<p>you left out lots of other “blues” of note- Amherst, Pomona, Berkeley, tufts, Brandeis, Williams and on and on and on… . . One of the few additional “reds” that is worth mentioning I believe would be Rice.</p>
<p>WUSTL is not in a red state, missouri is a swing state that votes differently every election. it cant be categorized as a “red state.”</p>
<p>but yes, it is essentially true that “blue states” or “liberals” are more intellectual, not to say that there arent smart conservatives, just as a whole. if youve taken government in high school, you should have learned a lot about trends, such as, the further one takes his/her education, the more liberal he/she will become. i believe close 70-80% of all those that hold PhDs are registered liberal or claim to have a liberal leaning (if moderate). and obviously, if u think about it it is true. the more educated on is, the more tolerant he or she will become to social customs that they might think are not necessarily “right”. the more open-minded one becomes. Most blue states have a higher SAT average, higher PSAT national merit cutoff, higher average graduation rate, etc. (if you want to use those as methods of judging intellect). i think education is more valued in blue states compared to their red state counterparts. when looking at top tier (top 50) university enrollments, the southern and western states(dakotas, wyoming, colorado, oklahoma, etc) are severely lacking.</p>
<p>however, there are some schools u missed by only stopping at 15. red states also have UNC-CH, Rice University, Emory University, Vanderbilt University (however, these universities are located in very liberal areas ofo each state :-D)</p>
<p>Except economists. Most smart economists are conservative economically. If you have had a reasonable amount of exposure to it, I do not see how you could not be.</p>
Except it’s not true. Check your facts - for over fifty years, the majority of college graduates have voted REPUBLICAN. There is a higher correlation of right-wing & educated for the master’s degree; it flips for Ph.D.s (most are liberal); however, when you remove Ph.D.s in education, the balance, again, is towards Republicans. </p>
<p>Liberals have done a wonderful snow job on the country with the “liberal = educated” line - mostly derived from the fact that college professors are, as a whole, insanely left-wing. However, once they are taken out of the group, you see that people who (ahem) hold jobs which require a high amount of education tend to be conservative.</p>
<p>Sometime, study the distributions of voting patterns, beliefs, and sociological factors. Most people don’t realize that there is not a gender gap in abortion beliefs, for example; men and women are very equally split about pro-choice v. pro-life, but women a) feel more strongly about the issue and b) the differential comes with married v. single (except with women in their mid-50s and up, who recall the horror show that we’ll call pre-Roe v. Wade).</p>
<p>The majority of the liberal voting block consists of dumbasses who want free stuff from the government. Morons with the “gimmes,” as we like to say.</p>
<p>Well it can be argued either way for blue/red college rankings. However, as for SAT and ACT blue states’ scores are generally much higher than red states.</p>
<p>People in the blue states are NOT more intelligent than those in the red states. They’re just better educated. I’m a compassionate conservative (yes, like Bush) and I don’t agree with everything he says. :O</p>
<p>“Well it can be argued either way for blue/red college rankings. However, as for SAT and ACT blue states’ scores are generally much higher than red states.”</p>
<p>You’ve never seen a high school in the Mid-West or the South before, have you? There’s no academic competition what-so-ever. Nothing but sports there. People could care less about the SAT or the ACT.</p>
<p>A thread like this is certain to prompt offensive posts on both sides. I’ll try to state my view neutrally: it just makes sense that institutes of higher learning are found in blue states, because liberalism is based on idealism. Liberals work for the world in their minds-eye. Conservatives live for the world that exists–that’s where the name comes from. They don’t promote change. So if you’re the sort that lives for what is in your head, as in the sort that goes to top universities, you will tend to be liberal. If you are the down-to-earth, physical sort of person, you will be conservative. That doesn’t mean that liberals or dreamers or conservatives are reactionaries; it’s just the way people live and think.</p>
<p>Theres a famous quote by a famous person (i cant find it right now) that goes something like this, “A young person who is conservative has no heart, while an older person (meaning adult) who is liberal has no brain.”</p>
<p>Its actually just the opposite of what most people on here are saying, the more educated and succesful (money) a person comes, generally the more conservative they get.</p>
<p>The rich people in this country are overwhelmingly conservative (with the exception of hollywood)</p>
<p>Also, one of the main groups who vote liberal are poorer african americans. The very few african americans who vote republican are more educated and wealthy</p>
<p>“A thread like this is certain to prompt offensive posts on both sides. I’ll try to state my view neutrally: it just makes sense that institutes of higher learning are found in blue states, because liberalism is based on idealism. Liberals work for the world in their minds-eye. Conservatives live for the world that exists–that’s where the name comes from. They don’t promote change. So if you’re the sort that lives for what is in your head, as in the sort that goes to top universities, you will tend to be liberal. If you are the down-to-earth, physical sort of person, you will be conservative. That doesn’t mean that liberals or dreamers or conservatives are reactionaries; it’s just the way people live and think.”</p>
<p>Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. You refer to liberals as if they had always been like that. In fact, most of today’s “conservative” economic policies were once considered liberal. (Today they are called classical liberals.) If anything, conservatives are the true liberals believing in the infallibility of market capitalism. It is today’s liberals with their big unions and welfare states that tends to be more “realistic”</p>
<p>Where one draws the line between “liberal” and “realistic” is almost a matter of opinion. By an 1864 standpoint, Republican is radical. Half a century later, in the early twentieth century, they are reactionary and big-money.</p>
<p>The world goes in cycles. 18th century: democracy is new, down with the government! 19th century: You crazy individualists are too selfish to help the poor, we need better government to help out. 20th century: 1900 government should be hands off, 1930 government needs to expand and take care of the people, civil rights explosion of the 60s turns into Nixon of the 70s, now government should back off again…are we every man for himself or what now?</p>
<p>If you support conservatism, you see yourself as positive and informed. If you are liberal, you see yourself as reasonable and informed. It’s in human nature to believe you’re on the right side. In the long run, there isn’t really a “right” side, it’s whatever works for the world and preserves morals. So one ‘wrong’ will suffice to voice your opinion, thank you, because in my mind, I am not. Now we can get into the Philosophy game if you’d like.</p>