Ryan's Journal

DC has such a st...

DC has such a strongly Democrat voting history (wouldn't necessarily call it a "heritage") for a couple of reasons (or, at least, as a combined effect of several factors):

1. DC is a large city, and nothing but. As a rule, large cities tend to vote Democrat, and DC has no outlying rural areas (or even suburbs) to balance out the vote.
2. DC has a relatively large African-American population compared to other cities, and African-Americans have, in the past, tended to vote Democrat (getting into the reasons why would take a lot of space); this trend has slightly lessened as of late, but it's still a pretty one-sided deal.
3. DC has a huge number of government workers (obviously), and government workers of the more bureaucratic variety tend to vote for big government and social engineering.
4. More than anywhere else in the country, people in DC are caught up in (and generally enjoying) the swirl of politics, and that's usually a recipe for voting for image over substance. For the past three decades, and especially for the last twelve years, the Democrats have been the party of image over substance. I know that sounds pig-headed of me, but it's true... watch for a shake-up (re: image vs. substance) amongst the Democrats in the next four years, that is if they're smart enough to actually have one.

Matt Libby on November 06, 2004 05:52 PM

those darn evangelicals

One thing that irks me is that that the way the Christian community has potrayed itself to the public. Let's start a movement of young, intellectual Christians that distances itself from the likes of the Christian Coalition and the Jerry Falwells of the world.

christine lieu on November 05, 2004 06:17 PM

My cluelessness ...

My cluelessness in regards to demographic distribution is on display, but are most large American urban centers that heavily (85%) Democratic or liberal leaning? Urban centers in general? Are the needs of an urban society so state-dependent or its social mores so far relaxed (relatively speaking) that their populations would en masse choose left when presented with a fork in the road? Are there any conservative U.S. cities?

Speaking in the tongue of the two-party system, that is.

Ryan Lee on November 06, 2004 06:26 AM

I may be just ni...

I may be just nitpicking on your choice of description, but it's an important nit to me.

One candidate in this race defined himself as not-Bush. That is not a valid or useful platform to work from. Neither is not-Falwell-Christian Coalition-"evangelical." "Young, intellectual" is an interesting start. What will it do?

Ryan Lee on November 08, 2004 06:02 PM

Numbers on Evangelicals voting Conservative

This editorial gives some demographic numbers on how evangelicals voted. In short, by your criteria, you should be especially a little sick.

I am with you on being delighted to see Fritz Hollings gone. He was supposedly a senator for South Carolina, but his best constituents seemed to be Southern California. I can see how the similarity in spelling could confuse a man. Maybe we can get someone to undo the Millenium Copyright Act now.

Bryan Bilyeu on November 09, 2004 06:32 PM

Conservative cities

You may have already done this, but if you look at cnn.com's election coverage you can break down votes across the US by county. That may give you some idea as to the voting patterns of counties that contain large cities. For example, Harris County (home to Houston, TX) apparently went to Bush by 55%. Not as "red" as other Texas counties, but may classify as "conservative." (Of course, as we all know, Bush is from Texas ;) so Houston might not be a good example.)

Depending on how you define "large city," my gut feeling is that you'd be hard pressed to find more than a few conservatively-voting large cities in the US. (If you find a few, let me know what they are and I'll move there! ;)

J G on November 09, 2004 11:07 PM