Abstract
This paper examines the interaction of education for both Blacks and Whites in all major religious groups on four key political issues: Abortion, gay marriage, feelings toward redistribution, and political party identification. We find that for most Blacks, race is the most salient factor across all four political dimensions; whereas there is significant variation by religion and education for Whites, there is very little difference for Blacks. As previous research has noted, Blacks are generally more conservative on gay marriage and Blacks are generally positive about redistribution, much more so than most Whites regardless of education and religion. We find education is more liberating to Whites than Blacks. The only issue for which education has significant effects for Blacks is abortion, but even in this case, unlike for Whites, there are not large religious differences among Blacks. This study corroborates previous research that abortion and gay marriage are less politically central to Blacks, who at all education levels are more likely to be Democrat than the most Democrat identified Whites.
Highlights
We know that race,1,2 education,3 and religion4 are all important predictors of Americans’ political views
This paper examines the interaction of education for both Blacks and Whites in all major religious groups on four key political issues: Abortion, gay marriage, feelings toward redistribution, and political party identification
Our study examines the impact of religious affiliation and how it intersects with both race and education
Summary
When the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed, Blacks gained the right to vote and exercise political power, and overwhelmingly held allegiance with the Republican Party (Carmines and Stimson 1990). After Reconstruction, the Republican Party alienated their Black constituents in their attempt to gain White votes (Fauntroy 2007). The Democratic Party progressed in their positions on racial equality, and made a political shift to champion Civil Rights (Carmines and Stimson 1990). During the 1960s, national party leaders took divergent positions on Black Civil Rights and the Republican Party began to court the previous core of the Democratic Party, conservative White Southerners and working-class Northern. Whites (Fauntroy 2007) who defected in large numbers (Black and Black 1989) This racial cleavage was solidified in the 1964 presidential election (Stanley et al 1986). Blacks continue to primarily support the Democratic Party (Abramson et al 2015; Flanigan et al 2014; Hershey 2017; Wayne 2011)
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