Exploding Political Myths

We are using official Census Bureau figures in a table of the states ranked from the most Democratic to the most Republican to refute several political myths. The Census Bureau figures can be found at: Fast Facts for Congress. Blogging websites do not handle tables well, so to see the table, go to Marston Chronicles.

Myth # 1: People 65 and older vote more Republican. That used to be true but now they no longer favor either party.

Myth # 2: White people tend to vote more Republican as opposed to minorities. States with a high percentage of whites show no more tendency to vote for either party.

Myth # 3: A state with a lot of black Americans will vote Democrat. It is true that black Americans do overwhelming favor Democrats but they do not drive a state to become Democrat probably because they do not turn out very well with 2008 being a major exception. It is true that the eight most Republican states have a low percentage of black Americans. Of course once the percentage of them goes above 50% like in DC then that is enough to make DC the most Democratic area in the country. On the other hand, states with an extremely low percentage of minorities like Vermont and Maine are solidly Democrat or Socialist.

Myth # 4: A high percentage of Latinos will drive a state Democrat. This is obviously not true since the most Latino state of New Mexico is a swing state and a solid Republican state like Texas has a 35.9% Latino population. However, the converse is true. With the exception of Texas and Arizona, all the solid Republican states have a low percentage of Latinos.

Myth # 5: Better educated people tend to vote Republican. This used to be true but now the exact opposite is true. Depending on your political views, one can say that smarter people are Democrats and only stupid rednecks are Republican or that better educated people remain brainwashed by their left wing professors for the rest of their lives.

Myth # 6: The Republican Party represents the fat cat rich people. If this was ever true, it certainly is no longer the case. The median household income proves it. In the fourteen most Democratic states they all have higher than the norm incomes with the exception of Vermont and Maine. In the Republican states, they have lower median incomes except strangely enough in three of the five most Republican states. Alaska has to pay higher than normal wages to get people to be willing to withstand the extreme cold. Utah is heavily Mormon (who tend to vote Republican) but they also tend to go to Brigham Young University in droves and that may explain the better income. What is going on in Wyoming is not clear but something surely is.

Myth # 7: Because Democrats spend a lot of their time trying to help the poor and downtrodden, these people return the favor by voting for them. A higher percentage of the people in Republican states are below the nationwide poverty level. Likewise, the Democrat states have fewer people living in poverty,