Why are all the great cities of America liberal?

Woah, woah, woah. Get San antonio off that last.

But to answer your question, cities usually house immigrants and other minorities (who usually vote democrat), intellectuals, and hipsters, hence all of these people vote democrat.

Conservatives usually gain support in farm areas, where there's an emphasis on social values (check), rugged individualism and self-reliance (which the GOP has painted itself as).

 

Cuz the cities is where da welfare offices be at. IT'S SOCIALIZMZ! OBAMA IZ DUH DEVIL!!!!!

 

Because of many factors

1. Education tends to liberalize people. Critical thinking moves people away from traditions and a simple view of the world to a more expansive and nuanced one, which is what liberal thinking really is about. Conservatism is about sticking with the past, liberalism about embracing the future.

2. Cities are about the exchanging of ideas - that is why they are cultural centers. Arts, music, etc. These are things associated with liberalism and again that has an effect to shift people to the left.

3. Cities have diversity, and exposure to many groups and ideas - being open minded - tends to shift people to the left

4. People who are liberal tend to be drawn towards cities so they move from rural red suburbs to blue urban areas.

5. Cities tend to have a greater concentration of poor, which tends to be heavily more towards the left.

6. Cities tend to be younger which is today more liberal, where as retirees and older folks prefer more rural areas.


All of these things are what tilts cities to the left.

 

Diversity. When you regularly interact with people from different backgrounds, inevitably you'll learn compassion for all and not just for people that think and look like yourself.

Oh, and a more educated populace helps too.

 

First of all, San Antonio isn't a "great" city by any means, and Houston is borderline at best.

Sweet Lou 4 2 explains it pretty well.

 

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San Francisco is one of the top US destinations for white people in terms of both travel and living. It is universally agreeable and is a safe discussion topic for any situation.

The city is considered one of the world’s premiere locations for white person research.

White people like to vacation in San Francisco because it has beautiful architecture, fantastic food, and it is near the water. They like to live in San Francisco because of its abundance of Non Profit Organizations, Expensive Sandwiches, Wine, political outlook, and most importantly its diversity.

Since many white people either live in, plan to move to, or closely identify with San Francisco it is imperative that you know how best to deal with them.

The City of San Francisco has a very multicultural population that ranges from white to gay to Asian. Within white culture this known as “ideal diversity” for its provision of exotic restaurants while simultaneously preserving property values. The presence of gays and Asians is imperative as it two provides two of the key resources most necessary for white success and happiness.

However, it is important to be aware of the fact that regions outside of San Francisco feature many people who are not white, gay or Asian. They are greatly appreciated during the census, but white people are generally very happy that they stay in places like Oakland and Richmond. This enables white people to feel good about living near people of diverse backgrounds without having to directly deal with troublesome issues like income gaps or schooling.

Still, the presence of other minorities are welcomed by white people for so many more reasons than just statistics! Much in the way that white people in Brooklyn feel a strong and unfounded connection with The Notorious BIG, white people in San Francisco feel the need to identify with rappers from the East Bay. Interestingly enough, the further they venture from San Francisco, the stronger their need to represent their region.

“Oh man, I went to the Too Short show last night. So hyphy man, so hyphy. You should come by some time and we’ll ghost ride the Prius.”

When you are presented with statements like this, the best response is to say “Berkeley is close to Oakland,” and the white person will likely nod and throw up some sort of west side hand sign.

Though it is exceptionally easy to put someone from San Francisco in a good mood, there are some caveats. When talking to a white person who lives in San Francisco, it is best not to bring up New York City. Though they live in a world class city, San Franciscans have a crippling inferiority complex about New York and even hinting at that will make them very sad or very defensive.

Fortunately, there is a fool-proof method for quickly returning the conversation to a positive, trust-building tone. No matter how much you have offended someone from San Francisco, you can always make them feel better by asking them how they feel about Southern California. They will instantly talk of how it is filled with crime, pollution, hegemonic culture, and the wrong kind of white people: “I swear California is like two separate countries, and I am so thankful that I live in the cultural center of the West Coast.” This will allow them to reassert their superiority and leave the conversation with a positive feeling about themselves and about you.

 

I would wager that because urban centers are more likely to attract a very diverse array of people, the citizens of the city have to adopt a more liberal view of one another in order to get through every day. Not saying that "coping with diversity" is a day-to-day torture, just saying that a more urban/diverse environment is more conducive to a liberal lifestyle, because that's essentially what you're relegated to anyway.

 

What's interesting is that it always wasn't like this. Rural communities formed the basis of socialist movements all through the great depression and the decades after.

Farmer driven socialist parties actually took control of state governments in Minnesota and North Dakota. And in general rural communities were the harshest critics of corporations and the need to regulate them.

If you look at the history of farmers in this country. They were treated terribly by the railroads, banks, mill operators, and were very dependent on governments to electrify the area, bring rural health care, build roads that got them away from the monopoly of the railroads, etc..

Somewhere along the way, that cynicism of corporate greed turned into a cynicism about government.

 

True, there are still some who follow this mold, but yes that was backbone of American Liberals. It has really changed.

 

Thanks for the insight Hightop. Heading to San Fran for a week of vaca soon with the possibility of transferring in a year or two. It'll be fun to tease the natives.

Seems NYC is just not liberal enough for me anymore.

 

LOL at San Antonio and no Atlanta.

Cities have universities and minorities

 

I like how Dallas isn't on the list.

Also interesting about Dallas, Dallas County tends to vote Democratic while Tarrant (Fort Worth) is heavily Republican. Dallas County as a whole has been trending more and more democratic for some time now while Fort Worth is doing the reverse.

 

Probably because somewhere along the way, corporate interests bought the govt.

 

Actually you're onto a big point. More than corporations buying off the government, corporations bought all the farms.

There are very few family farms anymore. North Dakota is the one weird exception as the Non-Partisan League (great depression era socialist party) took control of the state government and banned corporate ownership of farms. In fact it really screwed banks because technically they can't foreclose on farmland since that would become a corporate farm. (North Dakota also has the only state level reserve bank, nationalized the railroads, has a state run mill, has a prohibition on cities charging for street parking, etc..) All the relics of a farmer led socialist party.

 

I remember when you used to do this under a different handle. What was that incarnation called? Was it shovel face or something like that?