Converse, P. E. (1964). The nature of belief systems in mass publics. In D.
Apter (Ed.), Ideology and discontent. New York: Free Press.
In the third level were placed respondents who failed to rely upon any such over-
arching dimensions yet evaluated parties and candidates in terms of
their expected favorable or unfavorable treatment of different social groupings
in the population. The Democratic Party might be disliked because
"It's trying to heip the Negroes too much," or the Republican Party might be
endorsed because farm prices would be better with the Republicans in
office. The more sophisticated of these group-interest responses reflected an
awareness of conflict in interest between "big business" or "rich people,"
on the one hand, and "labor" or the "working man," on the other, and parties
and candidates were located accordingly.
It is often asked why these later respondents are not considered full
"ideologues," for there perceptions run to the more tangible core of what has
traditionally been viewed as ideological conflict. It is quite true that such a
syndrome is closer to the upper levels of conceptualization than are any of
the other types to be described. As we originally foresaw, however, there turn
out to be rather marked differences, not only in social origin and flavor of
judgmental processes but in overt political reactions as well, between people
of this. type and those in the upper levels. These people have a clear image
of politics as an arena of group interests and, provided that they have been
properly advised on where there own group interests lie, they are relatively
likely to follow such advice. Unless an issue directly concerns their grouping
in an obviously rewarding or punishing way, however, they lack the contextual
grasp of the system to recognize how they should respond to it without being
told by elites who hold their confidence. Furthermore, their interest in politics
is not sufficiently strong that they pay much attention to such communications.
If a communication gets through and they absorb it, they are most willing to
behave "ideologically" in ways that will further the interests of their group. If
they fail to receive such communication, which is most unusual, knowledge of
group memberships may be of little help in predicting their responses.
This syndrome we came to call "ideology by proxy."
"The Republican party is a monolith. They all pretty much want the exact same things.
The Democratic party is a mosaic. A group of people who all have different priorities."
The Republican party is a monolith because political/corporate elites have convinced the public that their interests are the public interests. It is anti-democratic. The Democratic party is a mosaic because it (supposedly) represents the interests of the people. You seem to have a problem with that, and would prefer all these out groups to take their issues and fuck off. How very conservative of you.
Maybe the Democratic party needs to lie better; After all, calling people "fucking retards" and saying they need to be drug tested hasn't helped much.