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Unfortunately, throughout the history of the world, intellectuals and the educated have been hunted down and exterminated, periodically. Cambodia being one of the most prime examples. Soviet Union under Stalin being another. The Taliban being the current perpetrators. Generally when uneducated religious zealots gain power, exterminating what they believe to be the intellectual elite, is at the top of their agenda.
Does this explain why most college grads are self-proclaimed liberals?
No. THAT is explained by the fact that most college grads are young and stupid and soak up all the college liberalism without thinking whether it is logical or not.
Both the conservstive movement and the Republican Party have been dealing with a traditionalist vs libertarian split since the late 1960's -- just about the same time the Democratic Party moved further to the left by absorbing most of the campus-centered rdaicalism of the day. The division afffects both the "ideologial" and "pragmatic" components of both entities.
Thus, after the temsions between the two groups became apparent around 1970, and Richard Nixon squandered a resounding victory at the polls via Watergate, the Libertarian Party emerged, running clearly intellectually-oriented candidates in the late John Hospers and Roger McBride.
But along the same lines, after George H W Bush abandoned his "no new taxes" stand in the early Nineties, William F. Buckley's National Review "annointed" Rush Limbaugh as the new standard-bearer -- simply because his message resonated among disaffected blue-collar social conservatives.
Regardless of the difference on social issues, a broad spectrum of suspicion toward the Democrats' coalition of strong social liberals and the old union/urban machine system of politics remains intact, and we can quickly close ranks when the right issue turns up.
Some quotes From Sowell's "The Vision of the Annointed"
Conservative Ideology:
“In the tragic vision, individual sufferings and social evils are inherent in the innate deficiencies of all human beings, whether these deficiencies are in knowledge, wisdom, morality, or courage. Moreover, the available resources are always inadequate to fulfill all the desires of all the people. Thus there are no “solutions†in the tragic vision, but only trade-offs that still leave many unfulfilled and much unhappiness in the world.†— P. 113
Liberal Ideology
“In their haste to be wiser and nobler than others, the anointed have misconceived two basic issues. They seem to assume (1) that they have more knowledge than the average member of the benighted and (2) that this is the relevant comparison. The real comparison, however, is not between the knowledge possessed by the average member of the educated elite versus the average member of the general public, but rather the total direct knowledge brought to bear though social processes (the competition of the marketplace, social sorting, etc.), involving millions of people, versus the secondhand knowledge of generalities possessed by a smaller elite group.†— P. 114
I don't see anyone addressing the thoughts of a conservative intellectual that I posted previously. The fact is conservatives have more faith in the market, and the decisions of millions of people, then the ideas of a select few who believe they have the cure for all the world's ills.
If conservatives have disdain for the intellectual then liberals have a disdain for the common man.
Thus, the more educated you are, the more likely to vote liberal. Also according to Pew, for each percentage point a state increases for the percent bachelor's, there is an increase of .75% points Democrat. So the more educated the more likely to be liberal.
How a state votes is not as important as how people within a state vote. Actually re-read what I said. "The more educated you are, the more likely you are to vote liberal" is simply not a true statement, assuming we are saying that Democrat = liberal (not that that's necessarily true, but it's the easiest way to look at this).
While the most educated group does lean Democrat, the more educated you are, the more likely you are to vote Republican up to a point. In both 2008 and 2010, Democrats did best among high school dropouts.
Last edited by afoigrokerkok; 09-02-2012 at 12:40 PM..
I imagine that is because Republicans do **** poor among people with advanced scientific training, attorneys, and people with Ph.Ds, I think they even lose medical doctors as well.
The most stark of this group is scientists. The GOP comes in dead last among scientists. I think something like 6% of scientists are Republican, 55% are Democrats and 32% are independent.
If Republicans are losing scientists, attorneys, and those with PhD's (and they definitely do, I'm not arguing otherwise), I don't see how they could lose MD's, at least not by a significant margin, because they are not losing those with advanced degrees by large enough margins to compensate for large losses among scientists and those with PhD's. The margin for attorneys is certainly smaller, but with the large margins among scientists and PhD's, another large group would be needed to counteract that loss.
Remember that those with master's degrees are also included in the postgraduate education group. You also have groups like MSW's, MSSW's, M.Ed's, a lot of MA's and MS's in certain fields, etc. who certainly lean heavily Democrat. I suppose MBA's counteract this, but some other group has to counteract it as well. MD's are probably about 50/50. (Obviously with all these groups, it varies election to election, because there are "swing voters" in every group.)
Thanks for those links. I will honestly check them out.
You're most welcome. The Imaginative Conservative is a veritable gold mine. You should spend a lot of time there. The Public Discourse is a bit too neo-conny for my tastes, and The Orthosphere is a little too cozy with some on the racialist right, but both have good contributors.
If Republicans are losing scientists, attorneys, and those with PhD's (and they definitely do, I'm not arguing otherwise), I don't see how they could lose MD's, at least not by a significant margin, because they are not losing those with advanced degrees by large enough margins to compensate for large losses among scientists and those with PhD's. The margin for attorneys is certainly smaller, but with the large margins among scientists and PhD's, another large group would be needed to counteract that loss.
Remember that those with master's degrees are also included in the postgraduate education group. You also have groups like MSW's, MSSW's, M.Ed's, a lot of MA's and MS's in certain fields, etc. who certainly lean heavily Democrat. I suppose MBA's counteract this, but some other group has to counteract it as well. MD's are probably about 50/50. (Obviously with all these groups, it varies election to election, because there are "swing voters" in every group.)
While there are no overarching studies of MDs specifically, the overall trends do not seem to favor the GOP.
With regard to post college voters they are overwhelming democratic and it encompasses, in theory anyone who has had some post graduate training. I imagine there are a lot of people out there who have masters, or credit on masters in a wide range of fields, that may not be politically determinative.
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