Education - the new demographic divider?
A NYT op-ed by David Brooks asserts that now, a new social divide exists in this country. Unlike Hirsh’s column on ’southernism,’ Brooks asserts the educational division has widened, creating a demographic that transcends region, race, income and even political party.
In those days [55 yrs ago], the owner of the local bank lived in the same town as the grocery clerk, and their boys might play on the same basketball team. Only 7 percent of adult Americans had a college degree. But that’s all changed. In the decades since, some social divides, mostly involving ethnicity, have narrowed. But others, mostly involving education, have widened. Today there is a mass educated class. The college educated and non-college educated are likely to live in different towns. They have radically different divorce rates and starkly different ways of raising their children. The non-college educated not only earn less, they smoke more, grow more obese and die sooner.
Brooks cites a deep cultural gap within the Democratic Party:
Barack Obama has won densely populated, well-educated areas. Hillary Clinton has won less-populated, less-educated areas. For example, Obama has won roughly 70 percent of the most-educated counties in the primary states. Clinton has won 90 percent of the least-educated counties. This social divide has overshadowed regional differences. Sixty-year-old, working-class Catholics vote the same, whether they live in Fresno, Scranton, Nashua or Orlando.
Personally, I think he is ignoring the elephant in the room… in regard to Obama, racism is more a factor with the less educated and the older generation. Of course conservatives by their very nature resist change and this would seem reason enough to eliminate any candidate not a conservative white Christian man.
I think it goes far deeper than education. I just had a long discussion about this with one of my few conservative colleagues at the college, an educated person. He claims to be a ‘converted liberal.’ He said a conservative is a former liberal now that has two kids in a post 9/11 world. He spouted the usual GOP fear stuff about jihad and the evils of Islam but apparently had no clue of the Pentagon propaganda scandal (never reported on Drudge or Fox News - of course!) or the recent GAO report that deemed the Bush war on terror a failure. I did leave one essential element out of the description of this colleague. He is a fairly devoted Christian having spent his life south of the Mason-Dixon line.
My point is that most conservatives tend to be religious people that have kids, whether college educated or not. This is true particularly in the south. Many of these people, regardless of education, simply suffer from a lack of knowledge. This is in part due to their choice of media or disinterest in being aware of what is going on in their government. Any failures or abuses of power by the Bush administration are overshadowed by a fear-born authoritarian loyalty to a president, still perceived as moral Christian warrior - which trumps any and all failings. Really amazing, isn’t it?
William, conservatism has nothing to do with religion. Some conservatives are Christians, but some are not. The same can be said of liberals, where Christianity is used to justify wealth redistribution at the point of a gun. At some point William, somebody needs to tell you that absolutely nobody with any defined sense of conservatism, believes George Bush to be a conservative. George Bush is a 70’s style Democrat. He is a believer in big government, just as much as the Democrats are. Entitlement spending has increased under Bush, as well as money sent to foreign nations. The war, William, is not a conservative/liberal issue. You can bet your ass that if Gore had won in 2000, that we would have been in Iraq and the Democratic Party would have been behind it. Heck, maybe even a lot more conservatives would have opposed it then. I don’t know.
William, I bet you are a genius when talking about the guitar, but as far as this stuff is concerned, you have no idea what you are talking about. Stop associating religion with conservatism. Ayn Rand was an atheist. Was she a liberal? Of course she wasn’t. Jim Jones (kool-aid suicide) was a religious nutball. Was he a conservative? Definitely not.
The reason that religious people that have traditionally voted Democrat, began voting Republican, has more to do with the condescension they received from certain members of the Democratic Party like you than anything else. Most of them are believers in government solutions to problems. Some do not believe in govt. solutions, but are individualists. Those people happen to be conservative, obviously. But it has nothing to do with their religion.
You have got your hates mixed up. You hate religious people. You hate George Bush. So you somehow have gotten the two types of people mixed up.
For a clear definition of conservatism written by me, click here.
Here is a good definition by PJ O’rourke, a non-religious person.
John Norris Brown, who blogs here, also wrote a definition.
Here is a quote from Limbaugh.
In none of those definitions does anybody mention religion William. I can’t stress this enough, but since you hate both groups, you will probably continue on with your I hate George Bush. I hate Religion. So therefore Religion + George Bush = Conservative style of logic, which only you and a few other non-thinkers subscribe to.
Thanks for a detailed response. First…
You can bet your ass that if Gore had won in 2000, that we would have been in Iraq and the Democratic Party would have been behind it.
No, you can bet Gore would have gone into Afghanistan defeated the Taliban, killed bin Laden and taken years to have diplomatically established a true international colaition to both end Saddam and create an Arab colaition to govern and police it. recognising the obvious, a US occupation would create perpetual war.
I am speaking of generalities. Thats what demographics are. How many white, childless, educated non-religious people are conservative? Not many.
I don’t hate religion except when it taints politics or science.
It never used to be this way but the GOP has played evangelicals better that I could ever play an instrument. Pandering to the religious conservatives with the intent to divide has been blatent - abortion, stem cells, gay marriage, so-called ‘moral values’, etc… while running one of the most corrupt and secret administrations in history, responsible for more killing than any world leader in decades. The hypocrisy is stunning.
I’ve said it many times, this is a new brand of conservatism, that a president like Bush who you admit isn’t really conservative, can command this level of staunch allegience from even 30% of the country. Bush a guy described by William Buckley as a president who would have resigned in disgrace if this were any European nation.
Glen,
I can assume you will be calling Ann Coulter to chastise her for her assertions regarding godless liberalism?
Regardless of who quotes what definition the truth is that G.W. Bush owes his political success to the fact that Karl Rove was sucessfully able to policially mobilize folks like this, bless their hearts.
Perhaps now that they no longer have the opportunity to fully demolish SOCAS by making an actual clergyman President, they will stay home this year.
Great video Keats.
#9’s people. Exactly what I’m talking about.
[…] apt description for a troll, I’d […]
“#9’s people. Exactly what I’m talking about.”
Why do highly educated people have to lie? William has a Ph.d but frequently resorts to blatant lies.
Why is that?
I have never supported Huckabee. Ever.
Never been to Lynchburg.
The people depicted in that video do not share the views I have.
However, I do believe that people should have respect for other peoples religious faith. That is what separates me from liars like William.
Why are you here William? What do you provide to our readers?
A note to our readers, I do not read every post or comment from William. So it is very possible I will miss one of Williams tall tales, fabrications, or outright lies.
I advise readers that William has some problems. The biggest problems being honesty and dealing with reality. His views do not represent the views of the other authors of Tennesseefree.com.