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
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).