GROUP DIFFERENCES ON ISSUES

(Week 9)

(Note: these are actual class notes, valuable to those having an excused class absence, or those wishing to review their class notes for the test. Double spaced notes reflect subjects that are so important that they are likely to be asked about on a test.)

Socioeconomic Status (SES)- SES is measured by education level, income, occupational prestige, or perceived social class. The lower SES tend to be more liberal on domestic economic programs than the upper SES, as they are more likely to benefit from such programs. Therefore, the lower SES are more supportive of health care spending, child care support, Social Security, unemployment insurance, public jobs, and domestic spending and social services in general, than are the upper SES (see textbook). The upper SES, particularly the college educated, tend to be more liberal on race and civil liberty issues, such as supporting choice on abortion, government spending assistance for minorities, supporting gun control, and opposing the death penalty. The upper SES, particularly the college educated, tend to be more internationalist on foreign policy than the lower SES, backing diplomacy, international trade, the Persian Gulf War, and Kosovo peacekeeping, maybe because they tend to support the President during international crises. Class discussion- why are the lower SES more conservative on race and civil liberty issues? Has college made you more liberal on these issues, and explain how?

Race- African-Americans are more liberal on a diverse range of issues, compared to whites. African-Americans are the more liberal group on domestic economic issues, backing more government spending on jobs, welfare, health care, and education, compared to whites. African-Americans are more liberal than whites on racial issues, such as more supportive of affirmative action and more opposed to police engaging in racial profiling. African-Americans are more liberal than whites on civil liberty issues, such as opposition to the death penalty, being for gun control, and for LGBTQ rights (see textbook). Why are African Americans significantly more liberal than whites on such a range of issues? Partly is that minorities tend to have lower incomes than whites, explaining the support for economic issues. Also, historically African Americans have experienced centuries of slavery and discrimination, sensitizing the group to the struggles that they and other groups have had to face. African Americans therefore tend to vote heavily Democratic. Class discussion- how can the Republican Party gain more black support? Should Republicans in their private capacity set up non-profits that help the black community, such as providing vouchers so that African American kids can attend any private, Christian, or Catholic school that they wish? Any other ideas??

Age- Young adults under 35 are more liberal than older adults over 55 on race and civil liberty issues. Nationally, the young have been more supportive of racial integration and more opposed to racial discrimination, than the elderly. In Mississippi, the young are more supportive of affirmative action and government financial aid to minorities than the old. The young nationally are more supportive than the old of women’s rights, abortion, gay rights, and marijuana legalization. In Mississippi, the young are more supportive of same sex marriage than the old. Why is the younger generation generally more liberal on race and civil liberty issues? Are they less tied to tradition than the old? Are they more supportive of individual freedom?? But why the speech codes at some universities, then? The young are also somewhat more liberal than the old on domestic economic issues. Nationally, they favor more spending on government services generally, such as public jobs and student loans, but they are more conservative on Social Security and the minimum wage (see textbook). In Mississippi, young adults are more liberal on a range of domestic economic issues than the old, including backing more government spending on health care, poverty programs, child support, public jobs, public schools, and environmental protection. Why have the young grown so accepting of the government guaranteeing so many quality-of-life programs? Maybe because the older generation grew up under a smaller government footprint, where the individual was on-their-own, so to speak? What do you think? A more recent issue has been basic pride in America, with only 41% of Generation Z (under 28 age) being extremely or very proud to be an America, compared to 83% of those over 78 (Gallup poll, June 2025 poll); maybe because only 36% of Democrats express similar pride (versus only moderate, slight, or no pride, as Democratic pride had slid after the Obama presidency (and especially during the Trump years).

Sex- Women are less supportive of the use of force to resolve social problems, compared to men (see textbook). Therefore, women are more supportive of gun control than men, more opposed to the death penalty, and more opposed to using military force. Why do you think that men and women differ on these kinds of issues? Do you conform to your own gender pattern (Remember that all of these differences are not great, so many people disagree with the majority of their own sex, particularly in the South.)? Women are also slightly more compassionate than men, backing social welfare programs such as poverty spending, health care, jobs, Social Security, income equalization, child care spending, and more government spending on social programs more than men do. Interestingly enough, though, there are no differences between women and men on some “women’s issues”, such as abortion and an equal role for women in politics and society. The same exists in Mississippi, where men and women differ by less than 5% on abortion and a woman’s role item. Why are women more compassionate on economic issues and more opposed to the use of force, compared to men? What do you think? Why are there NOT differences between the sexes on some women’s issues? Any ideas??

Other groups. The South has historically been more conservative than the North. Yet during the 1930s New Deal of FDR, the South backed his liberal economic programs, because of its poverty. Today, regional differences in issue attitudes have diminished. Northern whites have become more conservative on race and social issues, while southern whites have become less conservative. White high school dropouts remain the most racially conservative, especially in the South. In a 1988 study, about one-third of white southern high school dropouts backed segregation in the public schools. Similar results occurred in Mississippi. Problem of socially desirable responses in survey data. Using an unobtrusive measure of racial hostility, one study examining whites in the South and non-South found that only southern whites became angry if "a black family moves next door," and that white anger was concentrated among men rather than women. Regional differences in party identification among whites has been eliminated. White Southerners used to be very Democratic, but by 2004 they were evenly split between the parties, as were whites in the north. By 2012, southern whites were significantly more likely to be Republicans than Democrats. Jews and atheists-agnostics are more likely to call themselves "liberals," compared to Protestants and Catholics. Both groups are more liberal than other religious groups on civil liberty and race issues, such as abortion, marijuana, school prayer, equal rights for women, and government aid to blacks. The Jewish religion has historically been the most Democratic in terms of party identification and voting behavior of any religious group. Few differences exist today between Protestant and Catholics, though Protestants are slightly more likely to label themselves conservative, and lean slightly more towards the Republican party. Among white protestants, the Religious (Evangelicals/Fundamentalists) are more conservative on domestic economic, civil liberty, and military issues, than are the Secular Protestants (see textbook). Fundamentalists are also more Republican in party identification and federal voting behavior.