Why are more educated people (at least in TX) liberal? (Houston: college, tax)

[ocean2026]

NOTAM you repeated the same foolish stuff - I didn't ask for your online resume - LOOK UP ANECDOTAL evidence- and then if you are educated you will be embarrassed TWICE.

[Eliza08]

Excellent post is right BobTex! I agree totally with NCN and teatime! Conservatives get the "rap" for intolerance, but if you don't go along with liberal professors OR as my daughter is facing now in her senior year of high school, your grades are toast if you have the audacity to stand up against the norm! Yeah this really can't be a serious post.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by ocean2026

NOTAM you repeated the same foolish stuff - I didn't ask for your online resume - LOOK UP ANECDOTAL evidence- and then if you are educated you will be embarrassed TWICE.

I'm just curious, how is one to prove his intelligence on an Internet forum? I think it's ridiculous that you are so quick to judge someone's intelligence. I could call you an idiot and you would only have anecdotal evidence to prove otherwise.

[Eliza08]

Oh WillysB, "self indulgent ninnies" I just love it! You're after my conservative heart!

When are we going to stand up against the liberal machine. They have the schools and the media, says it all folks.

So where is John Galt and Dagney Taggart? Galt's Gulch? Texas would make a fine location for a revolt!

[ocean2026]

Westerner - read the posts again s---l---o--w--l---y. I told her that if she were educated on the subject she would know NOT to use what social scientists call anecdotal evidence. Now someone interested in education might go look it up - instead she repeated the same stuff with even more anecdotal evidence.

It has nothing to do with conservative or liberal and as she has no ability to get a clue - I will demonstrate it to you.

Many years ago Yugoslavia introduced a car on the US market called a YUGO - consumer reports carefully tested (don't hold me to the actual numbers its not crucial) 100,000 and found that 50% had major problems in the first year. As you are reading all the detailed objective reports someone comes up and says "yeah but my uncle had a Yugo - it didnt seem so bad" Another example would be polling that says 90% of Americans believe Osama Bin Laden is a criminal who needs to be punished but someone says " I disagree because I met a guy who told me what Bin Laden did was justified"

What Notam can't understand is someone's personal experience is not evidence of what the population thinks as a whole. That she's educated ( which I doubt) and her friends say they voted for the GOP is not reliable - its not a large enough nor an accurate enough sample. Anyone on here can claim all kinds of degrees - however having an interest in learning and actually learning something is a much better indicator.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by austinguy2009

Especially with social issues.

I understand economic conservatism - there are plenty of good arguments for that.

But social backwardness - why is this mainly the province of less educated people, and the more educated one is the more likely they are accepting of gays etc?

To take a very crude example compare UT and A&M. A&M is less prestigious, easier to be admitted, and not as rigorous academically as UT Austin, and the student bodies are about as opposite politically as is possible.

Also Rice tends to be quite liberal.

Maybe it's just intelligence that is the deciding factor and education serves as a useful proxy (this makes sense in light of the A&M vs. UT example).

You may have stumbled upon something. Since (i) intelligence and education are completely distinct and (ii) intelligent people tend towards conservative moderation, what is wrong with our system of education?

[ocean2026]

I quoted a Cincinnati Post poll that demonstrated those who had a graduate degree went for Kerry over Bush 60-40.

Moderator cut: personal - off topic

Gallup and other polls also point to those with more education voting more Democratic in the last few elections, however to be totally accurate one has to separate education from income. Higher income voters - and many of them can afford college- have in the past voted GOP consistently. So far no major poll has separated income and education so we lack the data necessary.

In the last election McCain appealed to older people - in every 10 year age span - as the ages increased so did the percentage of the vote for McCain. It is likely 50 year olds have more education than 20 year olds as many 20 year olds are still in school.

A side point is that the best universities often have a liberal tint to them. If we look at the American Council of Education rankings 1. University of California Berkeley 2. Harvard -then U of Chicago, Michigan, Stanford, MIT Yale etc etc they seem to be liberal - Is someone who attended one of those universities more educated than someone with the same degree from an unknown school?

[catman]

Here is a quote I'm sure y'all will enjoy:

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives". - John Stuart Mill

Don't get mad. Just pulling your chain! I'm "liberal" in many ways, but not all (such as gun control...it seems to me that gun ownnership should be a liberal cause! It's a 'right' too.).

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by catman

Here is a quote I'm sure y'all will enjoy:

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives". - John Stuart Mill

Don't get mad. Just pulling your chain! I'm "liberal" in many ways, but not all (such as gun control...it seems to me that gun ownnership should be a liberal cause! It's a 'right' too.).

Interesting quote. I was thinking about it for a little, and while it is true that the typical blue-collar "trailer trash" is conservative, the typical inner-city, welfare dependent people are liberal.

[houstoner]

Originally Posted by austinguy2009

Especially with social issues.

I understand economic conservatism - there are plenty of good arguments for that.

But social backwardness - why is this mainly the province of less educated people, and the more educated one is the more likely they are accepting of gays etc?

To take a very crude example compare UT and A&M. A&M is less prestigious, easier to be admitted, and not as rigorous academically as UT Austin, and the student bodies are about as opposite politically as is possible.

Also Rice tends to be quite liberal.

Maybe it's just intelligence that is the deciding factor and education serves as a useful proxy (this makes sense in light of the A&M vs. UT example).

When did this change happen? It seems only in recent years, very recent, like maybe the past decade, that UT has been thought of as more prestigious than A&M, and that this opinion seems to be held mostly by people outside of Texas, not in it. Within Texas the two seem on fairly equal footing. I didn't go to either college so hopefully someone can enlighten me.

Also, it would help if you would define your terms, liberal and conservative, because I'm sure I could think of a quite a few examples specific to Texas that would refute your argument. Reading through this thread the terms seem meaningless. All conservatives aren't regressive, and all liberals aren't as progressive as they claim. People are much more complex than that.