Does one’s education affect how one votes?  It’s interesting how people’s political preferences have shifted in the past few decades.  Traditionally, people who voted for the more conservative candidate tended to be MORE educated.  In many countries, including Canada, the US and the UK, those who historically voted for conservative candidates tended to be well-educated (often at the “good schools”) and worshiped at “old line” Protestant churches (e.g. Anglican/Episcopal).  This has changed over the decades.  What the US calls a “Rockefeller Republican” or Canadians, a “Red Tory” (note to Americans:  our colours are the opposite of yours:  Blue=conservative, red=liberal), has all but become extinct.  Today, the conservative is more likely to be less educated and evangelical.

I have been reading US election trend demographics.  According to all of the polls, the more education one has, the less likely he or she supports McCain.  While 42% of those with high school or less support McCain, only 37% of those with a postgraduate degree do.  In terms of religion, while they do have church break-down, they unfortunately do not indicate what kind of church people go to.  It would be interesting to see support based on evangelical and old line.  Of course, the results would likely be very obvious – old line churches, which tend to be more progressive, are generally denominations that do not have a literal interpretation of the Bible.  In any case, with all that is going on over the past few weeks, it seems that the Republican Party in the United States has lost its way.  Many big-named Republicans, such as Colin Powell, have “jumped ship” and are endorsing Obama.

Canada experienced its official “death” of the old line Conservatives when the Progressive Conservative party went from a majority government with Brian Mulroney and then, Kim Campbell, to not just a Liberal majority, but also a pitiful presence of merely two Conservative seats in 1993.  The Reform Party, which became the current Conservative Party of Canada, didn’t take over as the Official Opposition that year (the separatist Bloc Quebecois did), but it eventually took over as Canada’s conservative voice, moving it further to the right.  It was much further right.  And even now, the Conservative Party is heavily western-centric, especially in Alberta, where they won all but one seat.  Alberta is part of Canada’s Bible Belt.  There are remnants of old line conservativeness in some Conservative candidates, both provincially and federally, but for the most part, it is dead.

Will old line conservatives, the “Red Tory” or “Rockefeller Republican” ever come back?  Or, is this a philosophy that has gone?