As I mentioned last month, a Pew Survey found that Buddhists in the US are around 16% Republican (or\u00a0leaning<\/em>), 69% Democrat, and 16% \u00a0Independent or other. That is from a\u00a02014 Religious Landscape Study<\/a>.\u00a0So we sought to update that\u00a0here at American Buddhist Perspectives, creating a simple poll<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0drew in over 350 responses.<\/p>\n The data gathered<\/a>\u00a0(also\u00a0here<\/a> and here<\/a>) and discussions following went even further, leading to the plan of regular (monthly) polls. This gives us opportunities to measure -however imprecisely- shifts in voter attitudes as well as to offer new questions. One new question this month seeks to differentiate between \u201ccradle\u201d, \u201cconvert\u201d, and \u201csympathizer\u201d Buddhists. As Wakoh Shannon Hickey wrote in 2010 (.pdf<\/a>):<\/p>\n If we want to consider questions of religious identity, categories suggested by Thomas Tweed are useful. Cradle Buddhists<\/em> are people born into Buddhist families, regardless of their race or national origin, so this group includes both immigrants and the children of converts. Converts<\/em> include both immigrants and people born in the United States who were not raised Buddhist, but who later identify themselves with Buddhism and formally affiliate with it in some way. Some converts may also have multiple affiliations. Sympathizers<\/em> are people who identify primarily with other religions, or with no religion, but are influenced by Buddhist thought and may engage in Buddhist practices (Tweed, 2002).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We\u2019ll keep the open-ended ethnic\/racial identification question in there, but this additional question acknowledges the fact that some white Buddhists today are \u201ccradle\u201d Buddhists while some Asian Buddhists are \u201cconverts.\u201d I do not know of any focused study of Black, Latin@, or other ethnic\/racial group Buddhists in the U.S. In last month\u2019s\u00a0poll, 2 out of 269 respondents identified as Black, 5 as Latin@ or Hispanic, 2 as Native American, and 7 as Mixed\u00a0or\u00a0Other ethnicity\/race.<\/p>\n Interestingly, many respondents entered a nationality in the \u201cethnicity\/race\u201d spot, leaving it to me to assign a more general category. For instance, if a respondent put \u201cPolish\u201d I put them in the \u201cwhite\u201d category. As race and ethnicity are somewhat fluid categories<\/a>, both socially and personally, I am not sure of a better way to gather and report on this question. Comments or discussions on how to better clarify that are welcome.<\/p>\n On to the poll itself (please complete as fully as possible and spread the word):<\/p>\n