Conservative-Friendly? (Milwaukee, Madison, Kenosha: fit in, schools, university)

[TrekRockStar]

Hello, I was think of putting Wisconsin on my prospective places to go for college. First most, I am strong republican. Would I be able to surivive?

[slamont61]

Yep - you'd fit right in. Wisconsin is just a hair to the right. Good ole Tommy Thompson was Gov for quite some time. Dems can't seem to get their feet implanted there to firmly. I'm going to guess the Republicans will get a run for thier money over the next year or so, but that too soon shall pass.

[kg1701d]

You'll survive anywhere but to varying degrees. In Madison, you'll get ripped on, especially if you're a bit more in your face about it or as in your face about it as most of the student body is about being liberal. No one really cares unless you are an a**hole about it, on either side.

[Geechie North]

Originally Posted by slamont61

Yep - you'd fit right in. Wisconsin is just a hair to the right. Good ole Tommy Thompson was Gov for quite some time. Dems can't seem to get their feet implanted there to firmly. I'm going to guess the Republicans will get a run for thier money over the next year or so, but that too soon shall pass.

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Disagree, based on history. Wisconsin goes through conservative and liberal phases. Right now, it's tilting back liberal, overall. But it depends upon the part of the state (Waukesha County v Dane, for example) and your personality. All views (short of KKK) are accepted here, as long as you're not "In your face about it.". But know that BushII is only liked among a small minority.

[Drover]

I can tell you as a former Madison resident that those on the left feel quite free to be "in your face about it." Someone was always up in arms and indignant about something or other. So there's no prohibition about being "in your face about it" per se. It just depends greatly on which side of the spectrum one's in-your-face-ness comes from, as many of them are certainly not pleased to have the same "in your face" style thrown right back at them from the other side. If you can stand near-constant outrage and indignation and self-righteousness and just roll your eyes and let it slide, you'll be fine. If you try to challenge the validity of their grievances, be prepared to get pounced on.

How well you will get along will indeed depend on some measure on which school they attend -- I'm not clear if you mean you intend to go to University of Wisconsin or just attend school in the state of Wisconsin. Clearly the socio-political environment will be different at UW-Madison versus, say, UW-Whitewater.

[EnjoyEP]

Nearly all areas you'd be absolutely fine in, outside of possibly Madison (as others have noted).

WI overall slightly leans liberal / Democrat, but that is so slight. It is near a 50-50 split. More specifically, Wisconsin generally tends to be - among the common populace - overall liberal on fiscal issues and conservative on social issues (however, this is obviously different in very liberal areas like Dane County and very conservative areas like Waukesha or Washington Counties).

The Governor - Jim Doyle - is a pretty liberal Democrat, and the two Senators (Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold) are both pretty liberal Democrats (more so Feingold). Also, I don't believe Wisconsin has gone in a presidential election for a Republican since 1984 (Ronald Reagan's 2nd term). So I would struggle to understand where WI would be slated to "lean conservative".

It is close (look at the last two presidential campaigns here...split between Dems and Repubs within a 1% margin), but tilts Dem. At the end of the day though, except for Madison, Republican/Demo/moderate would fit in fairly well most places in WI as long as they weren't jerks about it.

[Alt Dach]

Originally Posted by TrekRockStar

Hello, I was think of putting Wisconsin on my prospective places to go for college. First most, I am strong republican. Would I be able to surivive?

Of course,most of WI is quite conservative, just avoid the best 2 schools in the state,Lawrence and UW_-Madison , and you'll find most people right at your level.

[EnjoyEP]

[quote=Alt Dach;5019070]Of course,most of WI is quite conservative,

The City of Milwaukee - by far the biggest and most populated city in the state of Wisconsin...makes up, what, 10%+ of the state's total population itself (city is 602K) is extremely Democratic / liberal.

Cities such as Kenosha and Racine also elect Democrats / liberals quite a bit too.

Originally Posted by Alt Dach

just avoid the best 2 schools in the state,Lawrence and UW_-Madison , and you'll find most people right at your level.

The rankings would prove otherwise. Madison, sure, but schools like Marquette University, Concordia University, and Wisconsin Lutheran College rank right up there.

[Geechie North]

I believe a good test of the conservatism or liberalness of rural Wisconsin will be the race between Kagen and Gard in Wisconsin's 1st congressional district.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Alt Dach

Of course,most of WI is quite conservative, just avoid the best 2 schools in the state,Lawrence and UW_-Madison , and you'll find most people right at your level.

And this is the exact sort of condescension you can expect if you try to engage your standard UW-Madison liberal in a meaningful discussion of social, political and economic issues. If you're not interested in those sorts of discussions, you'll be fine. If you do want to discuss them and you like being combative and argumentative, you'll have a huge pool of people who are willing play along. However, if you want to discuss these type of issues and you don't want the discussions to frequently be combative and degrade into ad hominem shouting matches, UW-Madison may not be your place.