One interesting phenomenon that has taken place in the last couple decades is that various communities within the US have been realigning politically based on education level.
There used to be low-education areas that voted Democrat consistently, and high-education areas that voted Republican. West Virginia went for the Democrat in eight out of ten presidential elections between 1960 and 1996. Virginia, meanwhile, went Republican in all but one presidential election between 1952 and 2004. But, lately, there's almost perfect sorting of the states by education into red and blue camps, as formerly Democratic low-education areas pulled right and started falling to the Republicans (including WV), while formerly Republican high-education areas went blue (including VA).
You can see that here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational_attainment
If you list those by the percent of residents with a Bachelor's degree, the top 15 ALL went for Clinton and Biden, in the last two presidential elections. Meanwhile, of the 29 lowest-education places, only two went Democrat twice in the last two presidential elections: Nevada and New Mexico (though PR also would have, if they got a vote).
You see similar patterns if you list by advanced degrees. In 2020, Trump lost all of the top twenty places with the highest percentage of residents who have advanced degrees. The patterns also tend to hold within states. For example, in New York State, downstate New York tends to be highly educated, and usually goes overwhelmingly Democratic, while upstate has less education, and often goes Republican. New York County (Manhattan), where 87% of voters went for Biden, is New York's most educated county, with 61.3% of those 25 and over with a Bachelor's degree or better. Tioga County, where 59% went for Trump, is New York's least educated county, where only 26% of those 25 and older have a degree.
This isn't unique to the US, either. Although there isn't perfect sorting my education level internationally, generally speaking highly liberal areas like the countries of Scandinavia and other parts of northern and western Europe tend to have high educational levels (e.g. 44% of Dutch people age 25-34 having a four-year degree or better), while more conservative areas have low education (eg., 19% for Chile, or 11% for Indonesia).
I think this helps to explain the hostility so many on the right feel towards higher education.... why, for example, there's such a push for sending fewer people to college and guiding more to trade school. An educated community amounts to home-field advantage for liberal politicians.
There used to be low-education areas that voted Democrat consistently, and high-education areas that voted Republican. West Virginia went for the Democrat in eight out of ten presidential elections between 1960 and 1996. Virginia, meanwhile, went Republican in all but one presidential election between 1952 and 2004. But, lately, there's almost perfect sorting of the states by education into red and blue camps, as formerly Democratic low-education areas pulled right and started falling to the Republicans (including WV), while formerly Republican high-education areas went blue (including VA).
You can see that here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_educational_attainment
If you list those by the percent of residents with a Bachelor's degree, the top 15 ALL went for Clinton and Biden, in the last two presidential elections. Meanwhile, of the 29 lowest-education places, only two went Democrat twice in the last two presidential elections: Nevada and New Mexico (though PR also would have, if they got a vote).
You see similar patterns if you list by advanced degrees. In 2020, Trump lost all of the top twenty places with the highest percentage of residents who have advanced degrees. The patterns also tend to hold within states. For example, in New York State, downstate New York tends to be highly educated, and usually goes overwhelmingly Democratic, while upstate has less education, and often goes Republican. New York County (Manhattan), where 87% of voters went for Biden, is New York's most educated county, with 61.3% of those 25 and over with a Bachelor's degree or better. Tioga County, where 59% went for Trump, is New York's least educated county, where only 26% of those 25 and older have a degree.
This isn't unique to the US, either. Although there isn't perfect sorting my education level internationally, generally speaking highly liberal areas like the countries of Scandinavia and other parts of northern and western Europe tend to have high educational levels (e.g. 44% of Dutch people age 25-34 having a four-year degree or better), while more conservative areas have low education (eg., 19% for Chile, or 11% for Indonesia).
I think this helps to explain the hostility so many on the right feel towards higher education.... why, for example, there's such a push for sending fewer people to college and guiding more to trade school. An educated community amounts to home-field advantage for liberal politicians.
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