<p>That chart is fake.</p>
<p>[snopes.com:</a> State I.Q. Voting Patterns](<a href=“http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/stateiq.asp]snopes.com:”>State I.Q. Voting Patterns | Snopes.com)</p>
<p>I edited the post. I wanted the chart to be enlarged, but I guess people will just have to click on it instead (if they want to view it).</p>
<p>Oops. I guess I never really looked into the authenticity of the chart. That’s what I get for naively believing that people are honest.</p>
<p>I think that some of the views held by many Republicans are ignorant and bigoted. I don’t assume Republicans are dumb. Ignorance is a function of education (nurture), not intelligence (nature). Some of the differences between Republicans and Democrats have nothing to do with bigotry or intelligence, only philosophy (e.g. Friedman vs. Keynes). The bigoted thing is a harder to deal with.</p>
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So it seems icky to you, okay. Why should it be illegal?</p>
<p>Just because they don’t appeal to you doesn’t mean they’re dumb. Palin energizes her base, which is something in the tune of 35-45% of this country, and she does it well, despite her slip ups. In hindsight, Bush’s policy errors seem humongous - but he won both of his elections, one of which came after he invaded Iraq and the war was going south. As college educated people get older, they get more conservative … =)</p>
<p>Kind of off-topic, but Marin County’s gorgeous; I lived there with some relatives a couple of years ago, and there’s few faults to the place. Living a couple blocks from the Metallica guys was pretty sweet, but the house prices were just ridiculous- the house I lived in cost around 3 million for a 2-story place that’d go for a few hundred thousand anywhere else.</p>
<p>Oh, and yes, it’s extremely liberal, but no one really forces politics on you there, besides the PETA guys that like to congregate outside Safeways.</p>
<p>Are all Republicans ignorant hicks? No. But a lot of them sure are. Look at the map. The strongest Republican stronghold is in the South, the Bible belt. According to all the data available, the South has the worst education system in the United States, the lowest graduation rate from high school and college, and the most religious. When you look at the most liberal places in the South, they are all major research areas like the Research Triangle in NC, which are filled with highly educated professionals. President Obama’s victory in Virginia was largely due to the highly educated people of Northern Virginia, a place some Virginian politicians refer to as “Not Virginia” because it’s too liberal and elitist (read educated). </p>
<p>There are intellectual conservatives (e.g. David Brooks, the late William Buckley, Jr.) but how many of their writings are read by the average conservative Republican? How many average Republican know who Edmund Burke or Leo Strauss are? The average Republicans like to make grand pronouncements about conservatism but they never take their times to understand the philosophy behind their beliefs. No. They rely on emotions. The average Republicans’ and conservatives’ convictions don’t come from deep intellectual pondering, but from raw, unfiltered emotions. They are led by Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, and former Governor Palin (whose incoherent interviews lost Senator McCain the election). I suspect the closest many of the average Republican got to high intellectual is their reading of Ayn Rand and her Objectivism. Well guess what? Alan Greenspan, a devotee to Rand’s teaching, recently testified before Congress that there are serious flaws in his perception of reality. He thought that self-interest would make bankers better caretakers of their own assets, cross that, my and your assets, (guess not.) </p>
<p>There was a time when there was an intellectual force behind conservatism. Many of the most respected intellectuals were conservative. Harvard and Yale were bastions of conservatism in the country. That time is over. The religious right had driven them to the open arms of the Democrats or Libertarians. Many of the highly educated Republicans that I know bemoan the fate of their party. They feel alienated by the religious right. They can agree with the religious right on 98% of the issues (national defense, smaller government, free enterprise) but God forbids if they dare to be Pro-Choice or Pro-Gay right, or, dear God, believe in Evolution. They would be labeled RINO (Republicans in Name Only.) A Republican I know was so enthusiastic when Senator McCain won the nomination. He immediately wrote a $2,300 check for the McCain campaign. But once McCain chose Palin and her interviews reviewed her intellectual depth, the man was heartbroken. I’m 98% sure the man either voted for Senator Obama or wrote in Rep. Ron Paul, probably the latter. </p>
<p>I personally believe in a strong and vibrant Conservative ideology that is grounded in common sense and intellectual discussions, not one based on pure emotions and the literal understanding of the Bible. I can find so many common grounds on some conservative beliefs. But the absolute faith and zealotry many average Republicans have in their belief without any regard to reason and truth terrifies me. I can live with wacko liberals because they won’t try to burn me at the stake when I disagree with them.</p>
<p>It’s ‘Ayn’ Rand…</p>
<p>Why couldn’t she just spell it “Ein”?</p>
<p>Conservatives tend to be a lot angrier than liberals, which is why I mostly hang out with people who are liberal or apathetic about politics.</p>
<p>^I don’t know LogicWarrior, I know a lot of ****ed of liberals over the past eight years. They used a lot of colorful pejoratives when describing President Bush and their anger was pretty real. Some studies found that liberals are miserable because they worry about everything (Global Warming, Dafur, conservatives).</p>
<p>“In 2004, 44 percent of respondents who said they were “conservative” or “very conservative” said they were “very happy,” versus just 25 percent of people who called themselves “liberal” or “very liberal.”</p>
<p><a href=“Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals. Discuss. - Freakonomics”>Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals. Discuss. - Freakonomics;
<p>Haha I don’t know any liberals who really worry about anything, the liberal POV is to try to fix things like Global Warming and Darfur, not worry about them.</p>
<p>And conservatives were ****ed off even when Bush was president, I don’t know why though.</p>
<p>Why? Because he spent out of his a.ss. </p>
<p>I think the party is slowly becoming more Goldwater-esque , though. Most kids my age are more Milton Friedman libertarian and think keynsian theories are idiotic, but are turned off by the socially conservative aspects. In twenty years or so, the Republican party will be much more libertarian than conservative and it will be the defacto party of most youth. Especially with Bush and now Obama, kids our age are becoming much less liberal and much more libertarian.</p>
<p>^^ I envy you then LogicWarrior. You have the happy-go-lucky hippie liberals. I have the angry feminazi liberals. I’m from Massachusetts where liberals are a dime a dozen and I swear, when Bush won reelection, it was like the Red Sox was raped by the Yankees and then paraded around New York by Babe Ruth the Zombie.</p>
<p>Patriot Act, Department of Homeland Security, Increased funding to the Department of education, expansion of medicaid/medicare, bank bailout, trillion dollar per year war, large credit expansion, more that I can’t think of…</p>
<p>Basically increased the size of government rather than reduced it. That’s why (true) conservatives didn’t like him.</p>
<p>Also, austro-libertarian economics is where its going; Milton and Keynes are done with. At least that’s what I hope…</p>
<p>“Find me someone who makes over $250K and isn’t a Republican”</p>
<p>Um… how about WARREN BUFFETT?</p>
<p>Pretty sure he makes over $250K.</p>
<p>Conservatives were *<strong><em>ed off when bush was president, because he did things against our ideology, like as someone said earlier expand medicare (</em></strong>?) </p>
<p>Conservatives and liberals have different ideologies. They are basically like religions in themselves. Conservatives believe the government only causes problems, and liberals believe the government is how to fix our problems.</p>
<p>What really matters though is how informed you are about politics, not your IQ or how much money you make. </p>
<p>I consider myself generally very conservative. For example I am against universal health care of any kind and an vehemently against cap and trade. However I am accepting of gay marriage, and think the gov’t. has no right to tell people who they can and can’t marry.</p>
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<p>I agree as far as white kids go, but minority kids are as liberal as ever and the white population is decreasing relative to the overall population.</p>
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<p>People were mad for a few days and got over it when Bush won re-election. Conservatives still refuse to accept that Obama won and a few days ago tried to send a bill through Congress to say that Obama wasn’t an American citizen.</p>
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<p>So are Obama and most Democrats in Congress.</p>
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<p>most of the people currently on the hill… I know they don’t make that much in salary, but you bet they get it from other places.</p>
<p>Obama wants a single-payer system. He’s just afraid to ask for one.</p>