Voters voting their concience rather than their pocketbooks (via IHT).
March 27, 2001 11:54 AM   Subscribe

Voters voting their concience rather than their pocketbooks (via IHT). Now, this is a good development IMHO. More inside.
posted by CRS (10 comments total)
 
I have a hard time discerning why folks with higher education have started to switch over to the Democratic party. Notice that professionals are going Dem while business leaders & managers are going Rep. Without trying to troll anyone, why do y'all think this is happening?

Is it that higher education = more money = a type of social paternalism while business people want less government regulation? Or is it something else altogether?

(Disclosure: I'm a Republican, with a law degree and an MBA)
posted by CRS at 11:59 AM on March 27, 2001


You make a good point. I have a BA in Information Technology from a very liberal school (UMass Amherst), and grew up in a Republican town with an excellent school system....but I've always leaned towards the Democratic party because I honestly feel they have what's good for the people in mind as opposed to the Republican Party and specifically George Bush who seems to be more pro-business (citing his reversal on regulating carbon dioxide emmissions, desire to drill in ANWR, move to deny funding to organizations that participate in abortion, giving funding to religious orgs for social programs yet refusing to recognize various Pagan religions, school vouchers to allow kids to go to private [possibly religious] schools and taking away money for schools who need it etc.).

Hell, my post is more trolling than yours ;)
posted by bkdelong at 12:15 PM on March 27, 2001


... whites without college degrees had significantly more positive feelings toward the Republican Party than toward the Democratic Party.

Yes, Dubya might want to rethink some of those education reforms...

Okay, I shouldn't troll. I actually support Bush's position on school vouchers. On another note, people might be more inclined to vote with their wallets if the economy continues to deteriorate.
posted by Loudmax at 12:59 PM on March 27, 2001


My personal point of view doesn't seem to have anything to do with where I was brought up (blue-collar), or the school I went to (low-end california state college), I've just always had an idealistic view that people are more important than money (yes I know it's stupid). The democrats don't do it for me most of the time, but the republicans don't even come close.

I never thought there was a overly strong education link (though college campus republican groups have always baffled me), I always thought it was an internal choice people made, whatever mattered most to them was what they'd base their political choices on.
posted by mathowie at 1:01 PM on March 27, 2001


I think in the long run it's all about socialization. With each generation born into the world, they seem to become more and more independent in thought. Some are influenced by their parents beliefs, others by their friends. I, like Matt, believe that how you were educated has squat to do with your POV. The road to enlightenment is not through the back door of your educational institution of choice - it's built upon your life experiences and what you come to believe based on a series of life-shaping events and occurances.
posted by bkdelong at 1:44 PM on March 27, 2001


I registered as an Independent in New York when I turned 18 and have never bothered to change. I choose not to lend my support to either party, which can be interesting. I then become a swing vote and get a ton of mail from both sides trying to convince me to vote for them. I also try to scatter my votes so that no one party takes over completely. My father is a Republican, my mother is a Democrat, seems natural for me to be an Independent ;-)
posted by a3matrix at 1:45 PM on March 27, 2001


Someone once posted here on MeFi an interesting study that perported to show that the type of family you grew up in determined your political leanings. Those with more traditional patriarchal families would eventually be more conservative and those with 'nurturing' families would eventually be more liberal.

I didn't put much credence into it, but it was pretty interesting, and I can see how for some people it was true.

Personally I voted green in the national election, but I am a moderate independent in general. However so far GW has made me pretty anti-Republican-- I was reserving judgement because that's my nature, but thus far GW has done nothing for those of us in the middle, has done nothing to indicate he has any core beliefs and can stand up to anyone, and has done nothing to indicate that he understands that had the support of about 25% of the population and no more. Maybe he's planning a move to the center later in his presidency a la Clinton, but I doubt he'll do so until the next election.

I wonder if there are others in my position, who were willing to give George Jr. a chance, but are utterly dismayed by his lame, backwards looking Foreign policy and utterly corrupt domestic policy. Coupled with the antics of the House Republicans of the mid to late 90's, it will take a long time or some real change for me to even consider another Republican candidate.

For the record I have a BA from a fairly conservative top 20 university, just so this rant isn't completely off-topic.
posted by chaz at 2:06 PM on March 27, 2001


has anyone thought to check out the political leanings of the average college professor?
could it be that the professors do have a profound influence on their students POVs?

I know that when I was attending Texas Tech University (usually characterized as a conservative school) it seemed to me that most of the professors who espoused any view at all were libs. Most of the students tended to support the arguments delivered by these professors because they had not heard any intelligent debate on political issues. They were unable/unwilling to do the research necessary to refute any of the Proffs' positions.
posted by citizensoldier at 4:08 PM on March 27, 2001


as a side note, did anyone check out the "Institute for America's Future" (the source of the poll)??


posted by citizensoldier at 4:25 PM on March 27, 2001


institute's parent
posted by citizensoldier at 4:28 PM on March 27, 2001


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