Interesting stuff; carves the public into 9 groups from left to right. I’m in the liberal one, no surprise - it is interesting that I’m more military-hawkish and want-immigration-restricted than most liberals. And my group has doubled in size since 1999, which I imagine is due to 9/11 & Iraq pretty heavily realigning the left.
Really cool analysis, and as they point out over at TNR, the groupings present some problems for the Thomas Frank thesis on why people who aren’t filthy rich vote GOP.
I don’t know what to make of the fact that they count that answering “most people’s chances in life are outside of their control” makes you “fatalistic.”
The nine groups in the political typology are defined by their beliefs and values, not by their demographic characteristics. Yet each group has a distinctly different demographic profile, which in some cases bears little resemblance to those of their ideological and political allies. For example, Enterprisers have by far the highest percentage of men of any group (76%), while the other two GOP groups are majority female (62% Pro-Government Conservatives, 58% Social Conservatives). (For more on the demographics of the typology, see pg. 66)
On the other hand, Enterprisers and Liberals whose political opinions mix no better than oil and water have a surprising amount of common ground both economically and educationally. These groups are the wealthiest and best educated in the typology. Roughly four-in-ten Enterprisers and Liberals (41% each) have annual household incomes of at least $75,000; only the Upbeats (39%) have about as many people in that income category.
Liberals have the highest education level of any typology group 49% are college graduates and 26% have some postgraduate education. But the Enterprisers also include a relatively high percentage of college graduates (46%), although fewer Enterprisers than Liberals have attended graduate school (14%).
The richer components of each party seem to be the only ones that fit the stereotypes; the other components are sitting on ideological fault lines - the right on role of government on economics & the environment (the bottom 2/3rds of the GOP wants more), the left on social issues.
Really surprising detail: the GOP rich group is actually signed up for the culture wars.
