While I've been shoveling snow off my walk, over at Power Line John Hinderaker has been shoveling more untreated organic matter into the blogosphere. His point of departure on December 1 was a Gallup poll finding that, when asked to rate their own mental health, Republicans self-report more satisfaction than do Democrats.
To paraphrase the philosopher, we depressive Dems should not be envious of those happy in a fool's paradise, since only Republicans would be happy there. Moreover one aspect of the Republican paradise might be an impressive capacity for self-delusion, which, in addition to accounting for the poll's finding, would help explain the views of John Hinderaker, who appears wholly unmoored from reality.
His risible take on the poll, for instance, includes the view that, compared to Democrats, "Republicans are generally better educated." Perhaps he has an idiosyncratic definition of "Republican." For purposes of discussion, I'm going to adopt the view that a Republican is a voter who casts a ballot for the Republican candidate for president. A Democrat is one who votes for the Democrat. In the last presidential election, the Republican, George Bush, got 51% of all votes, to 48% for the Democrat, John Kerry. But suppose we look only at ballots cast by college graduates. Now the two candidates are in a 49-49 dead heat. The picture changes if we draw finer distinctions. Among voters of every educational level, from high school dropouts to college graduates, Kerry consistently received from 46 to 50 per cent of the vote. But among voters with the highest educational attainment--those with post-graduate degrees--Kerry got 55% of the vote and won a double-digit victory over Bush. The poll data may be examined here.
This result is not anomalous. In the 2000 election, Bush and Al Gore finished in a 48-48 tie in the nationwide vote. Among voters with a post-graduate degree, Gore defeated Bush, 52-44.
If Republicans are "generally better educated" than Democrats, then why did the most educated voters prefer, by significant margins, both Gore and Kerry?
On another day, when he wants to argue, as he surely will, that Democrats are "effete elites," Hinderaker may link to the exit polls I've just referred to. But on Saturday last it pleased him to assert that Republicans are better educated than Democrats. So he did. He has no regard for the truth of any question but at any given moment latches onto whatever he can to make a case for the party he prefers. Such people are sometimes called "hacks."
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