D. Sunshine Hillygus and Todd G. Shields. The Persuadable Voter

Presidential campaigns involve nothing more than “mobilizing the base.” The Republican and Democratic parties toss red (blue?) meat to their respective faithfuls, and then these voters, enthused about their candidate and enraged by the opponent, march to the polls on Election Day. No matter who wins, the electorate appears polarized—two opposing armies staring at each other from their own trenches. This portrait of contemporary campaigns is grossly oversimplified, contend Sunshine Hillygus and Todd Shields in The Persuadable Voter. They highlight a very different campaign dynamic: how candidates use “wedge issues” to lure voters from the other party. In the book's opening example, Ronald Reagan Jr. addresses the 2004 Democratic convention about the benefits of stem cell research—a message targeted at the many Republicans who support such research. Hillygus and Shields resurrect the venerable notion of “cross-pressures” and reconceive it not as the conflict between partisan and social identities (e.g., black Republicans) but as the conflict between partisan identities and positions on key issues (e.g., pro-choice Republicans). Given current levels of political polarization, such conflicts appear unlikely, but Hillygus and Shields show that nearly all Democrats and Republicans disagree with their parties on at least one issue. Moreover, the extent of cross-pressures has remained constant over time, despite any “ideological realignment” of liberals and conservatives to their natural partisan homes. Because the parties contain multitudes, citizens are not polarized into competing armies. Hillygus and Shields rightly emphasize purple rather than red or blue.

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