More Educated = More Liberal?

[Franknburger]

Europe already went through that.

Before, more you were educated, more you were right-wing.
In the recent years, it took a smile shape. Very uneducated and very educated people voted for the left, the averagely educated to the right.
And now, it's becoming more you are education, more you're left-wing, more or less.

Different factors must be factored too: race, religion, income, unions...

I think that depends on the education in question. People with higher education in fields like political science and sociology might be more likely to be liberal. But that isn’t necessarily the case if the education is in engineering, medicine, economics and the law. That is at least my impression from Northern Europe.

I think we already have established in the "Liberal Cities" thread that Northern Europe is somehow problematic as a benchmark here, as the whole party spectrum tends to be more liberal than in the US or the rest of Europe. In other words: The typical higher-educated "socially liberal, economically moderate" voter may in Northern Europe find adequate centrist options, that do not exist in many other European countries, and definitely not in the US.

Having said that, I feel the subject background does indeed matter, but I think the breakdown needs to go deeper. Within engineering, you should find left-leaning specialisations (IT, environmental technologies) as well more 'conservative' ones (civil engineering, vehicle building). Lawyers are, at least in Germany, pretty "green", but here again, specialisation may matter (e.g. family law vs. corporate law).
Economists - already back in the 1980s, when working at Shell Germany during semester holidays, I found quite a number of Greenpeace members among younger economists there. Polls among German top managers typically find the CDU at slightly below 50%, and some 12% support for the Greens. If you correct that for age (essentially, you hardly find Green voters that are older than 50, but a lot of older top managers), I tend to say that in Germany, economists overall are probably slightly leaning to the right, but only barely so. Sector splits should be quite pronounced here, with industry leaning rightwards, while services, including banking, are more liberal.
As for medicine - quite a number of doctors here are in 'alternative medicine', however, doctors (as many other free-lancers) are also traditional FDP clientele. No idea how that works out overall. I am, however, pretty sure that dentists are leaning to the right, as are pharmacists.

Another important feature is gender. Higher-educated females (one of the fastest-growing sub-demographics)  have a strong Dem preference in the USA, and are a core support group of the German Greens.

[Franknburger]

Trying to find some more detailed breakdowns (I was especially looking  for crosstabs on education vs. age, to eliminate current college students from the "some college" group), I came across some inconsistencies that make me think the whole exit  poll data is seriously flawed when it comes to education.

Below, I compare official US census educational attainment rates for the US population above 18 years, and the group's shares in the exit polls:

                       Census     Exit Poll
No HS                 13.2          4
HS                      30.0         21
No college           43.2         25
some college        28.6        29  [included associate degrees (9.2%) for census data here]
College grad.       18.4         29
Postgrad               9.8         18
College & higher   28.2        47

Now, it is plausible that people with low education are under-represented among voters, and high-educated are over-represented, but by such margins?  It rather seems to me that you may get more honest answers when asking Americans about their smoking and drinking habits, then when asking about their education.

As interesting this discussion would be, I feel we don't have reliable data to base any conclusions upon.

[Franknburger]

Some state-level checks, to see whether differences between exit  polls and educational attainment statistics may be explainable by turnout. The best state-level source I could find is the 2011 American Community Survey (total population over 18), accessed via American FactFinder. For convenience reasons, I just report / compare data for "no college" (no HS / HS grad) and "college grad." (Bachelor & higher). First figure is ACS share, second one exit poll share.

MN (76.1% turnout)
No college        35.4       22
College grad.    29.7       47

Even at 100% college graduate turnout, which would imply 66% turnout among non-college graduates, their share in all voters does only go up to 39%. This means that at least 8% of all exit poll respondents, or over 20% of those reporting themselves as "college graduates", must have 'misunderstood' the education question.

WI (73.1% turnout)
No college        43.0       26
College grad.    24.3       42

100% college graduate turnout would make them 34% of all voters. Again, at least 8% of all exit poll respondents, and nearly a quarter of those reporting themselves as "college graduates", must have had comprehension problems on the education question.

CO (71.1 % turnout)
No college        33.8       21
College grad.    33.3       49

At 100% turnout, college graduates become 47% of all voters. Exit polls probably still overstate educational achievement a bit, but the figures are not completely implausible here. It is also worth noting that the ACS post-graduate share (12%) is consistent with exit poll data (14%) when assuming above-average turnout of post-graduates.  Exit polls have Colorado post-graduates going 60-40 Obama.

NH (70.9 % turnout)
No college        38.4       22
College grad.    30.7       52

100% college graduate turnout would make them 43% of all voters. To at least 9% of all exit poll respondents, or almost one out of five reporting themselves as college graduates, either British understatement must be a foreign concept, or they have a quite independent interpretation of the term "post-graduate" (ACS 11%, exit polls 23%).

IA (70.2 % turnout)
No college        41.8       28
College grad.    25,8       42

100% college graduate turnout would make them 34% of all voters, not 42% as per exit poll.

Bottom-line so far for the Top 5 turnout states: Pretty consistent pattern of at least 8% (probably more like 11-12%) overstatement of college graduation in exit polls, and one state (Colorado) in which exit poll data is half-way plausible, though some overstatement on educational attainment is still likely. 

[Franknburger]

What us conservatives object to is the victimization of various groups and the oppressed/oppressor type history shoved down our throats.

Hard to debate with someone who object to the facts, cheesey.

Here's the problem, opebo.  In our current culture, we have black illegitimacy rates that are 10 times the national average, 70% born out of wedlock, and total household wealth way below average.  These numbers have gotten worse since the civil rights measures.  This is because of the massive welfare programs introduced in the 1960's.  They created a disincentive to work and have led to perpetual poverty among the black community.  It also created a culture of laziness and violence.  Bill O'Reilly is taking tons of heat for telling the truth.  

Yes, some groups like blacks were oppressed in the past, but now it's government handouts and lavish benefits being showered on them that are perpetuating the cycle of poverty.  

We aren't told about this in school.......the epic failure of the AFDC is a good example.

Yeah, the data ...  How about this:
Non-institutionalised blacks over 25 years are double as likely to have dropped out of school than non-Hispanic whites. They are 25% more likely to never have visited college,  and 40% more likely to not obtain any academic or professional degree. Compared to holders of academic or professional degrees, the poverty risk is six times higher for school drop-outs, and three times higher for those who never visited college  (sources in my previous posts, took me some five minutes to calculate the figures).

Could it be that there are other reasons, possibly even some that are related to this thread's original topic, for sub-average black household wealth, aside from welfare programs?