Affluence vs Voting Patterns, continued...

[tarheel-leftist85]

i think the problem has been solved--a book call Red State, Blue State/Rich State Poor State.  haven't read it in its entirety, but it explains the methodological shortcomings of previous research in the snippet.  the results need to be disaggregated in order to reveal that the more affluent in relatively affluent places (overall pop.) vote relatively more democratic than their counterparts in relatively less affluent places.  these results correspond along the SES spectrum, but the biggie is that the results must be disaggregated.  this begs the question, what explains the variation in voting patterns across the lower SES levels:  in some places, particularly where Democrats are "moderate" corporatists and take the Obama/New Democrat approach to class politics, lower SES levels are effectively disenfranchised.

[mileslunn]

If I am not mistaken, I think you get U shape when it comes to votes for the Democrats, otherwise those who are somewhat wealthy ($100,000-$200,000) tend to favour the Republicans while the really wealthy (over $1,000,000) generally favour the Democrats.  If you are only making $100,000 a year, any tax increase you won't like whereas if you are making over a 1 million, it will have less impact on your purchasing power and lifestyle.  Also education could have an impact as one can make over $100,000 without a university degree whereas you pretty much need one if you want to be a millionaire.  Also almost all millionaires have traveled a fair bit outside of the United States so I suspect Bush's unpopularity globally would have had more influence on them than those making $100,000 as many don't regularly travel outside the United States.

I also think it depends with the wealthy where they live.  Those in the urban centers like San Francisco and Manhattan are pretty liberal while those living in the exurbs and outerlying suburbs tend to be fairly conservative.  I should note though that some rural getaways that are popular amongst the wealthy are quite liberal such as Martha's Vineyard.