Americans: where you live, when you think Democrat or republican, what is the stereotype?

Everywhere I have lived, the Republicans have been educated, medium to high income ($40k-$125k), Christian. They are basically honest, hard working people. They really want to just mind their own business. They are usually gun owners and are mentally and emotionally stable. Age is usually 35 and up.
Democrats are usually in two different groups. There are the lower income folks that are not as educated and there are the upper income folks that are highly paid and educated (read as corporate execs). they have a broader range of income ($0 – $35k, $200k and up). They have a harder time dealing with subjects they don’t like and would prefer to silence those subjects. Example: one day at work, on our lunch break, one of the other guys (republican) asked me if I had ever owned a gun. Immediately, before I could fully answer, another worker (Democrat) got up and stormed off. Next thing I know the first co-worker and I are getting called into the supervisor’s office. Apparently that simple question made the second co-worker so uncomfortable they felt threatened and complained. They tend to not be religious nor gun owners. At work, they tend to question why something has to be done more than Republicans.

Generally, it is tough to describe a stereotype where I live.

Most people are what you would call centrists. Employment rate is high, jobs are available, ethnic segregation is minimal, civic leadership is overall pretty competent.

My state tends to send a senator from each party, and they are often sort of technocratic (exception: Our current Dem senator is very liberal, but he is fairly good at maintaining his focus on State issues. I didn’t vote for him, but I have met him and he is a good guy.)

We have one county that you could call a stereotypical labor/democrat enclave, and it’s big enough to be influential in the state. The only stereotypical ultra right counties are minimally populated. Everywhere else is pretty much middle of the road.

In my immediate neighborhood,things are changing. My neighborhood used to be a nest of gang violence, drugs and hookers. It has been cleaning up in the last several years. The holdouts are so fucked up or stupid that they don’t even know what a political party is. They would think stereotype is a new brand of earbuds. The incoming population are primarily Gen X, and a few millennials. They are what I would call “progressive Republicans”.

Which means they talk progressive at the cookout, but the data clearly shows that they vote R at election time.

I live in a swing state and in an area that swings back and forth a lot. I mean, you can drive through neighborhoods and every other house has yard signs for repub/dem/repub/dem/etc. It’s hard to really stereotype because we have such a mix of people. I would say if I had to make a sweeping generalization, most of the time conservatives around me are white, lower income and not educated. Liberal/progressive people I know tend to be educated, but income varies.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, Democrats seem to be mostly forward thinking, scientific, logical thinkers.
Republicans seem to be stuck-in-a-rut, what-was-good-before-should-still be-good, to rich to really care about anything or anyone else, religious, self righteous thinkers.

I live in an urban center in the deep south so it’s conflicting. In the area there are three types of democrats, 1. Low income and uneducated, they are typically inner city where there are high crime rates and clusters of housing projects 2. Young, educated and either unemployed or underemployed. These are also in the inner city but on the hip and trendy border. They are either in college or have just graduated with a degree that will not find them work. They’re seemingly everywhere 3. Older, highly educated, employed in management, universities or law. The first two groups are mostly incapable of generally caring for themselves and rely heavily on others. The last group is wealthy and live in gated communities. You would not know their politics unless you ask.
There are also a few groups of republicans 1. Rural, uneducated and poor. They’re on public assistance, crime rates are high but under-reported. 2. Suburban middle class. These are educated college grads and people trained in skilled crafts, you also find small buisiness owners. They can afford the median family home, most are Christian. You don’t find many democrats in this group here. If you do they are usually connected to a university or the arts. 3. The wealthy buisiness leaders, doctors, lawyers and “old money” living in the same gated community as the rich democrats. It’s mostly the wealthy and middle class who show up to the polls to vote. Dems are outnumbered about 2:1 here. Attitudes of Democrats are also different than on the coasts. I really don’t care for the dems here, they’re not generally nice, genuine or objective people. They’re consumed with ideology and a drag to be around. I find this different outside the heartland.

Bay Area/Northern California (where I’ve spent most of my life):

Democrat: young urban professional, techie, environmental activists, white educated suburbanites, Hispanics and “people of color” living in low-income neighborhoods, etc.

Republican: wealthy fiscal conservatives, white suburbanites with their pick-up trucks and American flags in their front yards, people living in rural areas with their “state of Jefferson” signs, etc.

In some places, Democrats are up to 70% of the population, so I’ve had much more exposure to a wider variety of them. Most of the Republicans I knew right where I lived were wealthy fiscal conservatives who liked to hold onto their money and weren’t so gung ho about “tax and spend” Democrats. On social issues, they weren’t necessarily all that right-wing, though some were.

The white suburban Republicans were much less common right where I was in Silicon Valley, but they could be found in other parts of the Bay Area, like Concord, or in the cities of the Valley. Other than that, I’d see much more evidence of Republicans in rural parts of California, like the Foothills area; many of them tend to be lower income and less educated. Most are white, but Hispanics (Catholic, more conservative on social issues) occur as well.

Sacramento, for example, reminds me of Reno, where I live now. It’s a “swing city”. Republicans and Democrats are practically 50/50, found everywhere in the city. This is the kind of place I’d prefer to live in, being a moderate myself.

It’s practically impossible to try to describe stereotypes without the influx of one’s own POV.

My area is a little different, we have a very diverse belief system and everyone feels very strongly about THEIR own beliefs historically.

We are primarily Republican, but we have tons of schools that are pockets of Democrats, along with some of the old school Democrats, such as my cousins and other relatives.
The Republicans are like @seawulf575 said, mostly upper income, all ages, love guns and family and God/ church/military. These are law abiding citizens and gun owners, a lot of military and LEO’s, so I guess you could say violent.

The Democrats here are in two groups- old school and new school.

The old school Dems are some of the most racist people I’ve ever met in my life. Below average income to middle class, rural- farmers, not very educated, older, gun owners and violent.

The new Democrats are middle to upper class, educated, not religious and are fervently Democrat, like will go after you if you don’t agree with them Democrat.

I’m a Republican who lives behind the blue curtain of Washington State. Nearly all my friends are liberal. I just keep my mouth shut when they start talking politics. When ever they ask me how I stand (which is nearly never) I just tell one of my Democrat vs Republican jokes. I just have a few of them. Here’s a good one:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him:

“Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be a Reagan Republican.

“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”

The man smiled and responded, “You must be an Obama Democrat.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”

“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are—or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault.”

Nice joke and it works regardless of who is in the balloon or on the ground.

It seems in San Francisco 8% of the registered voters admit to being Republican. Consequently, I cannot remember far enough back to state how many decades it has been since I noticed a single Republican appearing on any ballot for municipal office. It looks like the statewide Republican party is also rather moribund these days. I have no reference points with which to stereotype a San Francisco Republican since the town and county are combined. Thus the expected corruption familiar to democratic machine politics abides with some peculiar twists. First of all, shenanigans here are more shrewdly camouflaged due to the overabundance of vigilant watchdogs competing to “nail the bastards.” Local politics reflect the dystopian fantasy/nightmare aspect of this town itself. Picture a city with an area of only 49 square miles, a poulation of less than 900,000 with a budget this year of—wait for it— 11 BILLION dollars! Friends, I looked at the math, and that comes out to an impossible $12,222,222 apiece for the citizens of this town. Now anyplace awash in that kind of money neath the sway of the Democratic party requires next to no imagination to envision the fruitful possibilities for “irregularities” erupting in a place all but literally rolling in money. The dystopian reality around living here nearly defies description. How do you reconcile a ballooning homeless population increasingly composed of people who simply can’t afford to live here in a town that could give each and every homeless man, woman and child a million dollars apiece without a hiccup and barely a noticeable dent in that $11billion. With single bedroom shacks and even vacant lots going for a mil apiece, visualize the yearly property taxes on your million dollar mortgage. The distortions here which pass for reality should be experienced by others, and the city should actually finance “Kafka tours” for all of you, because nothing since the 06 quake can stand up to the current “excitement” or the truly spectacular catastrophe when the whole thing explodes.

Well I think of Republicans as unwilling to share and judgemental, but Christian. How they reconcile it is beyond me.
Around here if some one is belligerent and mindlessly violent (we have a lot of them too) you can bet they’re a Republican.

Dems seem to be more willing to reach out and help people, even people they don’t know.
They are more philosophical and think about things more deeply. I think they’re more likely to be better educated.

Thanks so much for all the answers.

I asked this, because I was telling a friend, let’s call her Sandy, that another friend of mine who is libertarian/republican and a very religious Christian, is completely freaked out about the Democrats, socialism, and she said to me, “we had a revolution to create this country, and we will do it again to take it back.” That to me is that she is going to get together with her militia (I’m not saying she is in one yet) get the guns, and shoot go kill if she has to.

Sandy says to me, “but, don’t you agree that it is the Democrats who are more likely to be violent?” Of course, my knee jerk response in my head is—what? No! Are you f**king crazy? Then she wrote, “look at Antifa.” I think in silence for a second, and then respond, “I think Antifa is awful.” I babbled some stuff about violence on both extremes, and then I said, “considering the liberal platform is anti-gun, I would say Democrats are much less likely to be armed, I don’t think Democrats are likely to be organizing militias to take over the government or the states by force so fast.”

I’m sure the shooting in DC probably comes to her mind. Riots at universities. I don’t know what else.

Then I started thinking, when I lived in Memphis, the image of Democrats in that city is black, inner city, lots of gun violence, and black politicians who were crooks (literally some went to jail). A few white people who are either from out of state, or into the arts. I’m sure there are a few others sprinkled in. The out of state part also went with their idea of Yankee liberals.

I never would have thought there was a stereotype that Democrats are African American or violent or any specific races religion or anything until I lived in Memphis.

I also never knew there were people who were socially conservative and fiscally liberal until I lived in the south, but that was the African American community there too. Not all of them, but in large numbers. In other parts of the country that was not my experience. I know in Memphis there was an assumption that I was republican, because I am white and middle class.

Ok so, in Southeast, FL, where I lived for many years, the idea that a large percentage of Democrats own guns, and are violent sounds insane. Same with where I grew up in the suburbs of NYC and DC. However, in Memphis, probably more gun crime is caused by black people, and since they are black, they are lumped in with the Democrats.

Other quirks in Memphis are a high percentage of the Jews are orthodox, so they usually vote republican. Most parts of the country Jews are quite liberal.

@JLeslie I think your friend was serious, I’ve heard similar sentiments locally.

I believe I’ve stated here once that electing Trump was an act of Revolution due to the political divide and Dem actions.

In all reality, a nation full of armed citizens is a powder keg.

@KNOWITALL The friend talking about revolution was serious? Or, the friend saying she sees Democrats as more violent? I think they were both serious, but I’m just wondering what you meant when you said it.

@JLeslie I made the observation some time back that if there was to be another Civil War, it would be a political one between the blue and the red. The more time passes, the more this seems to be playing out, IMO.

@JLeslie The revolution. Politics are really too intense for some to not act. Dems feel the same about that aspect.

@KNOWITALL This revolution, what are the details? Topple the government? Kill all the Democrats? Secede from the union? I mean, what are they planning on doing?

“Well I think of Republicans as unwilling to share and judgemental, but Christian”

That’s a false perception, It’s well established that republicans donate more to charity than democrats do. The mentality is different so here is the best way I know how to explain it:
Democrats tend to be adverse to personal risk but are fine with society taking risks on their behalf. It’s exactly the opposite with republicans. They may give you the shirt off their back but will push back against Gov’t telling them to do so. I also think many people living in predominantly left wing areas who only hear right wing propaganda on the web or know a few ideological outliers don’t actually “know” republicans. They confuse what they are really like with what the corporate right-wing propaganda machine says. Fact is, they’re not inherently selfish. Truth be told outside of the groups that are deeply religious they’re not all that judgemental either. I see the left as being judgemental in their own way too with the way they bully people who even slightly go against their ideology. That’s the meat of the issue really, people in general are becoming more ideological. This is a dangerous thing, a very dangerous thing. People see the other side as an enemy and not a person with a different point of view. for the most part the higher someone is on the ideology scale the more I think they are less capable of objective thinking and probably have a poor grasp of reality.

^^If I can butt in, I agree with the majority of what you said, but about the donations, it’s really not as clear as the republicans want people to think. The statistics are twisted a little in the interpretation. Here’s an article you might be interested in: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2018/11/05/republicans-give-more-to-charity-than-democrats-but-theres-a-bigger-story-here/

I have seen that same article cross posted all over the place, pretty much word for word, the NY Times even posted it. It does not debunk the fact IMO although it tries to. Sure they give to “religious institutions” and a good bit it to church but are they including things like rescue missions or charities like habitat for humanity? Not enough information to support such an opinion piece. Same old trick though name drop a “study” to justify said opinion. Equating “higher taxes” in blue states to “charitable giving” is also disingenuous.

^^I agree. I think both sides are twisting stats, and we don’t really know. Gates and Buffett give huge sums, they are Democrats. If we look at it in whole dollars, if we look in terms of electoral map, red states and blue states, if we include churches, if we don’t. Do we say giving to medical research is different than giving to the needy? In my opinion, we don’t really know who gives more, and I don’t know if it matters. I don’t think giving to charities is necessarily a good representation of caring about all people and all of society. Charity puts the money where the person wants it to go, and is something more visible than how a person votes. A lot of people give to United Way because of pressure at work to comply.

In fact, corporate contribution can be a big part, and so counties that have big businesses might change the stats. If I had known that I was going to have the tax problem I’m having, I would have given $4k to charity this year, to avoid the $9k tax bill, but my tax preparer screwed up, and instead I’m giving $4k to my former employees. One, worked so hard for us, and I’m fine with it. One, gave me quite a bit of headache. I’d rather have funded St. Jude’s, women’s heart research, and give some to the local high school here. It’s actually one of the reasons I go back and forth about a simpler tax code. The complex one that includes write-offs for donations, gives incentive to donate to charities. If we all just paid 15%, maybe there would be less donation, even if we have more money in our pockets.

Of course, many charities do incredible work, so I don’t want to take away from that.

Like I said, I agree with most of what you said, especially the part about people really don’t know the people they are hating. Their assumptions are often wrong. I just don’t buy into charitable donations as barometer.

I don’t think I was using it as a barometer, just as an example of why the “republicans are selfish” line is a myth.

The OP asked for stereotypes.

^^ I am the OP.

Edit: Oh, I see, you are saying it’s not necessarily your opinion, just the stereotypes in your area.

I thought you were complaining about off topic.

My mistake.

@JLeslie They want some states to go red or blue and have their own budgets and laws.

@KNOWITALL And, to make that happen they are assuming they will have to do it by force I guess. That it’s not going to be a simple vote. Is that right? They expect to still be a part of the US if they go very far right wing? Let’s say at the state level they make abortion illegal, refuse to pay full federal taxes, won’t cooperate with education federal standards, won’t prescribe birth control, wont acknowledge gay marriage as legal, etc.

@JLeslie Correct. Sanctuary cities are currently the ‘excuse’, as you probably know. Some people, not all Reps, are very resentful of the situation.

We see this with medical and recreational marijuana, for example.