Which European Ancestry are generally more Republican/Conservative?

[EastAnglianLefty]

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.

[thebeloitmoderate]

What about Russian Christians themselves?

[Sol]

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.

[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.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Are we counting ‘American’ ancestry (read Ulstermen that moved to Appalachia circa 1700) as English, Irish, or Scottish? Because it’s those guys. Pretty much the core base of Evangelical Christianity.

[Non Swing Voter]

Surprised Polish is so low.  I picked Dutch for the vote.

The people responding "American" in those surveys are Southerners and are probably mostly Scotch/Irish. 

[H. Ross Peron]

Surprised Polish is so low.  I picked Dutch for the vote.

Poles have stayed pretty loyal to the Democratic Party due to them being concentrated in urban and/or industrial areas with strong Democratic traditions and machines.

[EastAnglianLefty]

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.

[Sol]

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.

Prestige is obviously a factor--can't speak to Minnesota, but I know in the South claiming English ancestry (as opposed to "American") is usually a matter of social class for example--but it's hard for me to imagine that claiming German ancestry, would be given a positive value in terms of social prestige in the interwar and postwar periods.

[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?

[EastAnglianLefty]

Not an enormous amount - the spelling of the two languages is quite different but the pronunciation is similar and there's a fair amount of shared vocab.

Both are predominantly Lutheran. The agricultural communities the migrants came from will have differed somewhat - Norway being more coastal and Sweden being more forested - but in practice it would be pretty easy to treat a lot of the same cultural inheritances as either Swedish or Norwegian depending on taste.

[nclib]

Ancestry and ethnicity are not exactly the same, though there is a big overlap. It's one thing to claim "American" as an ethnicity, but factually incorrect to list "American" as an ancestry.

[mpbond]

Maybe not everyone would agree with this, but could we say Cubans? Obviously it's not direct European heritage but a good number, especially in the Miami area, are of primarily Spanish ancestry.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

Surprised Polish is so low.  I picked Dutch for the vote.

The people responding "American" in those surveys are Southerners and are probably mostly Scotch/Irish. 

I know, and far and away those are the most conservative group.

[ingemann]

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?

Norwegian are more live hard, work hard, party hard, pray hard and die hard. Fundamental Norwegian were fishermen, which mean they dealt with high mortality rate, famines and natural disasters, but they also had long period where they couldn’t work, while the Swedes were marginal forest farmers so they were always looking for any opportunity to find a way to make their life less marginal and they could also work all the time, so they didn’t have the same forced break the Norwegians did, Swedes also value face more than Norwegians does.

Fundamental Norwegian culture are more individualistic, equal and extreme, while Swedish culture are more collective, hierarchical and consensus based. This doesn’t mean Norwegians doesn’t value consensus, but it’s just less important for them than it is for Swedes (and Danes).

[LabourJersey]

Haven't voted in the poll but was curious to read people's thoughts on this.

NClib has the valuable point that ancestry and ethnicity are not necessarily the same, particularly since most Americans have ancestors from more than one ethnic group.

To use the example of Joe Biden again--he has both English and Irish ancestry, but he is "ethnically" Irish since he was raised in an area with lots of Irish American influence and most importantly raised a Catholic with the Irish American trappings that it brings. An ethnicity is a cultural signifier as well as an ancestral one.

And then you have Scots-Irish, which is a distinct ethnic group even through the ancestral composition of that group of Americans is varied, containing ancestral connections to England, Scotland, and parts of Ireland. The main thing that unified this group was their Protestantism and their settlement on the frontier.

[H. Ross Peron]

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?

Norwegian are more live hard, work hard, party hard, pray hard and die hard. Fundamental Norwegian were fishermen, which mean they dealt with high mortality rate, famines and natural disasters, but they also had long period where they couldn’t work, while the Swedes were marginal forest farmers so they were always looking for any opportunity to find a way to make their life less marginal and they could also work all the time, so they didn’t have the same forced break the Norwegians did, Swedes also value face more than Norwegians does.

Fundamental Norwegian culture are more individualistic, equal and extreme, while Swedish culture are more collective, hierarchical and consensus based. This doesn’t mean Norwegians doesn’t value consensus, but it’s just less important for them than it is for Swedes (and Danes).

How would Danish culture contrast with the two? Danish Americans dont seem very prominent in politics or as a voting bloc but I wonder if they may be somewhat more conservative due to coming from a much more productive agricultural area.

[Sol]

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?

Norwegian are more live hard, work hard, party hard, pray hard and die hard. Fundamental Norwegian were fishermen, which mean they dealt with high mortality rate, famines and natural disasters, but they also had long period where they couldn’t work, while the Swedes were marginal forest farmers so they were always looking for any opportunity to find a way to make their life less marginal and they could also work all the time, so they didn’t have the same forced break the Norwegians did, Swedes also value face more than Norwegians does.

Fundamental Norwegian culture are more individualistic, equal and extreme, while Swedish culture are more collective, hierarchical and consensus based. This doesn’t mean Norwegians doesn’t value consensus, but it’s just less important for them than it is for Swedes (and Danes).

How would Danish culture contrast with the two? Danish Americans dont seem very prominent in politics or as a voting bloc but I wonder if they may be somewhat for conservative due to coming from a much more productive agricultural area.

IIRC Danish-Americans are disproportionately Mormon in a way which isn't true of the other two, so they probably lean to the right just by default already.

[Suburbia]

Maybe not everyone would agree with this, but could we say Cubans? Obviously it's not direct European heritage but a good number, especially in the Miami area, are of primarily Spanish ancestry.

Aren't most White Cubans from Spanish ancestry?