Following up on a comment by Fernando, the above title is my quick summary of the income/voting graph:

by Andrew Gelman on November 14, 2012 · 6 comments
Following up on a comment by Fernando, the above title is my quick summary of the income/voting graph:

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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
The Republicans are the party of the private sector.
The Democrats are the party of government: employees and clients.
Where’s your graph, Jim?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Has anybody seen data on white voters broken down by income (for 2012)? I haven’t been able to find any.
I would be interested to look at why the lines from 2012 and 2008 election than the lines from 2000 and 2004 election. In the election of 2008 and the election of 2012 resulted in a Democratic president, however how did these presidential candidate win over the families with a higher income whom usually identify and vote for the Republican candidate. Maybe the Democratic candidates showed a more moderate approach that attracted to the normally Republican voters.
An important point (which I’m sure you know, but couldn’t have made in a single sentence) is that income correlates with age. There are relatively few people under 30 making $100k/year or more, particularly outside major cities with banking and legal infrastructure. Even people making $50-$100k, I would wager, skew older on the national scale.
In terms of income, possibly. But there is a much larger social component that goes with that. Culturally it would not be the case. The lower class “rednecks” are no liberals. They are in fact a large part of what drives the GOP to win the South, West, and many Midwestern states. If you are talking about beneficiaries, that is more debateable.