I’m no longer a Republican, but still identify as conservative. While there is no doubt that Republicans are generally less educated than Democrats, there seems to be an overly-simplistic assumption on the part of many liberals that Republicans are, by and large, a bunch of dumb hicks. More generally, there is a consensus that, by virtue of having more education, liberals are automatically right about all policies where the two sides of the spectrum differ. I even saw an inspiring comment from a liberal here saying that liberals should not be so condescending to conservatives, yet still acknowledging that liberalism is always right.
The above article actually demonstrates that Republicans are more likely to know where North Korea is and favor less militaristic solutions to the complex situation there. Also associated with these items was higher education. My point to this is that there are intelligent, level-headed people on the Right. Yes, we’ve got a large basket of Trump-voting nutjobs who refuse to see anything he says or does as bad, but we also have people who are well educated and favor diplomacy. Don’t overgeneralize.
I tend to agree with you on the matter of now referring to myself as more of an conservative rather than a republican. But then again I still do have a fair share of ideals/beliefs that wouldn’t be considered conservative since I support the legalization of gay marriage, marijuana, among a few other things. However I am primarily a fiscal conservative.
This is the issue with the two party system. It forces every individual to choose a side when in reality, each of us has our own set of complex ideals, opinions, and morals. We should treat someone as an individual rather than a Democrat or a Republican.