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Can I start by asking the mods to please not move this to the politics and other controversies forum? I believe this belongs in either the city vs. city or General US forum. I hope this discussion will involve specific cities and how they can be compared.
One of the first things I want to point out is that, through discussions Ive had with friends as well as threads on this site, is that the different racial groups define "liberal" differently.
Whites tend to view cities as liberal if they are protective of the LGBT population, the environment, and women's rights.
African-Americans tend to view cities as "liberal" if they have favorable views to affirmative action, solid economic programs to help those who don't have as much, and if the city has a solid black middle class.
Hispanics tend to view cities that are welcoming to immigrants as more "liberal".
Im willing to be corrected on any of the above if any of you think that Im off base. Im Arab (which is technically white, but not quite) so I trying to be an objective outsider.
Another thing people will look to is party affiliation. In 2012, below were the results by race:
There's definitely multiple definitions behind what liberal means and I find that it depends on the cities themselves. I've grown to really not enjoy the "liberalism" in cities like Portland, Denver, etc.
I am an Independent Conservative, but hate the labeling and the spin that is put on such labeling from both liberals and conservatives. Like Arab or Middle Eastern automatically conjures up an image of a terrorist by some conservatives and (your description is a perfect example) some liberals say conservatives are against immigrates (insinuating ANY immigrate) when in fact it's illegal immigrants that they have issue with. Weather it's racial, religious, or nationality, today's hyper-obsession with these issues/labels is rather tiring and only further divides.
Generally speaking, cities tend to be the most liberal part of any state while conservative strongholds tend to be in rural areas. This is true even in dark red states like Texas, Tennessee and Georgia and in dark blue states like California and New York.
I've lived in red and blue states, and I've come to agree that the extent to which a place "feels" liberal depends on how white and rich people vote. In that way, it's really the suburbs that matter. In blue states like Connecticut, New York, California, New Jersey and Virginia, the richest counties vote for democrats. (Source: Obama Wins 8 of the Nation)
In red states, the wealthy inner-ring suburbs vote red.
Generally speaking, cities tend to be the most liberal part of any state while conservative strongholds tend to be in rural areas. This is true even in dark red states like Texas, Tennessee and Georgia and in dark blue states like California and New York.
I've lived in red and blue states, and I've come to agree that the extent to which a place "feels" liberal depends on how white and rich people vote. In that way, it's really the suburbs that matter. In blue states like Connecticut, New York, California, New Jersey and Virginia, the richest counties vote for democrats. (Source: Obama Wins 8 of the Nation)
In red states, the wealthy inner-ring suburbs vote red.
While I agree that, generally speaking, cities are the most liberal part of any state, California is not a good example. Orange County is urban/suburban, is wealthy (though it does have some poor areas), and votes red.
OP, I would say political party is a good starting point for researching whether a place is liberal or conservative. It's not a perfect gauge by any means, but it's a start.
Me a white person doesn't like being liberal areas (Seattle) because I got "crap" for being white, the city doesn't seemed managed reasonably at all, it's like everything is okay/no standards, and lastly, I find the people to be kinda weird.... I mean they are nice(unless they are talking about you being white) but they are super weird.......
So when I think of a liberal city I cringe because I think of being race obsessed, mismanaged, and I think of a lot of liberals are just out of touch from reality/naive/ignorant.
I'm in Fairbanks, Alaska now visiting. It's actually weird, I see lots of interacial couples, people are very nice and friendly, but I do not like is that there are some nasty rednecks about 10% of the population tho so it's a minority. Most rual towns aren't as rednecky and trashy as most people think.
I honestly don't use the term liberal that much personally. It's a confusing term internationally, because in most other countries (besides Canada to an extent) liberal refers to right-wing politicians. This has to do with the history of the original 19th century liberals, who were what we would consider "soft libertarians" today - in favor of free trade, free markets, but also fairly hands-off regarding social issues. In the U.S. the term liberal was hijacked in the early 20th century by supporters of Keynsian economics and very watered down social democracy. In Europe, in contrast, it came to be used to describe parties which were economically right-wing but socially somewhat liberal. So in the U.S. context I prefer to discuss "left wing" or "progressive" rather than liberal.
One bugbear I have (which I mentioned in other threads) is that there is this attitude of many, both on the forum and real life, that only white people are "liberals," and that people of color are not. As I have mentioned in the past, aside from African-Americans being opposed to same-sex marriage, and Latinos being a bit on the pro-life side, they hold pretty normal left wing to left-of-center positions on not only economic issues but social issues as well.
One bugbear I have (which I mentioned in other threads) is that there is this attitude of many, both on the forum and real life, that only white people are "liberals," and that people of color are not. As I have mentioned in the past, aside from African-Americans being opposed to same-sex marriage, and Latinos being a bit on the pro-life side, they hold pretty normal left wing to left-of-center positions on not only economic issues but social issues as well.
This is where it gets really subjective. I personally cannot consider a person that doesn't support LGBT rights as liberal even if they are so in every other aspect.
However, where abortion is concerned, I really don't care. Its not an issue I feel any kind of passion about.
That's not an objective view to have and I know that and that's what makes this discussion somewhat necessary to have.
This is where it gets really subjective. I personally cannot consider a person that doesn't support LGBT rights as liberal even if they are so in every other aspect.
By those standards virtually no one was a "liberal" even twenty years ago.
By those standards virtually no one was a "liberal" even twenty years ago.
Yep, but each generation has their own battles to fight in the name of equality. In the 60's, I wouldn't have considered a segregationist liberal even if they were liberal on every other issue at the time. Today, that battle is rights for LGBT people. Im not comparing the issues other than the fact that they were the divisive issues of their day.
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