# Correlation between education and party affiliation

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correlation-between-education-and-party-affiliation/272459>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 2, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correlation-between-education-and-party-affiliation/272459 "2004-11-02T00:42:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correlation-between-education-and-party-affiliation/272459/21 "2004-11-03T00:23:19Z")

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OK, just so I have this straight: Increasing levels of education purportedly correlate well with Democratic partisanship; they also correlate well with increasing economic status; and yet increasing economic status purportedly correlates well with Republican partisanship; but then, education can cancel this effect out.

Head…hurts…

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**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correlation-between-education-and-party-affiliation/272459/22 "2004-11-03T00:54:41Z")

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> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#):
>
> [T]he more educated people are the more liberal they tend to be _until_ they start making a lot of money, then they start getting fiscally conservative.
> 
> IMO, the stupider people are, the more conservative they tend to be on social issues. If they get the ignorance educated out of them they become socially more liberal but if they get money they vote their bank accounts.

But how do we explain the cases of California and New York, states with the largest concentrations of wealthy (and bright, well-educated) people?

Do the effects of their superior education outweigh the effects of the large incomes they make, keeping them liberal (and for the purposes of this discussion voting Democrat)? Have they attained a higher level of social awareness, indeed, altruism, than other folk in the flyover states?

Or do they, in fact, do equally well pocketbook-wise whoever’s in the White House? And do their liberal credentials, far from disadvantaging them in their careers, actually benefit them, as their advancement depends largely on networks and support systems in their small circles that reward “liberals”?

Does this help ease the headache some, **Loopydude**?

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