Insiders, Outsiders, and Voting Behavior

Your father sounds like a smart guy. Seems to have known what was going on, known it was beyond his power to change, and content to leave it at that. Wish I could view things from such a remote location. Alas, it seems I'm doomed to dwell among the irrational outsiders. Lying, cheating, stealing, and spending other people's money just seems too wrong to let pass quietly.

It looks like you're using "insider" in a slightly different way than the last time you posted about your father's views.

Does "insider" mean anyone who aligns with the basically-status-quo political channels, and who is not attracted to radical views? Or does it refer to people who involve themselves with politics to gain immediate specific benefits (congressional earmarks etc)?

The first time you posted on insiders/outsiders, you seemed to be using the first sense, and talked about how "outsiders" are weirdos attracted to radical politics for essentially personal reasons. (no pejorative intended, we'll all weirdos here)

Now you seem to be using "insiders" in its second sense, people who are able to exert control over political resources.

I think it is worth making a distinction between the two. The president of N.O.W. doesn't have mainstream views, but she can leverage spoils from the system. A store clerk who volunteers weekends for Obama isn't radical, but his activism is still best viewed as a personal hobby rather than a way to gain material benefits.

I think from my father's point of view, insiders were those who played the game from the inside. Outsiders would be radicals of all stripes, or "true believers," in Eric Hoffer's term. People who neither participate in interest groups nor engage in activist radical activity are just part of the general public. The general public are the ones that the insiders try to use to their advantage.

People who support Hillary and Obama without having any particular interest at stake fall somewhere on the spectrum between radical outsiders and the general public, closer to the latter in most cases.

Thanks for the clarification.