Comments on: Party Affiliation Versus Education Level

By: Dave Bacon

Dave Bacon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:21:48 +0000

For those who come to this post they might also look at
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2009/07/democrats_do_be.html

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By: Randy

Randy — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:51:19 +0000

This Data is clearly skewed. One can easily realize this just based on the sample sizes from each group. Well over half of the sample leans left. My guess is that this was most likely gathered in a liberal area where the breakdown of education levels would match that of the general population, but the overall populatin is slanting left. As far as education being correlated to income, that is a good point, but wouldn’t we all agree that government should be run by the most knowledgeable people? In other words, I agree that the data carries little informational value.

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By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:34:35 +0000

I think it also needs to be pointed out that one’s income level is strongly correlated with party affiliation, and also with one’s opportunity for higher education. Those in higher income brackets tend to be more republican, and also more able to afford college. Financial situation is only one of many important factors not normalized in this data, so not too many conclusions can rightly be drawn from it. It is interesting, though. I think it should be explored more, even if some consider that taboo or elitist.

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By: MM

MM — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:16:48 +0000

I have seen another table that shows the less formally educated you are, the more likely you are to be democrat, but this could be more because of SES. However, if you look at the graduate degree level (greater than bachelor level), then, YES, there is a greater chance of those grads being Democrat, than people who only have a Bachelor level education. I would argue that the more formal education one has, the more critical of a thinker they are, thus, the more macro level thinking involved. Democratic values tend to focus on macro level concerns for the whole of society (gender, poverty, etc.) while conservative values tend to focus on the micro level (how much money can I make if I get a BA, or how much would I have to pay for taxes, etc.)

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By: Dave Bacon

Dave Bacon — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:39:07 +0000

What exactly are you objecting to MNstudent?

Not everyone who has a post undergraduate degree is in academia (doctors, lawyers, etc.) In fact I’d wager doctors are more conservative than liberal.

Also I think there are many reasons that liberals dominate faculty at research institutions (and a lot less so as you go down the totem pole of academia related to research.) These include things like selection effects (liberals only hiring liberals), the nature of research (state sponsored funding for science is not high on many fiscal conservatives agendas), the flight of conservatives to think tanks (which pay much better), the role of money in the lives of the different constituencies (strong capitalist component of the conservatives don’t want to take such low pay for the amount of work), etc.

It’s interesting that you are so quick to label your professors academic leanings. Did you ask them about it or did you just guess? I’ve always wondered about this as I don’t ever bring up politics in the classroom (I teach CS). I’m pretty sure our students couldn’t identify the libretarians and conservatives in our CS department, but maybe I’m wrong.

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By: MNstudent

MNstudent — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:18:52 +0000

This seems very suspect to me seeing as that every single college professor I’ve ever spoken with, with the exception of ONE, has been a very strong democrat, and because conservatives themselves seem to espouse the popular notion that college “brainwashes” young adults into being liberal. I have always heard it was the exact opposite, that the more educated you were, the more likely you were to be a democrat and the less likely you were to be religious.

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By: Dave Bacon

Dave Bacon — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:44:18 +0000

No one likes to talk about education level versus political affiliation. It sounds way too elitist. But I’m sure that political consultants have this data and know what to do with it

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By: Larry J

Larry J — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:30:44 +0000

This is very interesting data. It seems to be in line with all the other unbiased articles I have found. This is the only one that had this much detail in the data. I would have liked to see the average number of years for the drop outs. I used factors of 9 for drop outs, 12 for HS grads, 14 for JC, 16 for BS, and 18 for advanced degrees. I then multiplied the numbers in each cell by the corresponding factor, summed the products, and divided the sum by the total of the respondents. This gave me a weighted average. The Dem group averaged 11.98 while the Repubs averaged 12.59. Do you think the media and the pollsters doing the surveys ignore this informantion intentionally because they do not like the results? Or is it because no one is interested period. There is very little documentation on this subject.

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By: Dave Bacon

Dave Bacon — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:51:03 +0000

“Why should we believe that you have accurately compiled the data of “tha [sic] table”?”

You shouldn’t. Do it yourself if you want to. But please, before you ask this question, why don’t you check it out yourself first before accusing.

“What are your qualifications?”

If I said I was a patent clerk, what would that matter? What the hell do qualifications matter in assembling a table?

“And why are you grouping approx 28 years into a single chart?”

Because it was the most easily accessible data set.

Any more questions?

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By: Joe Nameth

Joe Nameth — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:47:43 +0000

Why should we believe that you have accurately compiled the data of “tha [sic] table”?
What are your qualifications?
And why are you grouping approx 28 years into a single chart?

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