The posts below I used education as a proxy for class. This is obviously rough. There are many people without college degrees who are well off, and many with college degrees who are only marginally middle class, or lower. How about looking at both net wealth and education? Unfortunately the sample sizes get a bit smaller, and so I can’t go and look at issue by issue. But I can look at party identification. Limiting the sample to whites here are some interesting points:
1) The proportion of Democrats is highest for whites with the combination of college eduation or higher and net wealth of less than $150,000.
2) The proportion of Republicans is highest for whites with the combination of college eduation or higher and net wealth of greater than $150,000. But whereas the difference in Democratic orientation is 14.5 points for whites across the educational chasm below $150,000, those who are above the $150,000 threshold show only a 3.4 gap between Republican orientation for those who do, and don’t, have college degrees. In other words, education matters a great deal for Democratic affiliation for whites who are less well off, while for the well off Republican party affiliation has only a weak relationship to educational attainment.
3) Political party polarization is greatest among those with wealth and higher education. Only 5.3% were political Independents with no lean in this class. In contrast, 31.2% of whites with no college degree and below $150,000 in wealth were Independents with no lean.
Table below the fold.
| Party affiliation of whites as a function of wealth & education, 2004-2008 | ||||
| Repub or lean Repub | Independent | Dem or lean Dem | ||
| Less than $150,000 in net wealth | No HS to some college | 33.6 | 31.2 | 35.2 |
| Bachelor’s or higher | 36.8 | 13.6 | 49.6 | |
| Greater than $150,000 in net wealth | No HS to some college | 51.5 | 17.7 | 30.8 |
| Bachelor’s or higher | 54.9 | 5.3 | 39.8 | |
To summarise: the wealthy care about their assets and the higher educated care about their status and/or are in tax-paid or other non-commercial jobs.
Hence the concentration of Republicans in higher assets, Democrats in lower assets but higher education and independents in low assets and low education.
The most obvious thing about these figures is that those who have worked hardest have the most to lose and don’t vote Democrat. I don’t regard Democrats taking fifteen years to get college degrees as “hard workers” and I’ve known plenty of them. Of course they always end up in non-profits or government sinecures – again not working much or doing something (like “community organizing”) that most normal people treat as unpaid volunteer work. Fortunately they don’t bet paid much – unless they’re in teachers’ or social workers’ unions.
@PJC
Where is the proof that the wealth is a product of what you call ‘hard work’? Do you have some data?
Overall, this table is consistent with the interpretation that Republicans promote policies that benefit the wealthy, and educated people are more likely to know this. (The minority of wealthy educated Democrats, presumably, object on principle to an unlevel playing field even when it tilts in their favor. Or maybe they just favor culture issues over economic ones – presumably having a gay friend or relative, for example, cuts across class and educational lines.)