have been more convincing is if they had discussed gains relative to high income earners. As it is, we don't know if low income earners prosperity increases similarly, more than, or less than high income earners in each type of administration. Even though, that analysis itself is probably too simplistic, it's worlds better than the analysis provided.
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