This is in response to Seeker’s thread, "Why are liberals more intelligent than conservatives?"
It may be true that social liberals, who for example favor legalization of marijuana and prostitution, are on average smarter than social conservatives. However, most of the people on this site who Seeker would call "conservatives" are in fact social liberals. And they believe in economic liberalism, that is, in free markets, in less regulation, and that individuals should be free to enjoy the profits derived from voluntary transactions with others. Studies show these individuals are smarter than your average Democrat. And classical economic liberals are predominately Republicans, Libertarians and independents. See
https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2014-carl.pdf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...60289614001081
Many Democratic politicians favor policies that keep large numbers of people poor and dependent on government. As long as they can keep people down they get more votes.