So, the economist has an interesting tool that has gone viral called "build a voter" where you can input various demographics and get rated by your probability to vote for either candidate. I did it myself and this is how I ended up. Cant say I'm surprised at this point. I didnt vote Biden last time but I lean left obviously, and this election I also lean left. I'm technically a green -> Biden voter, but it didnt measure third parties, so...
messing with the demographics you can see how some simple changes can greatly influence how you view things. The two things that really seemed to seal me on the left seems to be my religious views and my educational level. I can't say I'm surprised. IN an alternate history where I remained a fundamentalist christian and never went to college, I would go from being 71% in favor of Biden to being 82% in favor of Trump. Leaving Christianity really does seem to have the biggest impact on my politics. Assuming I kept my education, being a fundie Christian guarantees me as being 65% Trump. Being a more moderate christian brings me to 62% Biden. Being an "agnostic" gets me up to 83% for Biden and being an "atheist" brings me up to 90%. Being an "other beliefs" guy at this point brings me back down to 71%, but yeah I still have the same mindset I did as an agnostic atheist so i still heavily lean that way. Worldview matters and religion informs worldview. Evangelical Christianity makes people far right nutcases. Moderate christianity makes people moderates in politics. And not being religious at all makes people insanely liberal.
Other things that drive people left or right in large part seem to be identity, which is why the dems lean so hard into that stuff these days. Being black is as big of a shift as being agnostic/atheist. Being something else other than white or black has a more mild effect. Being a woman seems to have a relatively small effect toward leaning Biden. Age doesn't matter a ton, nor does location, although being older obviously makes you more conservative while being younger makes you more liberal, but yeah age isnt the really huge factor. Location barely matters at all. Although what kind of area you live in (rural/urban/suburban) does have a decent effect. And yeah so does education.
Despite being a straight white male, living in a city, being highly educated, and having nonchristian beliefs really make me skew liberal. The opposite would make me conservative AF. I cant say im surprised. Living in an urban area makes me realize how screwed capitalism is. Being a nonchristian makes me reject the mainstream conservative belief system which is based in christianity. And being educated makes me reject such a belief system, and actually contributed to me leaving christianity in the first place.
Pretty interesting when you think about it, what locks you into certain belief systems and what doesn't.
Still, I really do wonder, if I were high school educated and I were still a christian, even if I didn't leave the GOP and its mind cult in 2012, would I remain a conservative today? I kind of have issues with the modern GOP that I could see say, 2000s conservative me having too. Like the whole january 6th thing and wanting to be a dictator thing. It's very well possible I could've found my way out of the GOP cult multiple ways at this point and I really struggle to imagine a scenario where I'd continue to be ride or die on this, at least in this lifetime.
Anyway, to go over the course of my life:
2004 me (younger than 18): 76% Trump (evangelical, 18-24, high school)
2006 me: 75% Trump (some college)
2008 me: 50% Trump (Protestant)
2010 me: 61% Biden (college graduate)
2012 me: 92% Biden (atheist, postgrad)
2014 me: 90% Biden (25-34)
2016 me: 90% Biden
2018 me: 90% Biden
2020 me: 70% Biden (other beliefs)
2022 me: 70% Biden
2024 me: 71% Biden (35-44)
And yeah, my political journey makes perfect sense all things considered. Even if it does dull my chances of being liberal simply because I found a spiritual belief system again. Then again "other beliefs" can mean literally anything with some people possibly shifting there from mainstream religions, whereas i shifted from atheism while keeping the same atheist belief system).
I guess demographics are destiny to some degree.
Anyway I just found this interesting.
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