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Bakersfield California. That place is Republican central. I heard like 80% of people there are Republican.
Same thing with Provo, Utah; but if you aren't Mormon people there will literally keep their kids away from you. I'm not degrading or insulting anyone, but this is simply what has happened for many people who have moved there.
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Bakersfield California
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Undoubtedly, it is filled with tons of Okies/Arkies/Texans that moved out there during the Great Depression/Dust Bowl.
I am noticing a few cities that are mentioned that should likely be tossed out, mainly any with a major university there.
Not all major universities are liberal. Brigham Young University and Franciscan University Steubenville, granted maybe it's not major, are listed as fairly conservative. Several major Christian colleges are moderate at least. (Unless they're ran by Jesuits or Quakers, those two groups tend to produce liberal colleges) Business and engineering departments tend to be more moderate to conservative.
The head of my history department, and a friend, was conservative on military and crime issues plus I think he voted McCain/Palin. And I went to a state college.
Not all major universities are liberal. Brigham Young University and Franciscan University Steubenville, granted maybe it's not major, are listed as fairly conservative. Several major Christian colleges are moderate at least. (Unless they're ran by Jesuits or Quakers, those two groups tend to produce liberal colleges) Business and engineering departments tend to be more moderate to conservative.
The head of my history department, and a friend, was conservative on military and crime issues plus I think he voted McCain/Palin. And I went to a state college.
I was not including religious universities, I was thinking more along the lines of typical state universities.
You are right about engineering departments tend to be a bit different, moreso if its a school that is mainly that which I went to. Though I have noticed there tends to be a libertarian bent.
My guess on the OP question almost any small city outside the Northeast, Upper Midwest, or Pacific Coast that doesn't have a major state-university.
I am noticing a few cities that are mentioned that should likely be tossed out, mainly any with a major university there.
I read somewhere that Lubbock,TX was the 2nd most conservative city in the country but it is home to Texas Tech University, trust me the city is very conservative, I grew up fairly close by.
I think that what he is saying now is that he did not necessarily mean Christian or Technical Universities. I'm thinking we could add military colleges in this too. I'm not saying military colleges/academies are never liberal, but I think they wouldn't be as likely to be liberal as average secular non-technical universities.
It is generally true that a major University that is both secular and focused on the humanities, or biology, will be liberal. From that the city might as well.
On a side note I've thought of Kalispell too as I like cool/cold weather and mountains.
Colleges and universities do not necessarily all lean far to the left, nor do they all dominate the views of their surrounding communities. And the more moderate or conservative schools are not all religious colleges. For several years I've been a returning student at a state liberal arts college in a fairly blue suburb of very blue Boston in very blue Massachusetts. The prevailing attitudes in this college could probably best be described as moderate. A lot of professors may lean to the left, but the students set the tone because of sheer numbers.
This is a state school of relatively modest cost, which attracts a lot of students who are paying their own way through school, and have well defined goals.
Of course there is truth to the old saying about having no heart if you're not liberal at twenty and no head if you're not conservative at forty, and you can expect a certain idealism to prevail in a population made up largely of young people, but still, these kids are too busy with their studies, and working at the jobs that pay for school, to have time to conduct protest marches. They are regular working class and sort of middle class kids, mostly from the local metro area, who are generally going to view traditional values positively because they are living the American Dream. Not necessarily the late-20th-century American Dream of a McMansion in the suburbs, but the belief in the opportunity to define their own ideas of success, set their own goals, and work toward reaching those goals. People with this kind of belief that this is still a country that allows them to make opportunities for themselves are generally not those who make up the radical element found at large flagship universities. This is what I have observed at one college, but I'm going to guess that you'll find a similar kind of atmosphere at many mid-sized and smaller state colleges across the country.
I've never been to this town, or the state where it's located, but one town I keep reading about which seems as if it might fit the criteria of this thread is Kearney, NE. Yep, it's home to one of those small, non-flagship state universities. I've read that the landscape in that area lacks the hills of eastern and north-central Nebraska, and the Western scenery of mesas and buttes found in parts of the NE panhandle, but instead is the sort of flat land typically associated with the Plains states, pleasant enough, but maybe not most people's idea of spectacular. From everything I've read, though, the town itself seems to be a really nice place.
I'm not sure how large a town has to be to qualify as a small city for purposes of this thread. Kearney's population is roughly 30k. Its micropolitan population is about 50k, and Kearney is one of three small cities or larger towns in south-central NE (the others being Hastings and Grand Island) which together anchor a local region with a population of some 160-170k. It appears that Kearney is a nice clean town, generally conservative in its leanings, by virtue of its location in a red state, but moderate, and progressive in the true sense of the word, due to the fact that the area's general conservatism is balanced by the presence of the university, which brings some liveliness and culture to the area. Sounds like a nice place.
One city large enough to be regarded more as a small city rather than a large town, and which I've heard good things about, is Sioux Falls. I don't know enough about this city to know whether it has a lively downtown, or generally how vibrant the tone is, but I do know that I occasionally see Sioux Falls in those rankings of best places to live that show up from time to time. I've also read a little here and there comparing Sioux Falls to Fargo, which was an example, in the opening post of this thread, of a city which might fit the thread's criteria.
Moving east, this is probably a stretch as to whether the kinds of communities I'm thinking of are large enought to qualify here, but if small towns rather than small cities qualify, it's possible that some examples of the kinds of places Thomas R is asking about might be found in northern New England and upstate New York. These areas seem to often have a libertarian brand of conservatism that places a high value on self-reliance and on leaving others alone to live their lives as they choose, so long as they pull their weight and don't mess in other people's business. This one is tricky, first because we're talking small towns here, as most small metro areas in this region lean to the left politically, and second because many small towns in these areas suffer from chronic economic depression, so you have to do some searching to find the prosperous, quaint, lively villages that offer a bit of the vibrancy often assumed to be found in more leftward-leaning towns, while maintaining a generally conservative attitude overall, and offering a reasonable degree of prosperity.
I don't know about this suggestion of New England and upstate NY, partly because the more conservative towns are usually going to be small towns and not small cities, but I thought I'd throw this out as one more possibility.
Some good points. One thing I remember also is college students, when they're in class, sometimes try to "talk left-leaning" to please a Left-leaning professor. I remember during this one night class I took it was like that. In class they talked very anti-Israel and anti-Iraq War, but during the break period when the prof was out they were more like "Let's bomb France" and I sounded like the PC lefty in comparison.
In fairness I kind of did that myself a little. I would make it clear at times I disagreed with a prof's view, but if I knew one hated Bush or something I might think of things I disliked about him to reach common ground. Although by 2004 I actually didn't care much for Bush, but I didn't like Kerry either in that year.
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