The Conservative States of America

[cali]

By Richard Florida

Mar 29 2011, 10:03 AM ET 241
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.


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/

[Gman]

1. Minorities and the poor in general far outnumber conservatives

but they don't vote in enough numbers.

[Shandris]

5. Minorities, maybe, but 'the poor in general'?

Depending on your definition of poor, VAST swaths of the poor ARE conservative (!). Like, say, three-quarters the population of Mississippi. Have you ever been to Mississippi? You'll know what I mean if you have, and if not...well, there's some desperately poor people down there, and they're the majority of the state. And the poorer they get, the MORE they listen to Beck and his...ilk, and cling to religion.

[Gman]

8. The likelihood of someone participating in politics

is directly linked to education and income. Yeah, some do vote conservative, many will vote for Democrats, but most won't vote at all.

[cali]

7. yep, that certainly has a lot to do with it.

[Shandris]

2. What is sad is how the conservatives blame the...

...problems on us, rather than where the problems all point to. I'm not saying we as a group identity are 100% 'innocent' of some of the things that rile conservatives (I mean, c'mon, look at some of the things that rile conservatives!), but the bulk of their problems have ~nothing~ to do with us!

We sure do make convenient scapegoats though.

Nice charts in that article, good find cali! :)

[villager]

3. Is this a "likely voter" type sampling, as opposed to a representation of actual groups of people?

n/t

[cali]

6. neither. take a look at the article and the graphs.

[Octafish]

4. Conservative = Confederacy

Something else I know:

Liberal = Union (and freedom for ALL)

And I like Richard Florida.

Smarter = Liberal

Which is what's striking about our elected leaders.