Why is San Diego conservative? (San Francisco, Industry: middle-class, place to live, moving to)

[JSD45]

I grew up in Encinitas and I think people are socially moderate to center-left, but fiscally conservative as well as being conservative on immigration and national defense issues.

[MisterMark]

Originally Posted by maddball26

But why is San Diego so conservative?

We've certainly had this discussion here many times.

Jason, what is your definition of conservative?

[18Montclair]

Where do people get off thinking that SoCal is liberal? Not even. LA County and other counties have many liberal areas but for the most part, Southern California tends to be conservative. Hello? Reagan and Nixon?

[MisterMark]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Where do people get off thinking that SoCal is liberal? Not even. LA County and other counties have many liberal areas but for the most part, Southern California tends to be conservative. Hello? Reagan and Nixon?

Reagan and Nixon? Reagan was Governor from 1967-75, and Nixon (from Orange County, not San Diego) served in Congress in the 1940s and '50s. That's ancient history to many of the visitors to this site.

Anyway, we're talking about San Diego here, not Southern California as a whole.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by MisterMark

Reagan and Nixon? Reagan was Governor from 1967-75, and Nixon (from Orange County, not San Diego) served in Congress in the 1940s and '50s. That's ancient history to many of the visitors to this site.

Anyway, we're talking about San Diego here, not Southern California as a whole.

huh? The OP mentioned that SoCal was liberal. And as far as Reagan and Nixon, They are 2 former US PRESIDENTS(most powerful and influential men in the world) whose politics developed in Southern California. Reagan is now an icon for heavenssake.

San Diego, Orange, Kern, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties all lean to the right(albeit to varying degrees)-not something new.

T

[Jarndyce]

San Diego is conservative because of it's military-industrial complex, its retirees and its "quiet religious/quasi-religious" undertone. Anyone remember Heaven's Gate?

[Katrina91001]

I agree with you all that the military presence contributes to the conservatism in San Diego, but I'd like to mention that not all the military in San Diego votes conservatively. Both my parents were Navy brats, and their parents were very liberal even though they had lifelong military careers. My mother still lives in San Diego, and she loathes that conservative element.

[NorthernCalifornia]

As for political characters of San Diego see: Wilson, Pete.

It's the military. The culture and size of SD has been greatly impacted since the 1940's by the military. When huge numbers of military bases were closed in the early 90's all over the country they were largely kept in SD and some even expanded I believe. The SF Bay Area, for example, saw 6 major bases close.

San Diego's military/industrial culture has a lot in common with Washington, DC in my opinion.

[Desertho]

San Diego will be knee-deep in shiat-hole if it ever switches to becoming San-Francisco-by-the-Border liberal. It would lose its laid-back libertarian vibe and become this terrifying place where people are being subjected to various social experiments and causes left-wing groups are hatching in a lab somewhere in Pyongyang.

[boi2socal]

I've found San Diego to be moderate. Even the gay crowd is somewhat conservative comparted to other gay friendly towns. In any case everyone seems to be pretty laid back.