cover of episode How the Diploma Divide Took Over Our Politics

How the Diploma Divide Took Over Our Politics

2024/10/23
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FiveThirtyEight Politics

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The 2016 election highlighted a growing educational divide in American politics, with non-college-educated voters leaning Republican and college-educated voters leaning Democrat. This trend, explored in the book "Polarized by Degrees," suggests a significant realignment, impacting not just electoral outcomes but also governance and policy approaches.
  • The diploma divide is the most consequential shift in American politics since the realignment of the Democratic South.
  • The Democratic Party increasingly comprises college-educated voters who believe in policy-making by credentialed specialists.
  • The Republican Party views experts with suspicion, seeing them as culturally alien and intellectually arrogant.

Shownotes Transcript

For decades, Republicans were thought of as the country club set, while Democrats were the party of the working class. But increasingly, education has become a larger dividing line in American politics than economic status. This trend has seen college-educated voters move toward the Democratic Party and non-college-educated voters shift toward Republicans.

In this installment of the 538 Politics podcast, Galen speaks with Matt Grossmann and David Hopkins, authors of "Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics." They explore how this educational divide is reshaping not just electoral outcomes, but the way each party approaches governance and policy.

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