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Don't think I am racist for saying this, but the true litmus test of a liberal city is what percentage of the WHITE population votes Democrat. Minorities, be it black, latino, etc vote Democrat for their own reasons but many times align more with the GOP on social/religious issues. White Democrats however will most of the time be pro-gay and pro-choice and more inclined to be involved in the cultural activities that define liberal cities.
Regarding the OP, there are basically two kinds of liberal cities in "red states" in the south. I'm excluding the purple states of Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, which have large pockets of northern transplants and different political dynamics.
1. Cities which vote Democratic on the basis of large black/Latino populations. This includes virtually every large city in the south. If you look on voting maps by neighborhood, southern cites are highly different from northern cities, because they have huge swathes of (white) neighborhoods which vote for Republicans within the city limits. To some degree this is because sun-belt cities annex a lot of suburban areas, but even white neighborhoods right near the city core can be pretty Republican (for example, Buckhead in Atlanta). Most major southern cities do have a few white neighborhoods near the city core which are liberal (for example, Montrose in Houston), but those are not indicative of the white population of the city as a whole.
2. College towns. Austin is far and away the largest of these, with Athens being the next most well known. A prominent college will generally attract a fair amount of liberal-leaning voters - even in places like Mississippi it can boost Democratic performance a lot.
In the "red states" of the west, a similar dynamic is mostly seen. For example, Tuscon, Missoula, Moscow, and Lawrence are more liberal than the norm in Arizona, Montana, Idaho, and Kansas respectively due to the presence of major state universities. Obviously minorities in general are thinner on the ground in most places, and the percentage of white liberals in generic cities is a bit higher than in the south. There are still a few enclaves of populist farmer and/or trade union support in some places in the Dakotas and Montana which would otherwise be deep red, but they are fading for the most part.
Technically, all cities in every state seem to be little islands of blue in a sea of red, but some places have a greater city populations than rural. That appears to be the major difference between allegedly blue and red states.
All of the major cities in GA are Democratic (Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus and Macon). The rest of the state is Red, but with Atlanta growing so large and quickly, I believe GA will be a blue state in the next five years.
I advise others to please make the distinction between a "Democrat" and a "liberal". The majority of Democrats in said cities (bar Atlanta) are overwhelmingly conservative, and the same is true for much of the South.
All major Texas cities are "blue" because they have moderate to large numbers of educated, urban professionals that are diverse in terms of religion, sexual orientation, race and culture.
Heterogeneous cities and towns are more liberal than homogenous cities and towns. This doesn't translate to states because larger states like TX, have significant rural/homogenous (racially) populations that can offset voting patterns in urban areas.
Harris county is 1700 sq miles, it would be like adding Dallas county and the more conservative Tarrant county where Fort Wort is. In comparison the loop is about 90 sq miles.
I advise others to please make the distinction between a "Democrat" and a "liberal". The majority of Democrats in said cities (bar Atlanta) are overwhelmingly conservative, and the same is true for much of the South.
That may be true but an even an "old school Democrat" sits well to the left of a "new age Republican", which has been fairly well documented in recent elections. The "liberal" label is bandied about as a derogatory by "conservatives" and typically meant to describe a Democrat which now ranges from just right of center to the far left. I think the term "progressive" might be more appropriate as it certainly wouldn't confuse anyone in terms of which side is which.
Harris county is 1700 sq miles, it would be like adding Dallas county and the more conservative Tarrant county where Fort Wort is. In comparison the loop is about 90 sq miles.
You are including far more suburbs
Do not waste your time. He's already convinced he's in the right.
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