** "For California, Kerry won most of the counties along the coast. That includes Los Angeles and San Francisco counties.
In Southern Californa, Bush won Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties, while Kerry won the most densly populated LA County. Most of the central and eastern part of California is rural area or high/low desert and is republican based following the general national trend and supported Bush." **
Let's relate this to the discussion on education. Ventura and Orange Counties are relatively high income, low minority counties. My belief is that the average educational level of folks living there is well above the norm as well. Similarly, Riverside and San Diego counties have large upper middle class low minority populations. The poor and minorities in Los Angeles flocked to Kerry. This thoroughly trashes the theory that GOP voters are the uneducated, at least in California.
Now go to the South. Lest one forget, the Southern states have relatively large minority populations. The large minority population in those states are typically the less educated. So, the less educated minority population of these southern states brings down the average educational level for the whole state. And who did these less educated vote for 9 to 1. Kerry, of course. The real comparison would be to look at the educational level of Bush supporters in Georgia and compare them with the average educational level of the Kerry supporters in Georgia. Comparing apples to apples, I think you would find just the opposite relationship than that advanced by UTD.
Go to Michigan. Kerry wins because of Detroit and blue collar union workers. Hardly the most educated. Bush draws support in Michigan from the suburbs which is the higher income, higher educated.
Basically, what the liberal elite believe is that anyone who is anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and believes that the moral values instilled in them by their faith ought to be represented in their political leaders is necessarily uneducated. In their closed minds, this has to be so because educated people like them know that smart people believe in pro-choice, gay marriage and the separation of morality from politics.
Seminole writes: ** "Basically the less knowledge they had of the issues or the process, the more likely they were to vote for Bush. That's not to say there aren't a lot of intelligent politicos with well thought out positions that favored Bush (look at myvoice and OG), but there weren't any Kerry supporters that hadn't thought long and hard and studied the issues." **
That may be true with respect to those you spoke to. However, the consistent 9 to 1 voting support given by black Americans to DEM party candidates hardly supports your theory. It is not long and hard thought on the issues that causes this level of support among the black population. It is the label DEM or REP. Similarly, non-minority poor vote DEM because the DEM's rich vs. poor class warfare pitch panders to them.
Face it, each party can count on 40% of the vote from their faithful who unthinkingly vote party line. It is the other 20% of America who thinks long and hard about the issues and votes accordingly. That 20% voted for Bush in higher percentages than for Kerry and that's why Bush won. It was the issues that determined this election. It just so happens that the majority of these thinking people came to different conclusions than you respecting them.
