The Conservative States of America...

[n2doc]

MAR 29 2011, 10:03 AM ET94
America is an increasingly conservative nation, by ideology and by political affiliation, according to polling results from the Gallup Organization. While conservatives have long outnumbered liberals and moderates across the U.S., the study sheds new light on state-by-state patterns. The map below shows the pattern for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.


Source: Map via Gallup.

Mississippi is the first state with more than 50% conservative identification, with Idaho, Alabama, Wyoming, and Utah approaching that level, and Arkansas, South Carolina, North Dakota, Louisiana, and South Dakota (the rest of the top-ten conservative states) 45% or higher. Conservatives outnumber liberals in even the most liberal-leaning states (excluding the District of Columbia): Vermont, (30.7% conservative to 30.5% liberal), Rhode Island (29.9% to 29.3%), and Massachusetts (29.9% to 28.0%).

Political commentators have long pointed to underlying social and economic sorting that underpins this growing conservative/ liberal divide. But what factors account for the growing conservatism of Americans and American states?

With the help of my colleague Charlotta Mellander, I decided to take a look. We ran a simple correlation analysis on the Gallup poll numbers, comparing conservative identification to a variety of key economic, demographic, and cultural factors by state. As always, our analysis only points to associations between variables; we do not make any claims about causation and note that other factors that we have not looked at might come into play. Still, a number of intriguing findings cropped up.





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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/the-conservative-states-of-america/71827/

[StarburstClock]

1. That's why I don't read anything from Gallop, or the WSJ

Other worthless propaganda fronts are CNN, CNBC, Faux, ABC, NBC and CBS.

[RandySF]

2. This contradicts all the polling and demographic studies

If the country is becoming more conservative, how is it that support is growing for marriage equality?

[former9thward]

8. Libertarians fall in thee conservative category and they generally support marriage equality.

[RandySF]

3. Another interesting thing

"Liberalism, which is stronger in richer, better-educated, more-diverse, and, especially, more prosperous places, is shrinking across the board and has fallen behind conservatism even in its biggest strongholds. This obviously poses big challenges for liberals, the Obama administration, and the Democratic Party moving forward.

But the much bigger, long-term danger is economic rather than political. This ideological state of affairs advantages the policy preferences of poorer, less innovative states over wealthier, more innovative, and productive ones. American politics is increasingly disconnected from its economic engine. And this deepening political divide has become perhaps the biggest bottleneck on the road to long-run prosperity."


Is he suggesting that America is getting poorer?

[guruoo]

7. I may be imagining things, but....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=771213&mesg_id=771399

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Yeah, I'll say it's intriguing...

Looks like a tightly clustered scatter graph where I notice the many of lesser income more in the southern states having more of these "values"...

Next up are the "mid-Western states including my own of Pennsylvania (SW PA is the mid West to which I refer)... These people are waving back and forth and therefore become the "swing" states.

Moral of story: Keep em dumb and ignorant, feed daily bullshit by the Sarah Palins and Rick Santorums of the nation, and I'm sure you'll have a good German ready to find the next group of people to demoralize and blame all they way to the gas chambers.

[glinda]

5. So did they call people? Look at voting? What? I don't buy it totally.

[guruoo]

6. See if you can spot the problem with these two sentences....

"...conservatives have long outnumbered liberals and moderates across the U.S.,"

"Mississippi is the first state with more than 50% conservative identification"

Wouldn't more than one state have to be over 50% conservative for conservatives to
"have long outnumbered liberals and moderates across the US"?

[hfojvt]

11. not a problem at all

if you note this

"Conservatives outnumber liberals in even the most liberal-leaning states (excluding the District of Columbia): Vermont, (30.7% conservative to 30.5% liberal), Rhode Island (29.9% to 29.3%), and Massachusetts (29.9% to 28.0%)."

Look at Vermont
Conservative - 30.7%
Liberal - 30.5%
moderate - 38.8%

But for the whole country, the percentages are
Conservative - 40%
moderate - 36%
liberal - 20%

http://www.gallup.com/poll/123854/conservatives-maintain-edge-top-ideological-group.aspx

Although for ten years, from 1992-2002, moderates outnumbered conservatives.

But still, although less than 50%, conservatives still out number moderates and they outnumber liberals. Or, put in combined form "conservatives outnumber moderates and liberals"

[hfojvt]

9. they seem to make no distinction between economic and social issues

and I am betting that people are thinking of social issues when they answer since those seem to dominate the media. If they asked about economic issues, would the country be more conservative or less conservative?

[JFN1]

10. Misinformation is a great friend to fascists

Ask anyone. :P