The Impact of Educational Polarization on Demographic Shifts and Associated Political Behaviors in U.S. Politics

This analysis examines the role of educational polarization driving shifts in political behavior in recent U.S. elections, namely how people vote. In the aftermath of the 2016 election, which saw a strong politically conservative shift among white voters without a Bachelor’s Degree level of education. As voters with that aforementioned education level exhibited political behaviors which revealed a shift in a more politically liberal direction, particularly more educated white voters living in suburban areas with above average incomes, many researchers began to generalize that this shift was driven by so-called “white grievance politics”, in which white voters without a college degree were exercising a form of backlash against minorities and immigrants coming into the country. Yet in elections occurring over the following years, these assumptions were challenged by a broad conservative shift among nonwhite voters, including Hispanic, Asian, and Black voters, among both educated and non-educated demographic cohorts. In the quest to examine what role educational polarization has, this analysis seeks to examine why more educated nonwhite voters shifted politically in a different way compared to their white counterparts, and identified that a series of complex issues were responsible for this, such as more conservative attitudes on immigration, response to economic hardship, race conscious admission and hiring programs, and a belief that gender inequality in society has been inverted that increasingly disadvantages men.