From a reader:

As a practicing young engineer (30) who knows LOTS of other engineers from all around the country (my company’s full of them), I can tell you the following:
1. I got my BS in Engineering at a private religious school in Eastern Washington (red country) where the great majority of the engineering faculty and the engineering students were NOT liberal by today’s measures. Friends and acquaintances that attended public schools along the coasts tend to be substantially more liberal.
2. My company has roughly 200 engineers from all around the world, but mostly from the US. There are routine e-mail ‘wars’ between the left/right factions. especially leading up to the election. I can personally attest to the fact that being an engineer (scientifically/factually oriented) has NOTHING to do with one’s political outlook, believe me. Most of my company’s liberal engineers tend to be from the coasts, while most of the rest of us are either from fly-over country or, as in my case, attended school there.
3. In my previous job at Boeing (Seattle), the great bulk of the older engineers who made Boeing what it is, were predominantly highly patriotic, chain-smoking, bourbon-drinking, gun-toting, church-going, conservatives. Even the ones that would vote Democrat were more Zell Miller types than what passes for a Democrat these days. The trend toward more liberal engineers is definitely new and again (contrary to DeLong) has NOTHING to do with engineering being a seriously scientific and practical discipline.
Standing up for the conservative engineers,