Which European Ancestry are generally more Republican/Conservative?

[Indy Texas]

You can definitely see the Jewish factor in the Russian number, less so the Polish number. (Russian is the ancestry I listed in my 2020 Census form.)

Most self-ID'd Polish-Americans are of actual ethnically Polish Catholic ancestry. Jews from what was then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or Congress Poland or Galicia probably aren't going to describe themselves that way. (Ex. Bernie Sanders' parents were from places that were then/are now part of Poland but he has never referred to himself as Polish.)

[Indy Texas]

Or indeed that 'ancestry groups' say less about which ethnic groups a person primarily descends from, and more about which ancestry groups are particularly prestigious. People who identify as Norwegian-American rarely have solely Norwegian ancestry, it's a statement of self-identity more than it is a statement of actual descent.

It doesn't have to be about prestige. For instance, Joe Biden, in weaving his own personal narrative, presents himself as an Irish Catholic in the vein of the Kennedys. But the majority of his family lineage is actually English. And generally, Americans have regarded having English ancestry as more "prestigious" than Irish ancestry.

But there is basically no such thing as "English-American" culture, nobody knows what that is, and it's not particularly interesting. Presenting himself as Irish allowed him to compare himself to popular political figures like the Kennedys, and present himself as someone who came from humble beginnings.

[Indy Texas]

Or indeed that 'ancestry groups' say less about which ethnic groups a person primarily descends from, and more about which ancestry groups are particularly prestigious. People who identify as Norwegian-American rarely have solely Norwegian ancestry, it's a statement of self-identity more than it is a statement of actual descent.

It doesn't have to be about prestige. For instance, Joe Biden, in weaving his own personal narrative, presents himself as an Irish Catholic in the vein of the Kennedys. But the majority of his family lineage is actually English. And generally, Americans have regarded having English ancestry as more "prestigious" than Irish ancestry.

But there is basically no such thing as "English-American" culture, nobody knows what that is, and it's not particularly interesting. Presenting himself as Irish allowed him to compare himself to popular political figures like the Kennedys, and present himself as someone who came from humble beginnings.

I think the issue is that you're attaching a different meaning to the word "prestigious" than I meant.

English-American culture doesn't really exist, nor is there a particular cultural cachet to being from a WASP background these days, therefore it's not prestigious (any more). Whereas being Irish-American has a set of associations that are well understood and are broadly positive. Therefore it is prestigious.

Today, no. But there definitely was in the late 1960s when Biden was beginning his political career.

Even as late as 1980, Reagan was allegedly downplaying his Irish ancestry because his campaign was worried it might hold negative connotations among some voters.

[Indy Texas]

I don't think prestige is even necessarily the best word for it--it's more about a sense of distinctiveness. People are more likely to remember ancestry which is distinct from the default--i.e. "my grandmother always used to say Polish phrases" and not remember the normal English other grandparents. This is probably why German is the most common ancestry among White americans on census forms.

I think prestige can't be ignored - about twice as many Minnesotans claim Norwegian ancestry as Swedish, even though the number of Swedish/Norwegian immigrants was broadly similar. So we're dealing with the same number of grandmothers saying traditional phrases, but one has been remembered much more than the other.

Very Ignorant Question:

What really is the difference between Norwegian and Swedish culture?