Political Party: Who Makes up Each Party & Common Misconceptions

April 28, 2015

MDST Senior Seminar
UTSA, San Antonio, TX
To Whom It May Concern,

The political party an individual identifies with is an interesting variable to examine when
compared to other variables in their life. We will examine some of these variables in order to
better understand a political party as a whole, what they believe, and what misconceptions we as
a society may have about them. In general conservatism can be equated to wanting less
government involvement, traditional religious beliefs, and reliance on self. Liberalism would
like to see the government solve the problems of the people and generally blames an individuals
situation rather than their lack of ability to solve it. Political party is an interesting topic because
it, in some ways, can be viewed as the culmination of various other opinions, or views, of a
person.
While you can examine nearly all variables associated with political affiliation and find relatively
normally distributed data, there are some that dont follow. Several variables show much less
evenly distributed data than others. 46.7% of Americans report that they align with the
Democrat party and 37.3% report Republican. The remaining 16% report independent. Its
notable that most of these Independents surveyed often closer align with Republicans when it
comes to voting, such as Libertarian which usually has a stance more similar to typical
conservatism. Out of those party affiliation percentages a larger percent of females make up the
Democrat party than men. Over half of females overall report being on the left of the political
spectrum. While you can observe some interesting patterns given gender as a variable there isnt
any particularly remarkable data. Clearly this is the case when examining most variables
associated with political stance in the United States resulting in the ever increasing polarization
of ideology.
There are a few variables that do strike as interesting such as race, income, and education. An
especially interesting indicator of political stance is education level and income. It is an accepted
fact that higher education is positively correlated to a liberal political stance. This is not exactly
the case, however. A key variable that is generally not included in the conversation when
discussing education and political party is income level. It is, actually a more accurate measure
to look at income level to determine political party. The lower income demographic has a
consistently higher rate of Democrat percentages. This, logically, shouldnt be surprising as
democratic politics would likely favor programs that would assist an individual with lower
income. A low income individual is 22% more likely to report Democrat leanings than a low
income Republican. Surprisingly, high income individuals are about 4% more likely to identify
as Republican than as Democrat. That simple data, shows a clear affiliation with income level
and political sentiment.
An individual with no high school degree is 29% likely to identify as a Republican. The same
data shows that an individual with a college degree has a 41% chance to identify as Republican.

POL PRTY

by

DEMOCRAT
INDEPEND.
REPUBLICAN

SCHOOL
100%

0%

NO HS GRAD HS GRAD SOME COLL.C OLL GRAD

This shows about an 11% increase in the

report of Republican affiliation from a nonhigh school graduate group to the college
graduate group. Surprisingly there is a 2%
decrease in the reporting of a college
graduate to report as a Democrat than an
individual with no high school degree to
report as a Democrat. So while the democrat
levels stay relatively equal throughout the
education spectrum, the increase in
conservatives is clear, as evident in the graph
above.

So while it is commonly believed that education has a liberalizing effect on students, this seems
to not be the case and appears to be more affected by income than education. I find these three
variables, not only interesting, but valid to compare because education, income, which generally
comprise social class, have direct effects on each other.
One note is that there are roughly an equivalent amount of people who reported Democrat
thorough the education levels but much less of an Independent group and certainly a greater
number of Republicans. So while the Democratic representation doesnt appear to notably
decrease with increased education, much of the Independent category is replaced by Republican.
The unquestionable exception to this rule is race. People reporting as black overwhelmingly
identify as Democratic. 76.6% of African Americans polled reported Democratic. There is a
slightly lower number of high income African Americans who reported democratic than low
income ones, but the number never dips below 71%. Latinos also report especially high levels of
Democratic partisanship.
I would like to look at why it is so accepted that higher education correlates with a person being
a Democrat. This misconception may be the result of political and societal propaganda. As you
can observe from the graph, as individuals reported higher levels of education they also reported
more Republican affiliation. The variable that better indicates party is the increase of income.
Neil Gross wrote in the New York Times that students shifted somewhat to the left but that
these changes were in line with shifts experienced by most Americans between the ages of 18
and 24 during the same period of time He expresses that this false assumption can be
attributed to conservatives who wish to convey liberals as the predatory elite. Given the data
that shows conservatives primarily occupying the financial elite, it isnt hard to see why he
would have this opinion. But also the strong, unarguable liberal leaning of professors, and their
tendency to lecture with a political bias, is more likely the cause of the misunderstanding. The
primary literature that comes out of universities is, obviously, written by professors, and their
tendency to be more liberal creates an image that college has this effect on its students.
Political party is a good variable to examine in a societal context because it can tell a lot about
the society as a whole and its polarity on the individual pieces that construct the political stance.
Clearly there are many more variables that can play a roll, but income, education and race are
easily measurable and very interesting.