Community organizer

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by sugar and spice

An interesting point that this article makes is that in blue states, income tends not to be an accurate predictor of which way people vote -- but in red states, it is, and the rich tend to lean Republican. So if you grew up in the northeast, you might not notice much of a correlation, but your experience would be quite different in Texas or Georgia.

That's a fair enough point - I could cite as many stats as I want, but when it comes down to it my opinions are going to be influenced by my experience up here in New England.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

That's a fair enough point - I could cite as many stats as I want, but when it comes down to it my opinions are going to be influenced by my experience up here in New England.

I read that article too, and in some of the "red" states, it's been my experience that race, and not income, informs political leaning. Think about Mississippi. It's one of the poorest states, yet it still delivered 60% of its votes to Bush in 2004. Roughly 65% of its population, however, is white; since we all know that African-Americans are the most reliable Democratic voters, it's safe to surmise that a good chunk of those who voted for Kerry are black. Are the wealthiest Mississippians (many of whom aren't wealthy by Coastal Californian/NYC/Boston/DC/Chicago standards) going GOP? Probably, but there are still a ton of poor people, most likely white, voting Republican there.

I'm probably just shooting from the hip here at this point, but race probably has a stronger correlation with income AND political stance in the "red" states than it does on either coast, which indicates why "poorer" whites are voting Republican there.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I read that article too, and in some of the "red" states, it's been my experience that race, and not income, informs political leaning. Think about Mississippi. It's one of the poorest states, yet it still delivered 60% of its votes to Bush in 2004. Roughly 65% of its population, however, is white; since we all know that African-Americans are the most reliable Democratic voters, it's safe to surmise that a good chunk of those who voted for Kerry are black. Are the wealthiest Mississippians (many of whom aren't wealthy by Coastal Californian/NYC/Boston/DC/Chicago standards) going GOP? Probably, but there are still a ton of poor people, most likely white, voting Republican there.

I'm probably just shooting from the hip here at this point, but race probably has a stronger correlation with income AND political stance in the "red" states than it does on either coast, which indicates why "poorer" whites are voting Republican there.

I thought the same thing but since I posted so much about race in Georgia in the other thread, I didn't want people to think I was obsessed.

One would have to be able to tease out other demographic factors to see how much income really matters. Party loyalty, I think is a self-perception and world view thing as much as an income thing, and other factors that contribute to self-perception and world view may matter a lot more than income at the time of a particular election.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by GeekyPenguin

Then you haven't met my boyfriend. He's leaning away from McCain/Palin because he thinks she's unqualified and the community organizer railing really pissed him off. I think it might be hard for Republicans to understand how much that part of Obama's background impresses people who understand the reality of grad school loans - he could have taken a six figure job and didn't.

He didn't take the six-figure jobs, but his wife did.

As someone who has A LOT of grad school loans, I can't say that someone's student debt burden makes them a more attractive candidate, or even that they understand "reality." A lot of people stretch out their loans as long as possible, because of the low interest rates. By not trying to pay off their loans quickly, they're able to have a lot of cash on hand to do things like buy a house or just to have additional spending money. A close family member is a physician. She makes enough money to own a waterfront home, several boats, and travel throughout the world, but she's paying less on her loans than I am--and she probably makes at least 5 times what I do.

Of course, this is just antecdotal evidence, but again...student debt doesn't seem like a political issue to me.