THE MARSTON CHRONICLES

**Exploding Political Myths**
Party	State	65 or Older	White	Black	Latino	HS Grad	Coll 4Yr	Median HH Income	Poverty Level
D	District of Columbia	14.7%	36.1%	54.4%	8.5%	85.3%	47.2%	56,428	17.8%
D	Massachusetts	17.1%	82.7%	6.1%	8.3%	88.4%	37.7%	81,056	10.0%
D	Rhode Island	17.9%	82.8%	5.4%	8.6%	83.0%	29.8%	55,327	11.6%
D	Hawaii	18.5%	26.8%	2.3%	8.6%	89.5%	29.2%	66,034	8.8%
D	New York	17.2%	66.7%	15.6%	16.4%	84.1%	31.6%	55,401	13.8%
D	Vermont	17.3%	96.1%	0.8%	1.3%	90.4%	33.1%	51,704	10.5%
D	Maryland	15.6%	61.2%	28.7%	6.4%	87.5%	35.1%	70,005	8.0%
D	Connecticut	17.7%	79.9%	9.4%	11.6%	88.2%	34.8%	68,411	8.5%
D	Illinois	16.1%	71.4%	14.6%	14.9%	85.6%	29.5%	55,935	12.1%
D	California	14.8%	60.9%	6.2%	36.1%	80.3%	29.4%	61,154	12.9%
D	Delaware	17.9%	72.6%	20.4%	6.5%	86.7%	26.8%	57,270	10.4%
D	Maine	18.9%	95.3%	1.1%	1.2%	89.3%	25.9%	46,807	12.6%
D	New Jersey	17.2%	70.1%	13.6%	15.9%	86.9%	34.0%	69,674	8.7%
D	Washington	15.4%	80.5%	3.4%	9.5%	89.3%	30.5%	57,234	11.6%
D	Michigan	16.9%	79.6%	14.0%	4.0%	87.6%	24.7%	49,694	14.0%
D	Oregon	17.0%	86.2%	1.7%	10.6%	88.1%	28.0%	49,863	13.4%
D	Pennsylvania	19.7%	83.8%	10.3%	4.6%	86.8%	25.9%	50,272	11.9%
D	Minnesota	16.2%	88.0%	4.4%	4.0%	91.1%	31.1%	57,795	9.7%
I	New Mexico	17.2%	70.1%	2.2%	44.5%	82.0%	24.9%	43,202	17.9%
I	Wisconsin	17.2%	87.6%	5.9%	4.9%	89.0%	25.5%	52,249	10.7%
I	New Hampshire	16.3%	94.9%	1.0%	2.5%	90.5%	32.6%	63,989	7.6%
I	Iowa	19.3%	92.7%	2.4%	4.0%	89.6%	24.2%	48,585	11.2%
I	Nevada	15.1%	74.9%	7.4%	24.9%	83.7%	21.4%	56,348	10.8%
	United States	16.7%	74.3%	12.3%	15.1%	84.5%	27.4%	52,175	13.2%
I	Ohio	17.8%	84.0%	11.7%	2.5%	87.0%	23.8%	48,032	13.2%
I	Colorado	13.5%	83.7%	3.8%	19.9%	88.6%	35.0%	56,574	11.9%
I	Florida	21.9%	76.7%	15.3%	20.5%	84.9%	25.7%	48,637	12.6%
I	Virginia	15.5%	70.7%	19.5%	6.6%	85.7%	33.2%	61,044	9.9%
I	Missouri	17.8%	83.9%	11.2%	3.1%	85.6%	24.5%	46,408	13.3%
I	North Carolina	16.2%	70.3%	21.2%	7.0%	82.9%	25.6%	46,107	14.6%
R	Arizona	17.7%	77.7%	3.5%	29.6%	83.7%	25.3%	51,124	14.3%
R	West Virginia	19.7%	94.4%	3.4%	1.1%	81.5%	17.0%	37,870	17.2%
R	Tennessee	17.0%	79.3%	16.5%	3.5%	81.8%	22.2%	43,662	15.7%
R	Georgia	13.5%	62.2%	29.7%	7.7%	82.9%	27.0%	50,549	14.5%
R	Arkansas	18.6%	78.6%	15.5%	5.3%	81.2%	15.8%	39,127	17.6%
R	Indiana	16.8%	85.7%	8.6%	5.0%	85.7%	22.3%	48,675	12.7%
R	Louisiana	16.3%	64.3%	31.5%	3.2%	80.2%	20.4%	42,634	18.5%
R	South Carolina	17.2%	67.5%	28.3%	3.8%	82.1%	23.2%	44,326	15.5%
R	Montana	18.1%	89.6%	0.6%	2.8%	90.5%	27.1%	44,042	14.3%
R	Mississippi	16.9%	60.0%	37.1%	1.9%	78.8%	19.0%	37,404	21.0%
R	Kentucky	17.0%	89.2%	7.5%	2.2%	80.4%	20.0%	41,763	17.2%
R	South Dakota	19.0%	87.1%	1.0%	2.2%	88.9%	24.8%	45,542	13.2%
R	Texas	13.9%	71.4%	11.5%	35.9%	79.2%	25.1%	49,078	16.3%
R	Alabama	17.9%	70.4%	26.2%	2.7%	80.9%	21.5%	42,131	16.3%
R	Kansas	17.3%	85.7%	5.6%	8.8%	89.0%	29.0%	49,189	11.7%
R	North Dakota	18.7%	90.7%	0.9%	1.8%	89.0%	26.1%	45,390	12.1%
R	Nebraska	17.8%	88.8%	4.0%	7.6%	89.8%	27.3%	49,231	11.1%
R	Alaska	9.3%	68.6%	3.3%	5.8%	90.6%	26.5%	66,293	9.5%
R	Oklahoma	17.8%	75.4%	7.3%	7.4%	84.9%	22.4%	42,541	16.2%
R	Idaho	16.1%	92.4%	0.6%	9.9%	87.9%	24.0%	47,331	12.4%
R	Wyoming	16.0%	91.6%	0.9%	7.5%	90.9%	23.3%	53,096	8.9%
R	Utah	12.8%	90.0%	1.0%	11.5%	90.3%	28.8%	56,484	10.0%

This table does indeed explode political myths because it contains the states ranked from the most Democratic to the most Republican based on the average margin from the last three Presidential elections. The blue figures are when the data is above the nationwide figures and the red when they are below that. The black figures are for the nationwide data shown in the middle of the table or when some other figure matches that. If the data shows a preponderance of one color at the top or bottom of the table then that particular data does show some correlation with which party those states favor.

Myth # 1: People 65 and older vote more Republican. The mix of ink shows very little correlation.

Myth # 2: White people tend to vote more Republican as opposed to minorities. Again the mix of ink colors shows very little correlation to support this myth.

Myth # 3: A state with a lot of black Americans will vote Democrat. It is true that black Americans do overwhelming favor Democrats but they do not drive a state to become Democrat probably because they do not turn out very well with 2008 being a major exception. It is true that the eight most Republican states have a low percentage of black Americans. Of course once the percentage of them goes above 50% like in DC then that is enough to make DC the most Democratic area in the country. On the other hand, states with an extremely low percentage of minorities like Vermont and Maine are solidly Democrat or Socialist.

Myth # 4: A high percentage of Latinos will drive a state Democrat. This is obviously not true since the most Latino state of New Mexico is a swing state and a solid Republican state like Texas has a 35.9% Latino population. However, the converse is true. Notice that with the exception of Texas and Arizona, all the solid Republican states have a low percentage of Latinos.

Myth # 5: Better educated people tend to vote Republican. This used to be true but now the exact opposite is true. Notice that the blue ink piles up at the top of the table that is Democratic and the red ink piles up at the bottom with the Republicans in the column with the percentage of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher. Depending on your political views, one can say that smarter people are Democrats and only stupid rednecks are Republican or that better educated people remain brainwashed by their left wing professors for the rest of their lives.

Myth # 6: The Republican Party represents the fat cat rich people. If this was ever true, it certainly is no longer the case. The column with the figures for the median household income shows another pile up of one color ink at the top and bottom of the table. In the fourteen most Democratic states they all have higher than the norm incomes with the exception of Vermont and Maine. In the Republican states, there is an ocean of red ink except strangely enough in three of the five most Republican states. Alaska has to pay higher than normal wages to get people to be willing to withstand the extreme cold. Utah is heavily Mormon (who tend to vote Republican) but they also tend to go to Brigham Young University in droves and that may explain the better income. What is going on in Wyoming is not clear but something surely is.

Myth # 7: Because Democrats spend a lot of their time trying to help the poor and downtrodden, these people return the favor by voting for them. This is false because there is a pile up of blue ink in the Republican end of the table indicating that there is a higher percentage of the people in those states who are above the nationwide poverty level. Likewise, there is a similar pile up of red ink in the Democrat end of the table indicating fewer people living in poverty,

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