East Coast and West Coast Liberals (living in, design, housing)

[SBCA]

I've lived on the west coast my entire life and have been living in philadelphia for 4 months. The east and west coasts are certainly liberal places, in politics and culture. But I have this sense that people who consider themselves liberal on the west coast mean something different than those on the east coast. I get the feeling that people from san francisco would often disagree with people from brooklyn or philly despite using similar political self-identification. As if west coast and east coast residents differ in world-view if not in politics.

Do others get this same sense? Any thoughts on the phenomenon? Does it reflect the different issues important to residents of the respective regions? Is it a cultural thing? Either way, coming from a progressive place on the west coast to a progressive place on the east coast makes the transition easier.

To clarify, I believe the west coast encompasses all cities on the pacific coast from Seattle to San Diego, as well as some inland cities including Portland and Sacramento. The east coast consists of the megalopolis stretching from Washington to Boston and includes most notably New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and most of suburban New Jersey.

[Winston Smith]

Not sure what the difference is between American east- and west-coast liberals. In general, people in coastal, port or border cities are more liberal than people in "inland" or remote places because coastal/port/border cities are by their very nature and existence places of mix, movement and transience of people and goods. People who live in these cities must find it in themselves to tolerate differences and change in order to survive, and it tends to make people "liberal," I suppose. Seems this is true the world over and throughout history; it's not unique to San Francisco or New York in modern-day USA. It only stands to reason that people in these cities will be more liberal than someone from, say, Ogallala. Just a thought.

[TerrySRA]

The east and west coast are not all liberals, the southeast is very conservative and San Diego is one on the US's most conservative cities.

[SBCA]

Of course, the east and west coasts are not composed entirely of liberals. That much is obvious. But it is also obvious that the culture and urban environment of these regions has a liberal feel.

Again, the east coast (in my opinion and that of most) does not include the southeast. The urban region stretching from Washington DC to Boston is typically designated the 'East Coast'.

I also believe you are mistaken about San Diego. Perhaps 20 years ago, SD was a conservative place, and many of the outlying suburbs remain so. But the city of San Diego now has a very liberal feel to it and the culture of downtown has the same liberal intellectual flare as cities of its size.

[irwin]

I think one of the major differences between "liberals" on the West Coast v. East Coast is that on the East Coast, economic issues are more important than out West. That is mainly because on the East Coast unions have more of a history (especially in a city like Philly) and thus working class issues are stressed by the "liberal" politicians. Some of the most "conservative" areas socially in the North East are traditional working class Democratic districts (South Philly for example; also some of the historically African American areas).

California seems to be more influenced by a "newer" type of liberalism growing out of the 1960's. Social reform, foreign policy, and other issues that evolved out of the Vietnam War days seem to be more important to people.

Remember that until fairly recently, the Northeast had a lot of Republicans that represented the more wealthy areas. These areas mainly vote Democratic nationally because of the rise of the religious right in the national Republican Party.

[Katiana]

I think western liberals tend to be more fiscally conservative than eastern libs. JMO.

[SBCA]

Originally Posted by irwin

I think one of the major differences between "liberals" on the West Coast v. East Coast is that on the East Coast, economic issues are more important than out West. That is mainly because on the East Coast unions have more of a history (especially in a city like Philly) and thus working class issues are stressed by the "liberal" politicians. Some of the most "conservative" areas socially in the North East are traditional working class Democratic districts (South Philly for example; also some of the historically African American areas).

California seems to be more influenced by a "newer" type of liberalism growing out of the 1960's. Social reform, foreign policy, and other issues that evolved out of the Vietnam War days seem to be more important to people.

Remember that until fairly recently, the Northeast had a lot of Republicans that represented the more wealthy areas. These areas mainly vote Democratic nationally because of the rise of the religious right in the national Republican Party.

Does this mean, then, that east coast liberals are less likely to agree with me that marijuana should be legalized? And does this further mean, that east coasters are likely to be more anti-corporate than west-coasters?

[mead]

Here's my take

East Coast Liberals
- support unions/labor
- lots of random layers of bueracratic government jobs (even if unnecessary)
- Sometimes beholden to pet causes, but not as much as West Coast libs (Save Dafur, No blood for oil, etc)
- Public housing = good thing
- More government spending for everything
- In favor of immigrants and yet generally don't live anywhere near immigrants if they are rich, or are in favor of immigrants because they are immigrants if they aren't rich (Union workers on the other hand as a rule of thumb don't like immigrants).

West Coast Liberals
- "Save the environment"
- More concerned about animals and nature
- Probably more tolerant of usage of soft-drugs (weed) than on the east coast
- More like Nancy Pelosi, less like Elliot Spitzer
- More atheistic/agnostic than East Coast liberals. The one exception to this are east coast jewish liberals who are obsessed about keeping religion out of the public sphere, but generally East Coast liberals are at least nominally religious, however they just don't go to church as much as conservatives.

[Verseau]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

I think western liberals tend to be more fiscally conservative than eastern libs. JMO.

I'm not sure about that, but I do think that Eastern liberals might be generally more concerned with economic issues while Western liberals tend to be somewhat more concerned with certain social issues.

You see similar geographic divides among conservatives, too. Here in New England, we have a lot of old "Yankee Republicans" who are fisically conservative (i.e. freer market) but socially liberal (less government involvement).

[ApartmentNomad]

Originally Posted by mead

Here's my take

- Sometimes beholden to pet causes, but not as much as West Coast libs (Save Dafur, No blood for oil, etc)

Yes, avoiding wars of choice that could lead to the death of more than a million people is just a "pet cause." What an absurd characterization of being opposed to unjustified war. Surely nobody could be interested in something like that except as a sort of political hobby. Over half a million killed in Iraq (according to Lancet) and well over a trillion dollars spent.