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Forty percent of America identifies as conservative, 36 percent as moderate, and 21 percent as liberal. But how people politically “identify” and what people actually believe and practice doesn’t always add up.

From CAP:

According to a Pew survey released this month, more than half (57 percent) of lower-income Republicans (those with family incomes of less than $30,000) said that government does not do enough for the poor, while less than one in five (18 percent) said it does too much. On the other hand, higher-income Republicans (those with family incomes of $75,000 or more, perhaps not surprisingly) overwhelmingly think government does too much.

It would appear that, according to this crucial measurement, being more “conservative” is simply a matter of having more money, though even here the matter is complicated. “[W]hile rich voters favor Republicans, rich states favor Democrats.”

It’s also apparently a matter of having less education. “Conservative states are also less educated than liberal ones,” something that is also true on an individual level. The higher your educational attainment is, the more likely you will shed right-wing views. “The [negative] correlation between conservative affiliation and the percent of adults who are college graduates is also substantially higher than before (-.76 vs. -.53).” This may explain why conservatives are always seeking to cut student loan funding and other educational programs for the poor and middle class.

[S]tates with more conservatives are less diverse. “Conservative political affiliation is highly negatively correlated with the percent of the population that are immigrants (-.56), or gay and lesbian ( -.60).” Given that [The Atlantic’s] argument is about how America is becoming “more conservative,” one might have expected him to note that America is becoming both more ethnically diverse and tolerant when it comes to what used to be called “alternative lifestyles.” Even half of Republicans support gay marriage or civil unions these days. (And let’s not even talk about contraception.) So maybe it’s not time to break out the beer and pretzels quite yet.

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