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The media always likes to present Democrats as more educated and claim college educated people are supposed to be liberal. However I've noticed this is probably only the cases in the Northeast, the East Coast and West Coast.
Here in Louisiana, and where I used to live in West Virginia, your average Republican is a LOT more educated than your average Democrat. Here in the Baton Rouge area most of the college educated, middle class suburban people are Republican and many suburban communities voted for Trump by over 80%, higher than many of the rural towns in fact. Its very common to meet people who are well traveled, sophisticated, have high incomes, even have yuppie tastes like going to Trader Joes and still be very Republican. While social conservatism certainly still predominates here in the South, most people are also fiscally conservative and don't believe in government dependency. The culture of entitlement is still mostly seen as an inner city and illegal alien thing, vs in the rest of the country where many young people are also into the culture of entitlement and dependency ie Bernie Sanders base. The most Democrat areas are the most impoverished, uneducated ghettoes in New Orleans and Baton Rouge's inner city areas.
WV is a mostly blue collar state but the most Democrat counties were the poorest and least educated. Contrary to media portrayal, your stereotypical "trailer trash" is more likely to be socially liberal and are often politically apathetic and don't vote. The hardworking blue collar folks, the middle class folks and the business leaders were mostly conservative and also tended to be more openly religious.
Its the liberal Democrats in the NYC and LA suburbs and the Bay Area that vote against their own economic interests just so they can push their liberal social agenda on the rest of the nation.
The media always likes to present Democrats as more educated and claim college educated people are supposed to be liberal. However I've noticed this is probably only the cases in the Northeast, the East Coast and West Coast.
Here in Louisiana, and where I used to live in West Virginia, your average Republican is a LOT more educated than your average Democrat. Here in the Baton Rouge area most of the college educated, middle class suburban people are Republican and many suburban communities voted for Trump by over 80%, higher than many of the rural towns in fact. Its very common to meet people who are well traveled, sophisticated, have high incomes, even have yuppie tastes like going to Trader Joes and still be very Republican. While social conservatism certainly still predominates here in the South, most people are also fiscally conservative and don't believe in government dependency. The culture of entitlement is still mostly seen as an inner city and illegal alien thing, vs in the rest of the country where many young people are also into the culture of entitlement and dependency ie Bernie Sanders base. The most Democrat areas are the most impoverished, uneducated ghettoes in New Orleans and Baton Rouge's inner city areas.
WV is a mostly blue collar state but the most Democrat counties were the poorest and least educated. Contrary to media portrayal, your stereotypical "trailer trash" is more likely to be socially liberal and are often politically apathetic and don't vote. The hardworking blue collar folks, the middle class folks and the business leaders were mostly conservative and also tended to be more openly religious.
Its the liberal Democrats in the NYC and LA suburbs and the Bay Area that vote against their own economic interests just so they can push their liberal social agenda on the rest of the nation.
Nope, it's the red states that genally vote against their own self-interests. Middle class and poor people voting to give tax cuts to the 1%.
It's generally accepted that liberals tend to be better educated than conservatives. Others have posted the stats, and I'll give you the reason for why the stats fall the way they do. The republican party has gone all out to win over the once traditionally democratic voter - especially in the South. These voters tended to be blue collar workers with decent factory jobs back in the 60's and early 70's. They didn't need a fancy college degree because American corporations still believed in hiring and TRAINING Americans. What a concept!
Alas, then Reagan came along with his trickle down get rich quick con and Clinton fell in love with the billionaire class while Trump was still just a slumlord struggling to get invited to the right kind of cocktail party over in Manhattan. Together, Reagan and Clinton did a really nasty take down of the American working class. Both implemented policies that weakened the social safety net and gave the big corporations the high five sign to take off for the race to the global bottom. Once Sam Walton got his first factory staffed by Chinese children working 16 hour days for 2 cents an hour, there was no looking back. Ain't globalization grand?
American workers in the South and the rustbelt quite rightly felt betrayed by their political leaders and they felt most betrayed by the democrats when the Clinton administration turned its back on American workers. Those high paying jobs and all those goods with the proud label "Made in the USA" became things of the past. Working class folk who were middle aged and older were plumb out of luck, and even for the younger generation it wasn't (and isn't) pretty.
Unfortunately, the rural South never did see the need to get all that interested in education. They'd gotten by on a 3rd grade education for at least 200 years if not longer and saw no need to change now. In fact, republicans in general and Southern republicans in particular have developed a down right aversion to any sort of learning at all. The Evangelicals don't want their kids getting any bright ideas about evolution and deserting the Baptist Church; the Fundamentalists become bitterly angry over the very idea of being "enslaved" by paying a modest tax to educate their own children, never mind some one else's. And finally, the billionaire class has realized that uneducated people can be led around like the sheeple they really are and the upper 1% has funded a massive disinformation campaign against science along with an all out assault on teachers, schools, and libraries. Let the book burnings begin! Thus the uneducated, republican Southern voter.
Urban dwellers tend to be nearer such amenities like colleges and universities and can attend performances and exhibitions featuring the fine arts. The denser population in cities means - among other things - much more competition for available jobs. The idea of getting an education comes to urban dwellers on both coasts far more easily.
And the upper 1% is right about one thing, anyhow - knowledge is power. Educated people are much harder to turn into sheeple. They don't vote to give the upper 1% even more obscene tax exemptions while at the same time voting to allow deregulated banking giants throw seniors out of their homes for falling .27 cents behind on their mortgage payment as happened in the great recession. These days, not supporting the billionaire class makes you a democrat and you have a diploma to prove it.
OP maintains that shopping at Trader Joe's is sign of sophistication in Louisiana.
"Well-traveled" likely means having driven to Mississippi at some point.
Last edited by GotHereQuickAsICould; 09-20-2017 at 06:52 AM..
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