Are Democrats Less Patriotic Than Republicans?
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September 9, 2008
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Guest Writer
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)What if our patriotism was measured by the type of car we drove? Would we be more patriotic if we drove American cars? What would that say about our political party affiliation? According to data from InsWeb.com's customers, it looks like people living in Republican "Red" states could be considered slightly more patriotic than those who live in Democratic "Blue" states, since American cars are more common ( 66% market share) in Red states vs. Blue states (56% market share).
(Toss-Up states are close to the national averages of 60% American cars vs. 40% foreign cars.) (See Vehicle Origin Chart)
Of all American cars in the database, 42% are in Democratic states, 38% in Republican states, and 20% in Toss-Up states (see Party composition graph). Of the foreign cars, 50% are in Democratic states, 30% in Republican states, and 20% in Toss-Up states.
If we look at individual states by ranking the percentage of American car market share, the states with the least amount of American cars (See Table 1) are mostly Democratic. The states with the least amount of foreign cars are mostly Republican.
Table 1
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However, if you rank by domestic auto dominance 1st (see Table 2), you will notice that only two out of the top 10 states are Democratic states (one of which is Michigan - a state that you would expect to be dominated by American cars because of the abundance of auto plants that exist there), while six are Republican states.
Table 2
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Does this mean that Democrats love our country any less than Republicans? Is it reasonable to conclude that somebody driving a Ford is more patriotic than somebody driving a Toyota?
All car and driver data for this article was taken from InsWeb's database of consumers who shopped for Insurance and submitted a lead between January 1st, 2008, and August 25th, 2008. All political data was taken from Pollster.com's main page on August 29th, 2008 (http://www.pollster.com/).
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From a separate study, we know that people who drive foreign cars are better-educated. If Democrats are more likely to drive foreign cars than republicans, and those that drive foreign cars are better educated, then, what are we suggesting?
Less patriotic or more intelligent? I wonder how many people buying their Chevy trucks do so under the guise of patriotism... Better yet, saving the economy by spending more on gas! Those American car buyers are true patriots.