I spotted the article in slate.com. It's entitled "How the rich are different from you and me", written by Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing. Here is a small snippet:
"Just more than 600 counties (of more than 3,100 nationally) voted Republican more heavily in this year's presidential contest than in 2004. The average per capita yearly income in those counties was about $18,800, according to county income tallies issued each year by the Internal Revenue Service. (Income in this article is determined by the amount of adjusted gross taxable income listed on individual tax returns from 2004-07. Per capita income equals gross income divided by the number of personal exemptions.) By contrast, those living in the 500-plus counties that voted more heavily Democratic this year than in 2004 had average personal incomes of $28,000-nearly 50 percent higher than the communities trending Republican. The most Democratic counties (those where Barack Obama won by more than 20 percentage points) had average per capita incomes of $28,207. Those counties where John McCain won by similar margins had average personal incomes of just $21,308."
Well, I had been thinking about this back during the campaign. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear could not fail to notice the "Joe six pack" and "Joe the Plumber" bits in mcCain and Palin's speeches, that's a given. Did Obama make a conscious effort to appeal more to the educated/wealthy? Hmm, that question is not going to sit well with some. This is going to call for some readjusted thinking on my part. I always figured that Republicans had more money than Dems, but I guess that the majority of voters with money are no longer voting Republican, despite those appeals to voters that "Dems will redistribute your wealth to the poor" and "Dems are socialists". Seems like the poor voted Republican and the not-poor ignored the warnings and voted Dem, not accepting the idea that the Republicans will protect their assets better. Or is it that the wealthy voters no longer cared about the old tax and spend horror stories, and figured that we are not going to get out of this hole in the ground without spending money?
What is your spin on these facts that seem to fly in the face of conventional wisdom about the two parties?
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Comments: 5
I always knew you were wrong. One thing that your story fails to recognise is the cost of living adjustments to regions. Inner cities have been run by democrats for decades leading to higher taxes, local fees for services which raise the price of everything. including average salaries. That's why so many companies leave the inner city areas to the suburbs and outlying areas that welcome them with lower costs to run their business. They aren't treated like an evil profit center ripe for robin hood to raid for the poor.
But besides all of that, I have always noticed that democrats and republicans come in all demographics. It is democrats who constantly stereotype and put people into groups leading to ignorant assumptions. You don't have to be rich, poor or average to have an opinion on what the role of government should be.
There is actually something left out of this elaborate statistical analysis. The fact that mcCain sought to unite christian conservative middle class, wealthy business owners, and poor southern working class despite obvious class and income differences. And the fact that obama was well positioned to unite african americans of all incomes with middle class whites who no longer perceived their interests as lying with Republican leadership because both groups claimed him as one of their own.
It is not me who created the theory that Republican politicians are playing too much to uneducated voters. That idea is I believe being espoused by Republican moderates like Kathleen Parker and David Frum.
No it is you who claims that the uneducated voter is just voting in their best interests when they vote democrat and they are stupid when they vote republican. Like I said, democrats and republicans vote on what they think the roll of government should be. You are taking a flawed survey that looks at numbers only, that disregard everything else, and are coming to the conclusion that republican voters are uneducated and poor.
First, find the size of the slice of the pie that rich, and educated people make up, then find out if they are numerically worth going after in a national campaign.