From Civic Cynicism in the United States: A Typology of Americans./ NORC at the University of Chicago:
“Most discussions of people’s civic attitudes are typically viewed through a prism of political ideology, age, or demographics, such as race and education. We wanted to understand these attitudes based on more nuanced factors – such as trust in democratic processes and political institutions, connections to community and faith in their fellow Americans, as well as people’s outlook on America’s future.
What we found is that the nation can be more clearly understood as five different groups, which do not divide neatly along party or ideological lines.” -
Here’s brief overview of the five types:
While the five groups “do not divide neatly along party or ideological lines”, Classical Liberals are 86% Democrat and Mostly MAGAs are 82% Republican (no surprise there). The others are more of a mixed bag:
But the fact the some types are strongly Democrat or Republican doesn’t mean that most Democrats or Republicans belong to those types. No type claims the majority of Democrats, Independents or Republicans. For example, less than half the Democrats in the NORC survey were Classical Liberals and less than half the Republicans were Mostly MAGAs.
My take-away: Even though 95% of Democrats voted for Harris in 2024, and 94% of Republicans voted for Trump, most Democrat voters are not Liberals and most Republicans are not MAGA types. That tells me that most Democrats do not belong to the left wing of their party and most Republicans are not infatuated with Trump. Which makes political trends rather hard to predict.
Reference:
Civic Cynicism in the United States: A Typology of Americans. Final Report, November 2024. Presented by: NORC at the University of Chicago. Presented to: Louisiana State University Manship School of Mass Communication. https://www.norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdf2024/lsu-report.pdf