Balkinization: Liberal vs. Conservative Cities

Liberal vs. Conservative Cities

Anonymous

Over at PrawfsBlawg, my co-blogger Kaimi Wenger links to a study's results of the Top 25 most liberal U.S. Cities and the Top 25 most conservative ones based on voting patterns.

On the liberal side, the list begins: (1) Detroit, MI; (2) Gary, IN; (3) Berkeley, CA; (4) Washington, DC; (5) Oakland, CA; (6) Inglewood, CA; (7) Newark, NJ; (8) Cambridge, MA; (9) San Francisco, CA; and (10) Flint, MI. Chicago, New York, Boston, New Haven, Seattle, and St. Louis all are in the Top 25.

On the conservative side, the list begins: (1) Provo, UT; (2) Lubbock, TX; (3) Abilene, TX; (4) Hialeah, FL; (5) Plano, TX; (6) Colorado Springs, CO; (7) Glibert, AZ; (8) Bakersfield, CA; (9) Lafayette, LA; (10) Orange, CA. Among the more well-known other cities in the list are Anchorage and Oklahoma City.

What strikes me is how significantly more culturally and economically prominent the list of liberal cities is compared to the conservative ones. The liberal cities are generally much larger, are more widely known as major tourist destinations, and are more major economic centers than the conservative ones. My goal is not to start a nasty liberal vs. conservative debate, and not to encourage "my-political-party's-cities-are-better-than-yours" braggadocio. But I wonder if there are any explanations for the stark differences in the nature of these two lists of cities.

Posted 4:36 PM by Anonymous [link]

Comments:

Good golly, is Thomas a wanker.

> cities I've cited aren't economic centers

Please see #21 and #17 on the most-liberal list. Now say that again with a straight face. Granted, the statement is facially true. It is, per ageold antilawyer prejudice, also utterly misleading.

Alas, you don't even restrain yourself from actual falsehood. Oakland, in which I spent ten mostly pleasant years, may be your #3 place "one"* would not want to visit. However, I can assure you that to human beings it's a lovely place to visit and to live, and has an undersung and quite amazingly consistent climate.

I usually restrain myself when confronted with flame bait. In this case I shall indulge.

You are a waste of perfectly good entropy.

Anyone with constructive observations is encouraged to ignore my rant and Thomas's post and move the discussion along.

* a construction which, in the US, is always a wanker-alert siren of high order

# posted by

wcw : 7:53 PM

# posted by

wcw : 7:54 PM

I haven't read the report but aren't they conflating votes Democrat with liberal? Chicago Democrats aren't quite the same thing as say, San Franciso Democrats.

# posted by

Unknown : 9:38 AM

But I don't think the difference between liberal and conservative voting is simply a matter of population make up, but one of population in general. Each of the cities on the Conservative side are generally smaller cities, where as those voting on the liberal side are generally very large cities, including the largest cities in America. While there are large minority populations in those cities, I think that the fact that the "conservative" cities are smaller means a more homogeneous population, leading to a political mindset shared by the majority of the population.

# posted by

Unknown : 11:45 AM

I think some of y'all are missing the obvious by trying to catch trends instead of looking at the cities themselves. And I think it's rather funny, since it appears that the liberal commenters know the liberal cities back and forth, but by assuming homogeneity regarding the conservative cities, betray that they don't know those cities so well. That's not an insult. I don't know the liberal cities well, either. But as to the conservative cities:

As to Provo, of course it's Mormonism in a small town (why it beats out Salt Lake City). Lubbock is home to Texas Tech University, as well as a decent share of the oil industry. Abilene is similar, and home to Abilene Christian University. Colorado Springs is home to the Air Force Academy and is home to dozens of influential evangelical organizations. Several of the others are suburban bedroom communities.

# posted by

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# posted by

Unknown : 3:55 PM