Is Texas really as conservative/narrow-minded as people say it is? (Dallas: law, legally)

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Just like in all other states, country folks are conservative and city folks are liberals.
Just that simple.

BTW, is there any city (over 100,000 people) in the US that is actually conservative?
And I'm not talking about a suburb.

Well, Dallas as a whole is blue, but parts of Dallas (within the city boundries) are red. I know people of both stripes, and none of us fight about politics the way you see here in this thread!

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

KathrynAragon, I'm quite aware of that, having lived in Texas for over half my life, gone to college and grad school there, and had most of my professional career there.

The pathetic thing is, I'm accused of mounting some sort of anti-Texas attack, simply because I've observed in an earlier post that there are in fact many "liberals" in Texas but that they are indeed a minority statewide, so that they can only succeed in electing some local officials and some members of the state legislature and US House of Representatives for some urban-based legislative and Congressional districts, but can't succeed in electing candidates to statewide office or the US Senate (there were exceptions to this general rule, however, years ago); and that I have the temerity to observe that I'm a white person who always voted for Democratic candidates during my years in Texas, except for some candidates standing for the Socialist Workers Party and, I think, at one time for La Raza Unida (all in the 1970s - a long time ago, before the rise of the Republican Party in Texas). My point is actually that in fact not all people in Texas think alike or have the same politics. Of course, possibly "the People's Republic of Austin" doesn't qualify as being part of Texas in certain narrow minds who seem intent on providing an affirmative answer to the question posed by the OP.

Say it ain't so! Hey, you sound like an independent cuss to me - my favorite type of Texan.

[ReppingDFW]

Originally Posted by JJG

I mean that there's not an OVERWHELMING number of people who vote Republican in reference to the population of the state. Didn't say anything about the demographics.

I was just saying how demographics mask how conservative Texas is.

Fun fact, Texas and Mississippi voted McCain almost the same margin! 55-43 Texas and 56-43 Mississippi.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by ReppingDFW

I was just saying how demographics mask how conservative Texas is.

Fun fact, Texas and Mississippi voted McCain almost the same margin! 55-43 Texas and 56-43 Mississippi.

Alright.... what about the OTHER states I mentioned.

[ReppingDFW]

Originally Posted by JJG

Alright.... what about the OTHER states I mentioned.

Sure thing. Texas' large minority population skews the electoral date towards Democrats compared to those states. Hispanics and AAs (largest minority groups in Texas) tend to be very religious and very socially conservative. See Prop 2 in 2005 (banned same-sex marriages and civil unions) where only Travis county rejected the ban and traditionally Democratic areas such as El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley, Beaumont and Dallas county swung heavily in favor to the ban.

[JohninAustin]

Originally Posted by blakesq

"Is Texas really as conservative/narrow-minded as people say it is?"

A typical liberal headline. Liberals use a pejorative term when describing "conservative" by linking it with "narrow-mindedness". More evidence to prove my point that liberals are the close-minded ones, and conservatives just want to be left alone by government.

Well said. I wonder how people would react to a headline that reads "Is California as liberal/dumb as people say it is"?

[doctorjef]

I think you should take into account that this thread was started in 2009 -- a LONG time ago in the blogosphere and forum world. I imagine it fell into abeyance, only to be started up again repeatedly by someone who wanted to make a splash (not necessarily even with an axe to grind -- you know the type: those new posters who suddenly appear and dig up a half dozen old threads and add their comments to them, thus reactivating these undead/zombie threads.

I don't think that these intenet forums (fora?) are good places in general to discuss ideological issues because few of us really want to take the effort to type in more than a sound-bite. I would need to unpack a whole logical predicate to some of my social democratic premises in order to adequately explain those and provide a proper basis for them to be challenged (as opposed to conservatives beating a straw man).

No one in RL that I know engages in these brutal pseudo-debates, because in RL people tend to respect one another's basic humanity and for whatever reasons wouldn't dare to be so rude and dismissive.

I despair of intelligent debate on forums such as this one. This is not to blame everyone else. I'm as disinclined as anyone else to take the time to lay out arguments in a systematic fashion in this context. Indeed, this is already an over-long post for me.

[savanite]

Originally Posted by JohninAustin

Well said. I wonder how people would react to a headline that reads "Is California as liberal/dumb as people say it is"?

Language like this is one of the bad habits of Liberals, the tendency to degrade people who don't share their beliefs.

It's not just that they are close-minded to belief systems other than their own, they actively want to destroy them, or or suppress the people who believe in them.

Many centuries ago, the Christian sects stopped killing each other and came to terms with living in a land of pluralistic beliefs. Perhaps Liberalism will go in that direction.

And possibly Texas Liberals have come to terms with this, and can live in ideological peace with their nonbelieving neighbors.

[savanite]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

No one in RL that I know engages in these brutal pseudo-debates, because in RL people tend to respect one another's basic humanity and for whatever reasons wouldn't dare to be so rude and dismissive.

[doctorjef]

But savanite, this is at least equally true of political conservatives at the level of political expression (note the crucial qualifier "political"). I would readily acknowledge that I view myself as an activist for a social vision on the social-political left. I want my vision to emerge triumphant. Clearly political conservatives likewise want to prevail. Thus was it ever! A problem with the form of government we have in the USA is that it tends to make a normality look like an anomaly. In parliamentary governments, e.g., the UK, the reality of political, party warfare is far more honestly acknowledged.