Light & Verity

Donkeys, elephants, and bulldogs

Our reader survey shows Yale alumni lean Democratic more than they did eight years ago.

Chart: Mark Zurolo ’01MFA. Source: Research USA Survey.

Chart: Mark Zurolo ’01MFA. Source: Research USA Survey.

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There was a time in the twentieth century when the term “Yale Republican” was almost redundant. But in recent years, Old Blues have gotten, well, bluer. In the Yale Alumni Magazine’s most recent survey of randomly selected alumni, in the summer of 2014, about 63 percent of respondents identified themselves as Democrats, up from 53 percent in 2006. A Gallup poll from the same period in 2014 indicates that 31 percent of Americans considered themselves Democrats, 40 percent independents, and 26 percent Republicans.

1 comment

  • Steven S. Hall
    Steven S. Hall, 3:19am March 29 2015 | Ico flag Flag as inappropriate

    Part of the reason is that one of the escape routes to the draft during the Vietnam War was academia (K-PhD). So the teaching profession was heavily biased as a life-style choice by escapees and their political views. This ended up affecting choice of texts, emphasis on viewpoints and overall acceptability of overview. Coincidentally, this is why the recent lack of emphasis on STEM subjects going into higher education. When Sputnik went up (1957) there was an overnight change in the STEM academia approach and content at the higher-level institutions. I know because I was a part of that, as a student. But by 1965-6 the stage was set to swing in the opposite direction and it remains there to this day. Simply put, the STEM students were more likely to participate than to escape and tended to go into non-academic pursuits.

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