According to a Morgan Quinto Press study from 2005, the most educated to least educated states rounds out to the following:
# 1 Vermont: 17.58
# 2 Connecticut: 15.88
# 3 Massachusetts: 14.48
# 4 New Jersey: 12.55
# 5 Maine: 9.33
# 6 Minnesota: 8.97
# 7 Virginia: 8.47
# 8 Wisconsin: 8.45
# 9 Montana: 8.3
# 10 New York: 7.53
# 11 Pennsylvania: 6.76
# 12 Nebraska: 6.55
# 13 Kansas: 4.79
# 14 Iowa: 4.75
# 15 New Hampshire:4.59
# 16 Rhode Island: 3.11
# 17 Wyoming: 2.39
# 18 South Dakota: 2.29
# 19 Maryland: 2.23
# 20 North Dakota: 2.06
# 21 Missouri: 1.93
# 22 North Carolina: 1.68
# 23 Colorado: -0.32
# 24 Texas: -0.44
# 25 Delaware: -0.93
# 26 Indiana: -1.34
# 27 Michigan: -1.41
# 28 Idaho: -1.46
# 29 South Carolina:-2.15
# 30 Washington: -2.17
# 31 Ohio: -2.73
# 32 Illinois: -3.07
# 33 Utah: -3.69
# 34 West Virginia: -3.77
# 35 Kentucky: -4.28
# 36 Florida: -4.41
# 37 Arkansas: -5.19
# 38 Oregon: -7.43
# 39 Oklahoma: -7.74
# 40 Georgia: -8.04
# 41 Tennessee: -8.48
# 42 Hawaii: -9.67
# 43 Alabama: -11.11
# 44 Alaska: -11.25
# 45 Louisiana: -11.56
# 46 California: -12.57
# 47 Nevada: -13.11
# 48 New Mexico: -13.37
# 49 Mississippi: -14.31
# 50 Arizona: -17.81
Now, of course there's a point to this. One most of you are familiar with. Despite the combination of some states (like California and Florida) who have large, educated metropolitan areas as well as very poor and uneducated areas, the majority of the educated states are with Obama in one of the latest polls and nearly all the uneducated states side with Romney and the republicans (Wisconsin being an anomaly. Who knows what's going on there).
Why? Well, I would guess that the uneducated are more likely to vote and react on fear more than someone more educated but that's not a guarantee. My brother is highly educated yet will always vote republican.
I guess it's less about the individual uneducated person than it is about the masses, because the masses have the ability to change our course.
They already did by voting George W. Bush in for two terms and we're still trying to recover from that.
The biggest problem with the democrats is they assume the majority of the public thinks like they do. They assume people assess their option logically, are not swayed easily by irrational thought or baseless arguments, and are smarter than propaganda because they appear not to fall for advertising as easily as those 40 years ago did.
What they don't know is that their success or failure is tied to their ability to show strength and turn the fear around to something tangible on our side (fear of poverty as a result of high medical bills or fear of our social security being taken away). If they appear milktoast, they always lose.
Bill Clinton understood this. Why can't the rest of our side.
The Bain Capital argument is one Obama should win hands down but some on our side (like that idiot Corey Booker from New Jersey) can't help themselves by sucking the teet of big business and helping to sabotage our strong position.
Doubt on our side does not work well for the uneducated and fearful. Give them the feeling that you are not 150% behind your cause, no matter how insane it is, and they will leave you in droves.
Democrats have to man-up (or woman-up). This is truly a fight for the next decade of this country. We've already lost over one decade to a bad voting decision supported by the fearful and the uneducated. Are you an richer or better off than 10 years ago? Unless you're the top 1% you sure as hell are not.
Digging in on what we believe - and being willing to get loud and stand our ground - is a better way to change the minds of those who would put logic aside and champion ignorance (which seems to be the rallying cry of the far right). But that's our politicians job, and with people like Harry Reid (weak), Joe Manchin (fearful), Joe Lieberman (deceptive) and Corey Booker (just plain stupid) in the mix, it gets tougher than it needs to.
(and, yes - sometimes people like this diarist communicate less effectively than they intend to and, as a result, make statements that don't come close to his intention. For that I'm regretful. Our politicians, however, have hired writers to clarify their thoughts. Sill, they are taken out of context)