Liberals v. Conservatives

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>To anyone who knows, roughly what percent of harvard students lean to the liberal side and to the conservative side?</p>

2

<p>It is very likely that at least 80% of the population leans to the left. My rationale is simple:
The vast majority of intelligent and well-educated people are Democrats. Those who rely on faith or are ill-educated are Republicans.</p>

3

<p>Its amazing how stupid people can be. And that’s coming from a fellow Democrat, Saugus. ^</p>

4

<p>A surprising statement from Saugus, who is from the L.A. area which, as most conscious people are aware, is loaded with religious, under-educated…Democrats.</p>

5

<p>Saugus’s first sentence made sense but then he/she had to go finish his comment in a stupid inflammatory way. Really unfortunate because there could have been an intelligent discussion. Now its just going to be a thread with democrat and republican bashing.</p>

6

<p>I don’t think it has to do with the education level at Harvard that makes it so liberal, more that it fosters abstract and idealistic thoughts. I know it’s more liberal than conservative, but how much would a conservative stick out?</p>

7

<p>Why are you worried about sticking out? I guarantee you that there will still be PLENTY of conservatives. And quite honestly, an environment like Harvard will only encourage good, educated, debate between the two sides. If you believe in your ideas, be able to back them up and defend them if people question you about them. Now, if you can’t back them up, you might want to ask yourself why you believe in them.</p>

8

<p>I’ve met many conservative people there, and they don’t stick out - I was surprised finding out that they were conservative, actually. But generally I’d say that most people are liberal.</p>

9

<p>@TMac18</p>

<p>It’s an undeniable fact. The majority of intellectuals lean to the left. Less educated people tend to lean to the right. Look at a color map of the 2008 presidential election. You’ve got states like Texas and Alabama colored red, and states like Massachusetts and New York colored blue.</p>

<p>@Bay</p>

<p>I didn’t say that the majority of Democrats are intellectuals. I said that the majority of intellectuals are Democrats.</p>

10

<p>This is the kind of pseudo-“intellectual” reasoning that give decent groups a bad name, whichever side they are on. </p>

<p>The biggest problem is the left vs. right, us vs. them mentality. With this type of mindset, we look for differences that polarize us and make gross, ultimately false generalizations. What is “liberal” and what is “conservative”? Does that correspond to regional voting habits and party allegiance? Just 40 years ago, the South was uniformly voting Democrat. Now that’s changed. Well not really… Robert Byrd, is still there representing West Virginia under the Democrat and he’s not exactly Obama’s best friend. </p>

<p>Does a Catholic Democrat (slim majority of Catholics are Democrats) view Democratic policy the same way that a Religious minority Democrat in Los Angeles would? Does a New England Republican view Republican policy on Abortion with the same eye that a Republican from the bible belt would? </p>

<p>Oh… and about your main point. On your theory between the correlation between intellectualism and party allegiance, it’s wrong. </p>

<p>[Democrats</a> and Republicans–rhetoric … - Google Books](<a href=“Democrats and Republicans--rhetoric and Reality: Comparing the Voters in ... - Joseph Fried - Google Books”>Democrats and Republicans--rhetoric and Reality: Comparing the Voters in ... - Joseph Fried - Google Books)</p>

<p>Put your intellectualism to work and read. The book is written on the true nature of party allegiances including factors such as “education”. It seems that self-identified Republicans are significantly more likely to hold 4 year college degrees. At the graduate level, it’s about even. But at the level of academia, only 11 percent of professors are Republican. </p>

<p>Edit: To the OP- About your original question, I’d say if Harvard’s anything like Yale, the majority leans left. But the right is also pretty active.</p>

11

<p>I’ll only add one comment to the discussion about the population distribution of Republicans vs Democrats comes from an assignment my daughter had in civics last year. After the election, the students were required to do a state by state, county by county analysis and try to break down the reasons for the patterns they encountered. What I recall was that, for the most part, cities tended to vote Democratic and the rural areas tended to vote Republican. </p>

<p>Saugus would tend say that that has to do with education level and he is right the wrong way. Where do the majority of people who require government aid live? In the cities. </p>

<p>It’s three in the morning and I have only slept 4 hours so my answer is not the best but I will included a quick map that I could find without much thinking for the first state that popped up when I just did some quick googling. (sorry rambling sentence)</p>

<p><a href=“http://wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/wisconsinvote20082.jpg[/url]”>http://wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/wisconsinvote20082.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You will see that the red areas are primarily clustered around Milwaukee and Madison.</p>

12

<p>Ugh. Saugus, its people like you who call others racist, then say incredibly stupid things like that. The South is full of idiots and the Northeast is full of intellectuals…?</p>

<p>Grow the **** up.</p>

13

<p>I think you will find that the majority of college students across America are liberal. It is age-related. Once they get real jobs and start families, many of them will become conservative.</p>

14

<p>Bay, age only explains a portion of the pattern. If you surveyed the parents of current Harvard undergrads, I think you’d find they lean considerably to the left of the nation as a whole, if not quite as far left as their kids.</p>

15

<p>^That would be an interesting question for the Harvard parents’ thread.</p>

16

<p>“If you’re not liberal when you’re young, you have no heart. If you’re not conservative when you’re older, you have no brain.” </p>

<p>A paraphrasing, apparently, wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill. I remember hearing it for the first time more than 25 years ago in a Poli Sci class. I don’t believe it, cuz my views haven’t changed much, although I get more cynical with age.</p>

17

<p>Well obviously, not everyone becomes more conservative when they get older.</p>

<p>I have also heard it, “Liberals vote with their hearts, conservatives vote with their brains.”</p>

18

<p>

</p>

<p>maybe, you are just senile now and that’s why you aren’t thinking with your brain…</p>

<p><em>only kidding</em></p>

19

<p>^^
That’s ridiculous. The only reason that people are opposed to gay marriage, for example, is that it is against their “faith.” That’s not voting with your brains.</p>

<p>@TMac18
Yes, the level of education IS higher in the northeast.</p>

20

<ol>
<li><p>I think the demographics are that people whose highest educational level is a BA/BS lean slightly more Republican than Democratic, but people with advanced degrees (including professional degrees as well as PhDs) tend more heavily to identify as/vote with the Democrats. The majority of college professors are certainly Democrats or independents to the left of that, but certainly not all of them, and certainly not all of them at Harvard.</p></li>
<li><p>Whatever students think before they come to college, they tend to change their views somewhat after a few years there. Conservatives become more liberal, or sometimes more conservative; liberals become more conservative or sometimes more radical. Lots of college – and lots about late adolescence – is about questioning received wisdom, and everyone shows up with his or her own received wisdom to question. (But going in everyone thinks what he or she has is firm, considered philosophy, not received wisdom. It is awfully silly to make decisions at 17 based on the premise that you actually know what you will believe for the rest of your life.)</p></li>
</ol>