Swedish 'descendants' vote Republican

this article is ridiculous i would like to know where your creditability comes from because as an american its the town votes that count its the electoral votes

It shows the great effect of social environment and media over people's views rather than their racial background. People of the third generation living somewhere else have often nothing in common(except name or appearance). This is a fact and not relevant to just Swedes.

Don't forget the effect that many of the people fleeing Sweden in the 1800s were highly religious (frikyrkliga) (reason being that they either had to stop being in - at the time, only the Swedish church was allowed - weird sects or leave the country).

Many of those families probably vote for the "most Christian". So the result is not surprising.

(. martin8558: did America run out of capital letters and inter-punctuations already? .)

President Obama is the most divisive president in modern times. He surrounds himself with anti-white racist, vulgar, and violently anti-American advisors and activist. This is not reported in other countries. The American economy has suffered greatly, the average American's standard of living has dropped. He government is borrowing 40% of it's budget. He is destroying the oil, coal industry and giving billions of dollars to his friends from the treasury.

The study is ridiculous! Minnesota and the NW US have the highest concentration of American Swedes, and those regions consistently vote for the Democratic presidential nominee. The last Republican to win Minnesota was Nixon, in 1972.

What a sad article. Just because the names of the towns are swedish it doesn`t mean that the people living there are Swedes or American Swedes.

Swedes are starting to get a small peep into the truth about multi-culturism and political correctness. As they continue to allow more and more Muslims and Sub-Saharan Africans into their country they see the violent crime rise and rise. They see entire sections of towns and cities become unrecognizable as Swedish. They will continue their foolishness and by the time the majority realize the truth it will be too late and the Sweden of the past 2,000 years will fade into history.

But Eric, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Svensksmith, that says a lot about the Nobel Peace Prize committee doesn't it.

Hi Eric1

I think most Anti-Americans agree with you! They are waiting for another Bush style man to start another war(s) and this time make the US completely bankrupt before anyone like Obama get a chance to recover their mess!!!

In the past four years, Obama has proven himself incompetent, a narcissist, unwilling to live up to his promises, and very, very bad with money . These character traits are highly offensive to more than just our Swedish sensibilities here in America.

Now if people some want to think that's a racial thing, or that such things are to be excused because of race, that's their problem . They can scream till they are blue in the face.

One of Mitt Romney's first tasks as President will we restoring some dignity and respect to the office of the Presidency . Fortunately, it will be one of his easier challenges as dignity comes naturally to the man.

Hello from Minnesota. I have to strongly disagree with your article. And actually President Obama has done a wonderful job bringing this country back from disaster. And hopefully we will have 4 more years of his policies to finish the job. Bush brought us to the brink with his trickle down economic failures of cutting taxes on the richest and starting never ending wars. Tax cuts during a time of war were unprecedented. We were very fortunate to have Obama win, and hopefully he will stay right there.

@ Kikiek,

Sorry to interrupt with the facts.

Associated Press | Nov 2, 2012 9:20 AM ET | Last Updated: Nov 2, 2012 9:51 AM ET

"Obama gets boost from jobs report, but faces vote with worst unemployment rate since Roosevelt

Today's increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill," Romney said. "When I'm president, I'm going to make real changes that lead to a real recovery, so that the next four years are better than the last."

Personally I know better I pay attention. And I recall what was said when Bush cut the taxes, and then foolishly started wars. You aren't going to pull the wool over my eyes. Move on.

anyway...what was the topic?

Sensational? Yes. True? Not likely.

Did CNN and United Minds "study" provide any evidence that towns in the US with Swedish names, most of which were founded (like the examples given) in the 1800s, are still occupied by Swedish descendants?

Did it explain what statistical basis it used to generalize from small towns (like Kalmar, MN - population 1,046; Lund, NV - population 538, and Gothenburg, NE - population 3,574) to Swedish descendants who live throughout the US? (See Wiki for each town's pop. data.)

Did it include Harvard's study on race and vote choices? It concluded race was not a statistically significant factor in the USA's 2008 Presidential election; the biggest influences were geography, partisan, and ideological variables. (See "Race, Region, and Vote Choice in the 2008 Election", "Harvard Law Review", Vol. 123, April 2010, No. 6, pp.1386-1435.)

One wonders who financed the "study" in your article and why it is being publicized now. In the absence of this data, it sounds like a desperate ploy to drum up votes for Mittens.

@ Kikiek,

You "know better because you pay attention", yet you can't refute the A.P. facts.

"You aren't going to pull the wool over my eyes."

Who did it up until now?

If anything, Sweden can learn from us what happens when bigotry, fear, and religious issues are used to convince people to vote against their own best interest.

good to know they (the descendants ) are as clueless and as ignorant as a huge percentage of americans.

Isn't affirmative action great!

Hi Kikiek :)

Thank you for your insight. There are actually very good documentaries in Swedish television and media about this issue and the majority of Swedes are very well aware of it. They are however all in Swedish. Here is an example of what you referred to from BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8474611.stm

On Tuesday evening (US) Sweden gets to know who their daddy will be for the next 4 years.

....what a ridiculous story. Those are tiny towns and who knows how many people are actually of Swedish descent. Almost no one is pure Swedish anymore in the U.S. anyway. The Local needs to get out of 1890. What about the large towns that have over 1000 times the number of "Swedes" as these small town combined. Minneapolis= Democrat, Chicago= Democrat. Oh wait....those aren't Swedish names so they don't count.

How about New York??. Do we get to decide anything about Englishman politics based on New York elections since it is named after an English town?.

Exactly as I will do; I will vote Republican.

I have lived in Sweden and traveled all over the U.S.; the person that wrote this article does not have realistic expectations of the U.S. and the people there.

First, some places have names that have nothing to do with anything that makes sense. an example is the town of Norway in Maine. There never were any Norwegian people there to settle the town and none when the name was chosen. The people just decided that Norway would be a good name for the town. The places may be like that.

Second, individual cities or towns that may have been settled and named by Swedes probably don't have many Swedes living there anymore. The Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago was named by the Swedes living there over a century ago, but there are very few Swedes left there; it is ethnically diverse and some of the old Swedish businesses have gone or are owned by non-Swedes. The Bronx in NYC was named for a Swedish colonist - not many Swedes there anymore.

Third, if you want to get an idea of how Swedish-Americans will vote then you must look at regions where they are still the dominant ethnic group. Places like Minnesota, parts of Nebraska, Washington State, the Delaware Valley, as well as some towns in Massachusetts and Connecticut to name a few.

Then you may also want to consider when the families arrived in the U.S. - there were early Coonists in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the farmers that came in the 1800's that setttled in rural places, and the people that became servants or blue collar workers in Connecticut, Massacusetts and New York. This will make a difference as well.

While it is safe to say that a majority of Swedish Americans have a social conscience and probably vote centrists or liberals - there are some that will be staunch conservatives. However, is this also not true in Sweden? Not everyone votes the same way. People have brains and opinions. It is in regard to the fact that we all have opinions that my wife insists all Swedes are alike - she says we are all stubborn. I have tried to explain to her that just because my opinion is the right one it does not make me stubborn, but she just smiles.

Kiekek,

Excellent job of regurgitating inane Democratic party talking points.

Obama has added more to the national debt in 4 years than Bush did in 8.

Another 4 years will finish the job all right, the job of bankrupting the country.

I don't know if Romney and Ryan can solve the severe economic problems the US faces, but I do know from the last 4 years Obama and Biden won't even try.

The town of Lund in Nevada is not named after the Swedish town of Lund. It got it's name from a Danish born big wig Mormon.

The Local is correct to say that people who live in American towns with Swedish names are all Swedish descendents. This is normal in the US.

I present as evidence the Alabama town of Bobo, where all the residents are in fact the descendents of …. clowns. Or Left hand Bay in Alaska, where everybody is …. yes, you guessed it. As for Bald Knob in Arkansas, well enough said the better. My favourite town in America is in fact Jugville in Michigan, for obvious reasons.

Robin Hood, born and bred in Twenty Four Inch Dangler, Omaha.

"Investigation" by CNN. Really? I'm sorry, at one time CNN was a reputable news source. For a long time now, CNN has made it's bread and butter with the continual agitation of racial divide, ethnic divide, religious divide, etc.

Go to CNN's website for any length of time and you will see a significant portion of their content strives to segment some minority group and find ways to tell a story about how difficult it is to walk in their shoes because they aren't white. The television content is the same. How many iterations of specials have they created and then run incessantly. Black in America, Latino in America, Muslim in America. I'm sure there are more.

The US channel and website are incredibly dumbed down and focus on the racial, ethnic, religious side of most issues. I think CNN content is produced with goal of provoking an intense response from the audience based on ethnic and social division. CNN's driving goal seems to be: create an inflammatory response on any issue by convincing some group of nonwhite people that they are being abused or neglected and then open the question of whether they are morally entitled to so form of restitution from greater society.

No surprise here, Swedes are kind of backward allways, a day late and a dollar short, I voted for Obama. God save the USA from the Repubicans.

"The Local - Sweden's Propaganda in English"

Romney is such a liar. Anyone who is not fooled by the right winged religious freaks and see through his lies. I'm an American in Sweden and will never ever vote for someone like Romney. Look at the map and see where the red states are. Those who prefer Romney are the ones who most likely have never been outside of their own state. That explains their narrow-minded view of the world.

As you can see there is little civility for difference of opinions in US politics. Name calling and personal attacks are standard. The internet makes it very easy. I don't agree with trickle down economics. I don't believe the ends justify the means, I don't believe that money is the only thing in this world that matters. I hope Sweden continues to value all, and fight the attempts to divide them. The easy path is looking for ways we are all different. The real work is discovering how we are all the same.

i was an american i will vote for romney. My reasons being that

He has a proven record of as a governor of machesset

education was the best in the country as governor

women were well represented in his cabinet

he also has bi partisan success.

It has nothing to do with race or religion. though I am concerned about mormon.

obama on the other hand has not done anything to improve the lot of americans and world. america have lost her respect on the world stage. he talks to much

I mostly irritated by what CNN and other major network are doing to promote him. they are not allowing us to know the real romney.

i am 75% certain that obama will win this unfair election, but I am warn americans that the real obama will emerge in the second term.

This is the most ridiculous article. I am of 100% Swedish decent and I voted proudly for President Obama. CNN is no longer reputable, in my opinion. They have become Fox-lite. We live in a mobile society, you are judging how citizenry will vote because of the town's name? I live in Iowa. There are many Swedish descendants here and the President began his campaign and ended here. You don't know what you are talking about.

Maybe they are writing about all of the retired white men of Swedish descent who have managed to avoid the effects of the recession. They certainly were not writing about me (female, Swedish American-and NOT a white old man of Swedish descent).

Born, grown and schooled in Sweden, left 1960, American since 1977, lived in Minnesota all along and as many have said above -- there is no parallel in Swedish city names and Swedish descendants. For example; the small city of Stockholm, WI, may have a couple of Scandinavian gift stores, but very few if any 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation Swedes. It is now an artist colony and I have no doubt that the majority of the inhabitant are liberals!

We suffered 4 years of Obama and I vowed that if he one again I would leave the country before it collapsed. I CERTAINLY would never move back to the brainwashed Sweden, but have a much nicer -- and warmer -- place in mind.

Minnesota is hopelessly populated by liberal, "progressive" government loving people, with the highest taxes in the US -- with many 2nd, 3rd and more generations of Swedes and in most peoples opinion the state is liberal much because of the Scandinavian heritage.

Over the next 10 - 20 years the US, as well as the European Union will be hopelessly lost to catastrophic economies and total loss freedom. Thank God that I will not have to live and experience it!