Who were the 30-35% of suburban voters who backed dems in the 80s, and why did they back them?

[Matty]

What would be a profile of a middle to upper middle class family in, say, hamilton county indiana or waukesha county wisconsin or maricopa county arizona that actively voted for the likes of mondale and dukakis, and what would typically be the number one reason these 30% of suburban voters opposed republicans?

[TheReckoning]

They were left-leaning?

Why else?

I think too many times in analyzing political geography we think “red state, blue state, red county, blue county.” However, pretty much all states are “purple”, and people of both parties can be found anywhere, because no where in the country is their total uniformity in beliefs.

Americans are diverse, no matter where you are.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Jews, people in the creative class, academics, defense attorneys, social workers, journalists

[AlterEgo]

Still a pretty decent number of middle-class union households back then.

[H. Ross Peron]

Jews, people in the creative class, academics, defense attorneys, social workers, journalists

I'd imagine a lot of Catholic "ethnics" from ancestral Dem families, such as Poles, also were Democrats.

[Ogre Mage]

Librarians, teachers, academics, editors, journalists, scientists, trial lawyers, financially successful artists (starving ones cannot afford suburbs), psychologists/therapists, architects.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I feel like high income areas tend to have moderately high floors for both parties just because a higher percentage of the people are truly ideological.  I believe I once saw that, in landslides, high-income suburbs typically trend against the landsliding party because there is a reasonably hard floor of dyed-in-the-wool partisans for the other side.

[Chips]

I feel like high income areas tend to have moderately high floors for both parties just because a higher percentage of the people are truly ideological.  I believe I once saw that, in landslides, high-income suburbs typically trend against the landsliding party because there is a reasonably hard floor of dyed-in-the-wool partisans for the other side.

[Liberalrocks]

Granted not in high numbers for the suburbs but LGBT voters definetly voted in high numbers for Mondale and Dukakis and would be reflected somewhere in those numbers.