Never The Twain Shall Meet

How many times have you heard that Republicans or conservatives are close-minded, ignorant, authoritarians with no hearts for humanity or souls worthy of living in a shared society?

Democrats and liberals are portrayed as open-minded and inclusive and always motivated by altruism in furtherance of advancing the well-being of others and society in general.

Those are the narratives.

Let's look at how these narrative match up to a recent survey of college students in a new Axios/Generation Lab poll of college students on their attitudes towards those who might have different political views than they have.

Mind you that this is a poll of college students who are literally in the belly of the beast that our education system has become.

A higher education system that is supposed to encourage and foster debate, discussion and dissenting views but seems to have become propaganda factories promoting liberal ideology.

What is most interesting in the poll data is the stark differences in attitudes between students who identify as Democrats vs. Republicans and women vs. men. The poll did not break out party identification by gender but most surveys show a much higher proportion of women who identify as Democrats so take that into consideration as well.

Let's look at questions about whether the college-age survey respondents would associate with someone who voted for the opposing political candidate in the last Presidential election.

Going out on a date--- Shopping or supporting a business---. Being friends with---. Working for--- Someone who voted for the opposing Presidential candidate.

Credit: https://www.axios.com/poll-political-polarization-students-a31e9888-9987-4715-9a2e-b5c448ed3e5a.html

Could there be a starker difference in the attitudes between Democrats and Republicans?

Who is it that is close-minded? 

Who is more likely to not want to engage with someone they might disagree with?

Here are the breakdowns on the same questions posed regarding women vs. men. 

Count me as someone who does not want to be on the wrong side of these women.

Is this another explanation as to why there are so many college-educated women that are single these days? Read my blog post from 2019, "Looking for a Few Good Men". 

There is already an imbalance in college enrollment where females greatly exceed males. If that imbalance is further skewed by women being unwilling to date someone with different political views, that inevitably means that the available pool of acceptable potential mates will become even smaller.

I also found the race/ethnicity questions to be interesting in the poll in that we hear so much today about racism and the "close-minded attitudes" of the white supremacist class in the United States.

Looking at the data in this poll, Whites are not the ones that are the most close-minded and unwilling to associate with those that might have different political attitudes.

In fact, at least in this poll, they are the least likely to not make decisions as to who they will associate with based on political views.

All of this suggests again that the facts often do not support the prevailing narratives we hear.

These views also don't bode well for the future of our country.

If there is so little willingness among those who are the most educated in our next generation of leaders, to engage or associate with others who might have different political views and perspectives, it suggests some very difficult and contentious times are ahead.