A big study of American religion was released this week by researchers at Baylor U. Mark Tooley wrote about it for the Weekly Standard. Much more, including streaming video, is available through the Baylor website.

Also earlier this week, USA Today ran two stories on the differences between married and unmarried voters as to party affiliation. No real surprises, I guess, but the magnitude of the gap between the parties was larger than I would have guessed.

Another very interesting paper along these lines, “Myths and Realities of American Political Georgraphy,” by Edward Glaeser & Bryce Adam Ward, appeared in the Spring issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives.  You can read it online, here.  Here’s the abstract:

The division of America into red states and blue states misleadingly suggests that states are split into two camps, but along most dimensions, like political orientation, states are on a continuum. By historical standards, the number of swing states is not particularly low, and America’s cultural divisions are not increasing. But despite the flaws of the red state/blue state framework, it does contain two profound truths. First, the heterogeneity of beliefs and attitudes across the United States is enormous and has always been so. Second, political divisions are becoming increasingly religious and cultural. The rise of religious politics is not without precedent, but rather returns us to the pre-New Deal norm. Religious political divisions are so common because religious groups provide politicians the opportunity to send targeted messages that excite their base.