What are the politics and religious views like in Greater Atlanta (Savannah: neighborhood, live)

[Newsboy]

Athens is the most liberal city in this state, and Savannah isn't too far behind -- facts that all the ITP homers completely ignore whenever the topic of Georgia politics comes up.

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

there are suburbs that fit both descriptions. typically the suburbs to the north, northeast, and northwest are dominated by fiscal conservatives and liberals, with a handful of social conservatives. pretty much every other suburb is more socially conservative, even the ones that vote democratic seem to have a strong church culture.

Exactly and those areas have the highest populations in the metro area.
I spent a lot of time in Douglasville and nearby when my grandma used to live over there. Of the people I encountered that I knew were conservative, it did seem to be more socially conservative. I've spent a lot of time in rural areas of GA where you can't drive 100 feet without seeing a "Jesus Saves" sign posted on a telephone pole. It's a different vibe and just hearing random conversations at stores and such I can tell a lot of the people living in the northern burbs are more fiscally conservative and care way more about economic issues than personal ones. Doesn't mean that everyone is socially liberal, I just think the scale tips one way more than the other.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Georgia is pretty much a tale of two states when it comes to politics and religion.

Inside much of the fast-growing Atlanta metropolitan area (inside and just beyond the Interstate 285 Perimeter highway that rings the inner-urban core of metro Atlanta and separates the city from the suburbs), the political climate leans moderate-to-progressive.

Outside of the I-285 Perimeter, the political climate goes from moderate/conservative in maturing suburban areas that are just outside of I-285 to deeply-conservative/ultraconservative in outer-suburban, exurban and rural areas that are farther out from I-285.

People are pretty tolerant of differing religious views inside of the I-285 Perimeter where beliefs run the gamut from atheism and secularism to progressive and moderate Christian religious worship.

There is also much tolerance of differing religious beliefs in the increasingly diverse inner suburbs just outside of the I-285 Perimeter that range from secularism to moderate Christian religious worship to deeply-conservative orthodox and fundamentalist Christian religious worship to thriving Jewish communities and fast-growing Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Sikh communities.

The farther away from the I-285 Perimeter one gets into the outer suburbs and exurbs of the Atlanta metro region and deeper into outer-exurban and rural Georgia, generally the less tolerant the local political and social culture often gets of political/social views and religious beliefs that don't conform to decisively right-leaning (hard-right) conservative political and Christian religious orthodoxy.

For the time being, Georgia remains a deeply-conservative Red state.

But with the accelerating demographic changes in the state that are being driven by the continued explosive population growth of the Atlanta metro region (population growth that seemingly is increasingly dominated by the relocation into the state of minorities and moderate and progressive whites), Georgia appears to be moving towards becoming a Virginia-style Purple state within the next 15 years or so and potentially even a Maryland-style Blue state within the next 20 years or so.

This is a pretty fair assessment. I will add that Emory University is in Atlanta with the students who were scared by someone chalking Trump 2016. So the progressives in the inner city are pretty similar to what you would find in California as far as politics. However, I don't get an anti-religious vibe. There are a lot of liberal churches ITP.

[Pemgin]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Athens is the most liberal city in this state, and Savannah isn't too far behind -- facts that all the ITP homers completely ignore whenever the topic of Georgia politics comes up.

I think a lot of liberal Atlantans recognize Athens and Savannah. Other than Atlanta, those are the only two cities in GA to which I'd consider moving.

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Athens is the most liberal city in this state, and Savannah isn't too far behind -- facts that all the ITP homers completely ignore whenever the topic of Georgia politics comes up.

Atlanta is definitely the most liberal city in the state. It's the only city that scored a 100 on the Equality Index from HRC in Georgia.

Savannah scored a 19.

http://hrc-assets.s3-website-us-east...orgia_2015.pdf


Athens also scored a 19.

http://hrc-assets.s3-website-us-east...orgia_2015.pdf

Atlanta scored a 100.

http://hrc-assets.s3-website-us-east...orgia_2015.pdf

Only Austin, Atlanta, and Dallas scored 100s in the entire southern region. No liberal city would score a 19 on this scale. Even Decatur who a lot of people say is a liberal city only scored a 28. http://hrc-assets.s3-website-us-east...orgia_2015.pdf

Atlanta was also in the top 10 for most donations per capita to Bernie Sanders, who is the epitome of very liberal and progressive.

[Ant131531]

Athens is a glorified college town where a lot of student's parents are conservatives and republicans themselves.

Savannah is not really a liberal city. It's moderate with a lot of old money. SCAD and a few cafes doesn't Savannah liberal.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by Ant131531

Athens is a glorified college town where a lot of student's parents are conservatives and republicans themselves.

Savannah is not really a liberal city. It's moderate with a lot of old money. SCAD and a few cafes doesn't Savannah liberal.

SCAD and a few cafes? LOL ... someone has never spent much time in Savannah.

And Athens is NOT a "glorified" college town. It is the very definition of "college town" - just like Chapel Hill, Boulder or Berekely. They are not "glorified" -- they are what they are. And politically speaking, Athens-Clarke County is the most liberal city in Georgia. That's beyond dispute. Go look up election results.

As a gay man, I couldn't care less about the Human Right's Campaign's Equality Index. It has no bearing on my day-to-day life and is not a reflection of the people I know who live, work, play and visit Savannah. Using that as a gauge of "liberal-ness" is as disengenous as saying "I saw a 'Jesus Saves' sign (or a Rebel Flag) in rural Georgia"' ... so everybody down there is a racist and a conservative.

[skbl17]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Go look up election results.

This isn't my argument, but I decided to look up the county election results for the 2012 presidential election for both Clarke and Fulton. I thought that Obama's share of the vote in Fulton would be lower than in Clarke, but Barack Obama received 62.77% of the vote in Clarke County, but 64.13% in Fulton County. This is despite the fact that Fulton County has numerous conservative suburbs that swung heavily to Romney, and Atlanta doesn't even have half of the county's population. Clarke County is 99.2% Athens, 0.7% Winterville, and 0.1% is the tiny sliver of Bogart that isn't in Oconee County.

- skbl17

[harrishawke]

Originally Posted by skbl17

This isn't my argument, but I decided to look up the county election results for the 2012 presidential election for both Clarke and Fulton. I thought that Obama's share of the vote in Fulton would be lower than in Clarke, but Barack Obama received 62.77% of the vote in Clarke County, but 64.13% in Fulton County. This is despite the fact that Fulton County has numerous conservative suburbs that swung heavily to Romney, and Atlanta doesn't even have half of the county's population. Clarke County is 99.2% Athens, 0.7% Winterville, and 0.1% is the tiny sliver of Bogart that isn't in Oconee County.

- skbl17

I'm not sure the last couple Presidential elections would be good telltale signs of the political demographics. McCain and Romney were unusually weak Republican challengers against Obama. Also with the Atlanta metro being heavily African-American, the turnout was quite large for democratic votes during the historic inauguration of the first Black President.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by harrishawke

I'm not sure the last couple Presidential elections would be good telltale signs of the political demographics. McCain and Romney were unusually weak Republican challengers against Obama. Also with the Atlanta metro being heavily African-American, the turnout was quite large for democratic votes during the historic inauguration of the first Black President.

Presidential general election results might indeed be one of the very best indicators of the political demographics of an area because voter turnout is the highest during presidential general elections.

More voters cast ballots during presidential general elections than during any other election.

The electorate that participates in presidential general elections is much larger, broader and more diverse than the electorate that participates in any other election cycle.