In Birmingham They Love The Liberals
I just saw the full results for that "Most Liberal/Conservative Cities" study that came out last week, from the Bay Area Center for Voting Research. The full list is available in a .doc format, but here's the top 25 for each category.
TOP 25 MOST LIBERAL CITIES
1. Detroit, Michigan
2. Gary, Indiana
3. Berkeley, California
4. District of Columbia
5. Oakland, California
6. Inglewood, California
7. Newark, New Jersey
8. Cambridge, Massachusetts
9. San Francisco, California
10. Flint, Michigan
11. Cleveland, Ohio
12. Hartford, Connecticut
13. Paterson, New Jersey
14. Baltimore, Maryland
15. New Haven, Connecticut
16. Seattle, Washington
17. Chicago, Illinois
18. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19. Birmingham, Alabama
20. St Louis, Missouri
21. New York, New York
22. Providence, Rhode Island
23. Minneapolis, Minnesota
24. Boston, Massachusetts
25. Buffalo, New York
TOP 25 MOST CONSERVATIVE CITIES
1. Provo, Utah
2. Lubbock, Texas
3. Abilene, Texas
4. Hialeah, Texas
5. Plano, Texas
6. Colorado Springs, Colorado
7. Gilbert, Arizona
8. Bakersfield, California
9. Lafayette, Louisiana
10. Orange, California
11. Escondido, California
12. Allentown, Pennsylvania
13. Mesa, Arizona
14. Arlington, Texas
15. Peoria, Arizona
16. Cape Coral, Florida
17. Garden Grove, California
18. Simi Valley, California
19. Corona, California
20. Clearwater, Florida
21. West Valley City, Utah
22. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
23. Overland Park, Kansas
24. Anchorage, Alaska
25. Huntington Beach, California
So basically, the San Francisco Bay Area is the most Liberal (which I knew) and Southern California in the most conservative (which people have told me, but I didn't quite believe).
Another big point of the study... the most "Liberal" or Democrat-voting cities are ones with heavy African-American populations. One of the study founders lays this out pretty clearly:
While there are some noteworthy pockets of liberals who are not African American, these places end up being the exceptions. College towns like Berkeley and Cambridge have modest black populations, but remain bastions of upper middle-class, white, intellectual liberalism. These liberal communities, however, are more reminiscent of penguins clustering together around a shrinking iceberg, than of a vibrant growing political movement.
Further reinforcing this racial and ideological divide is BACVR research which shows that the most conservative city in America is the ultra white community of Provo, Utah, where less than 1 percent of the population is black.
Political pundits have noted the highly polarized nature of the American electorate, postulating that religion, age, education, wealth, and even the love of car racing are at the heart of the schism between liberals and conservatives. While these experts have identified some of the symptoms of our national rift, they have missed the root cause. BACVR’s research gives us the real answer. The great political divide in America today is not red vs. blue, north vs. south, coastal vs. interior, or even rich vs. poor-it is now clearly black vs. white.
I don't know if it's clearly JUST black vs white. As Larry Jacobs from the University of Minnesota pointed out here, less than 13% of the US population is black while almost 49% of the country voted for John Kerry. Obviously there's still a lot of white liberals and democrats.
The biggest thing about this study is how much the results fly in the face of conventional wisdom... at least, my conventional wisdom. New York City doesn't even show up in the top 20 of this list! (John Zogby says that's because "New York has Staten Island, and half of Queens, and cab drivers.") Also, Seattle - home of those liberal-defining lattes! - is only #16, to the shock of some who live there. And San Francisco, poor San Francisco is only #9. I bet if you polled everyone in the country right now every single one of them would say SF is the most liberal in the entire world.
My very favorite result is Birmingham, Alabama as #19. Ahahahahahahaha!!! How the fuck did that happen? We're talking about the city where those 4 little black girls got burned up in a church and the Klan basically ran things for a century. Wow. The only reason I can think that Birmingham showed up is because all the white residents have fled for the suburbs (45% population loss since the 60's) and the city is now 74% Black.
TOP 25 MOST LIBERAL CITIES
1. Detroit, Michigan
2. Gary, Indiana
3. Berkeley, California
4. District of Columbia
5. Oakland, California
6. Inglewood, California
7. Newark, New Jersey
8. Cambridge, Massachusetts
9. San Francisco, California
10. Flint, Michigan
11. Cleveland, Ohio
12. Hartford, Connecticut
13. Paterson, New Jersey
14. Baltimore, Maryland
15. New Haven, Connecticut
16. Seattle, Washington
17. Chicago, Illinois
18. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19. Birmingham, Alabama
20. St Louis, Missouri
21. New York, New York
22. Providence, Rhode Island
23. Minneapolis, Minnesota
24. Boston, Massachusetts
25. Buffalo, New York
TOP 25 MOST CONSERVATIVE CITIES
1. Provo, Utah
2. Lubbock, Texas
3. Abilene, Texas
4. Hialeah, Texas
5. Plano, Texas
6. Colorado Springs, Colorado
7. Gilbert, Arizona
8. Bakersfield, California
9. Lafayette, Louisiana
10. Orange, California
11. Escondido, California
12. Allentown, Pennsylvania
13. Mesa, Arizona
14. Arlington, Texas
15. Peoria, Arizona
16. Cape Coral, Florida
17. Garden Grove, California
18. Simi Valley, California
19. Corona, California
20. Clearwater, Florida
21. West Valley City, Utah
22. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
23. Overland Park, Kansas
24. Anchorage, Alaska
25. Huntington Beach, California
So basically, the San Francisco Bay Area is the most Liberal (which I knew) and Southern California in the most conservative (which people have told me, but I didn't quite believe).
Another big point of the study... the most "Liberal" or Democrat-voting cities are ones with heavy African-American populations. One of the study founders lays this out pretty clearly:
While there are some noteworthy pockets of liberals who are not African American, these places end up being the exceptions. College towns like Berkeley and Cambridge have modest black populations, but remain bastions of upper middle-class, white, intellectual liberalism. These liberal communities, however, are more reminiscent of penguins clustering together around a shrinking iceberg, than of a vibrant growing political movement.
Further reinforcing this racial and ideological divide is BACVR research which shows that the most conservative city in America is the ultra white community of Provo, Utah, where less than 1 percent of the population is black.
Political pundits have noted the highly polarized nature of the American electorate, postulating that religion, age, education, wealth, and even the love of car racing are at the heart of the schism between liberals and conservatives. While these experts have identified some of the symptoms of our national rift, they have missed the root cause. BACVR’s research gives us the real answer. The great political divide in America today is not red vs. blue, north vs. south, coastal vs. interior, or even rich vs. poor-it is now clearly black vs. white.
I don't know if it's clearly JUST black vs white. As Larry Jacobs from the University of Minnesota pointed out here, less than 13% of the US population is black while almost 49% of the country voted for John Kerry. Obviously there's still a lot of white liberals and democrats.
The biggest thing about this study is how much the results fly in the face of conventional wisdom... at least, my conventional wisdom. New York City doesn't even show up in the top 20 of this list! (John Zogby says that's because "New York has Staten Island, and half of Queens, and cab drivers.") Also, Seattle - home of those liberal-defining lattes! - is only #16, to the shock of some who live there. And San Francisco, poor San Francisco is only #9. I bet if you polled everyone in the country right now every single one of them would say SF is the most liberal in the entire world.
My very favorite result is Birmingham, Alabama as #19. Ahahahahahahaha!!! How the fuck did that happen? We're talking about the city where those 4 little black girls got burned up in a church and the Klan basically ran things for a century. Wow. The only reason I can think that Birmingham showed up is because all the white residents have fled for the suburbs (45% population loss since the 60's) and the city is now 74% Black.