Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.
Is it true that educated voters are more likely to be Democrats? In short, no. There's an enormous problem with this argument. Unfortunately, it can get complicated, especially considering there are two primary ways to look at education, and even those can be further divided.
One way to look at education is some form of mental development. There are people with PhDs who are completely incapable of forming their own thoughts and know nothing beyond what they were told during their school years. There are also intelligent people out there who simply don't fit the schools. Should we look down on them if they pursue the educations that are right for them instead of a piece of paper?
If we truly valued this form of education, it's actually hard to believe that individuals would conform to the views of either party. My suspicion is that this would lead to an increase in the number of independent voters. This is because voters would more likely have their own views rather than consistently match a party's platform. They would also have an easier time seeing how both parties frequently contradict themselves.
I don't believe that it's possible to accurately measure this form of education. As far as I'm aware, nobody has even attempted to create a measure. If they did, it would have to reflect variable educational attainment. There is simply no way to define people as either educated or uneducated.
A lot of people use education as a synonym for schooling instead of mental development. This is a little more straightforward. We have a measure of how schooled an individual is in the form of academic credential acquisition. Unfortunately, this runs into a similar problem to mental development.
Can we really say that someone a week before receiving a college degree is uneducated while someone a week later is educated? Did you know that there are people who insist that our K-12 educational system is important, they are doing a good job, and high school graduates are uneducated? If that's the case, why are we spending so much on an educational system that leaves students uneducated?
Like mental development, schooling levels are variable. You can't simply say people are either educated or uneducated. You could say that some people are college graduates and others are not, but that's not how this argument is being worded.
Either way you look at education, you can't say that educated voters are more likely to be Democrats. Unfortunately, I feel like I have to clarify something that really shouldn't need clarification. Unfortunately, too many people are so entrenched in partisan messaging that I feel like I don't have a choice.
When I say that it is wrong to insist that educated voters are more likely to support the Democrats, that does not mean that I believe educated voters are more likely to vote Republican. In fact, that would completely contradict what I have written so far. What I'm saying is that educated and uneducated voters, from an objective perspective, don't really exist. There is no legitimate way to diminish education to the point that everybody fits the binary classification of being either educated or uneducated. This should be viewed as common sense.
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