At one time, manual laborers were usually Democratic while affluent people were typically Republican, but eventually, working class people who were conservative–with regard to social and religious issues–started supporting Republican candidates; people with more education started supporting Democrats in greater numbers (122).
Social Class and Voting – Roskin
Polling for Social Class – Roskin
The nature of someone’s profession often has more to do with their political opinions than their actual income does (122).
Social Class and Voting – Roskin
White working and middle-class voters accept conservative arguments that big government has contributed to declining social mobility; many upper-middle-class voters support Democrats because they think more government intervention will counter the trend of decreasing social mobility (123).
Polling for Social Class – Roskin
Asking someone about their income and assessing the quality of their neighborhood are objective ways to determine social class, but these methods sometimes produce different results than simply asking people what social class they belong to. Many people who are either poorer or more affluent think of themselves as “middle class” (122).
Social Class and Voting – Roskin
Class influences voting, but its effect is usually combined with the influence of some other factor, like region or religion (123).
Social Class and Voting – Roskin
In the 1970’s, differences in levels of education began to correspond with greater income inequality; as jobs for people with low levels of education became less prevalent, social mobility for Americans decreased, in comparison to that same measure–the ability of a citizen to move to another social class–in other Western countries.