I was curious about class differences among Republicans. Below the fold is a table created from the GSS. I limited the data set to Republicans or Republican-leaning Independents from the years 2004-2008. The numbers in the columns are percentages which fall into a given class.
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Lower = No high school to some college Higher = Bachelor’s degree or higher |
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| Lower | Higher | |
| Moderate | 32.8 | 20.7 |
| Slightly Conservative | 20 | 28.5 |
| Conservative | 30.8 | 37.6 |
| Extremely Conservative | 6.9 | 7.5 |
| Protestant | 61.8 | 57.1 |
| Catholic | 23.1 | 26.7 |
| Jewish | 0.7 | 2 |
| No Religion | 9.3 | 9.5 |
| Bible is Word of God | 40.9 | 24.1 |
| Inspired Word | 46.5 | 61.7 |
| Book of Fables | 11.7 | 12.7 |
| Fundamentalist | 36.3 | 22.7 |
| Definitely or probably true humans evolved from animals | 29.7 | 47.1 |
| Strongly agree or agree that free trade leads to better products | 59.3 | 67.3 |
| Taxes on low income people too high, or much too high | 54.7 | 36.8 |
| Taxes on middle income people too high, or much too high | 55.8 | 55.9 |
| Taxes on upper income people too high, or much too high | 27.3 | 37.2 |
| Woman has right to abortion for any reason | 29.2 | 36 |
| Homosexual relations always wrong | 69.6 | 54.9 |
| Agree or agree strongly that American should limit import of foreign probucls | 58.3 | 53.3 |
| Owns gun in home | 48.2 | 43.1 |
| Semi-automatic rifles be limited to military | 78.3 | 84.9 |
| Does not hunt, spouse does not hunt | 73.2 | 80.4 |
| Government spending too much money on welfare | 53.9 | 53.6 |
| Allow racist to speak | 59.1 | 72.2 |
| Allow Communist to speak | 63.9 | 87.3 |
| Allow anti-Religionist to speak | 74.5 | 91.3 |
| America largely or greatly benefits from NAFTA | 11.3 | 25.8 |
| Approve banning of prayer in public schools | 34.6 | 46.1 |
| Spend more or much more on defense | 53.5 | 41.5 |
| Spend more or much more on unemployment benefits | 22 | 11.8 |
| Spend more or much more on environment | 44.9 | 33.9 |
| Spend more or much more on health | 72.8 | 56.6 |
| Spend more on culture & the arts | 11.3 | 13.2 |
| Will not eat genetically modified foods | 29.7 | 20.8 |
| Know God exists | 69.8 | 64.8 |
| Support or strongly support racial preference in hiring blacks | 9.2 | 6.7 |
| Would vote for black president (yes) | 92.9 | 98.8 |
| Black problems due to discrimination (yes) | 24.7 | 17.6 |
| Hardly any confidence in organized labor | 32.3 | 40.6 |
| No miliary service | 81.9 | 74.3 |
| Owns home | 74.9 | 89.5 |
| Family income above $25,000 | 70.2 | 86.4 |
| Strongly agree or agree that better if man work and woman tend home | 46 | 31.9 |
| Would vote for woman president (yes) | 89.6 | 95.5 |
| Pornography should be illegal to all (yes) | 46.4 | 40.2 |
| Sex before marriage always wrong | 32.7 | 33 |
| Identify as middle class | 47.6 | 73.8 |
| Identify as upper class | 2.1 | 8.6 |
| Favors death penalty for murder (yes) | 81 | 79.1 |
| Government should not take any action to reduce income differences | 19.1 | 25.4 |
| Federal income tax too high | 59.5 | 56.9 |
| Too much money spent on environment | 12.1 | 12.9 |
| Too much money spent on asssistance to blacks | 33 | 28.3 |
So it looks as though better educated Reps are no more likely to be unreligious (9.5% vs 9.3%) but much less likely to be literalists, fundamentalists and creationists.
In many other regards they could be said to be less “socially conservative” e.g. slightly more likely to approve of abortion, less likely to think homosexuality is always wrong.
And more “libertarian” e.g. more likely to allow racists, Communists, atheists to speak; less likely to favor more spending on anything.
In general, though, I’m struck by the small size of the differences.
I’m impressed that 20-25% of all Republicans have served at some time in their lives in the armed forces, in a nation that does not have compulsory military service, and has fought only minor wars for the past 60 years – it seems rather high, especially if one considers that the figure is probably much higher for males.
I wonder what the figure for Democrats is.
To follow Danny, that number looks so high as to be wrong. Also, no military service among the better educated being higher than among the less, looks really fishy.
Also, the ‘semi automatic’ gun ban stuff is obviously wrong. That number might be plausible for fully automatic, but a revolver is a semi automatic.
Your used the “Taxes on middle income people too high, or much too high” distinction twice.
I’m surprised at the high percentage for “Pornography should be illegal to all,” at over 40%, given that Fundamentalists are at a much lower percentage, especially for the college educated. This suggests to me a strong desire to control morality even when the spillover effects to others is small. Any thoughts?
I’m not finding which data source you used for what you label “Approve banning of prayer in public schools.” I don’t approve banning of prayer in public schools, nor do I approve of school- or teacher-led prayer in public schools or at events sponsored by public schools. Prayer shouldn’t be banned, it simply shouldn’t be coerced or compulsory. Anyway, I wanted to see the phrasing of the question as asked, but I could only find variations of “119a. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that no state or local government may require the reading of the Lord’s Prayer or Bible verses in public schools. What are your views on this – do
you approve or disapprove of the court ruling?” That’s hardly the same as “approve banning of prayer in public schools.”
It’s interesting that the less educated are more fiscally liberal and socially conservative, whereas the opposite is true for the higher educated. Also interesting that the higher educated rate themselves as more conservative all around.
It’s interesting that the less educated are more fiscally liberal and socially conservative, whereas the opposite is true for the higher educated. Also interesting that the higher educated rate themselves as more conservative all around.
the first pattern is evident in a lot of polls. as for rating themselves more educated, stupid people tend to rate themselves more moderate and more intelligent tend to admit more polarized political views.
also, the specific percentages and the wording i used to paraphrase is less important than the rank order and the magnitude of the differences between the two classes.
Your used the “Taxes on middle income people too high, or much too high” distinction twice.
tx. the second one was “upper income.”
Agreed. It has been demonstrated over and over that the higher educated trend more socially liberal. No surprises there.
What I’m mulling over is the degree to which the less educated view conservatism as purely or at least very substantially as a social/cultural issue.
What I’m mulling over is the degree to which the less educated view conservatism as purely or at least very substantially as a social/cultural issue.
i’m working on a follow up post which adds democrats. you can compare which issues are polarized by class and which by party. give me 15 minutes.
re: military service. that was a REALLY bad paraphrase, as D.O.D. employment is included. fixing in next iteration.
I’m a nonreligious, highly educated (MD) conservative with prior military service (USAF). In my neighborhood there are quite a few of us who’ve been in the various service branches. Of course, I live in the south.
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Like j mct, I wonder that this data seems to show so many people would ban semi-automatic rifles. Many hunting rifles are semi-automatic. (OTOH, very few rifles use a revolver mechanism, and even with pistols, double-action revolvers are not considered semi-automatic, because the trigger pull to turn the barrel is quite different from that required simply to release the hammer.)
I suspect the answers to the “semi-automatic” question reflect confusion over what exactly is a “semi-automatic” gun, more than it does attitudes towards banning them.