Detroit found to be most liberal U.S. city
This article from yesterday’s Washington Times (online) makes a pretty bold claim about Detroit. Here’s a clip:
“Detroit is the most liberal U.S. city while Provo, Utah, is the most conservative, a study of voting patterns indicates. The list was compiled by the Bay Area Center for Voting Research in California through an examination of voting in 237 U.S. cities with populations of more than 100,000. ‘Detroit and Provo epitomize America’s political, economic and racial polarization,’ BACVR Director Jason Alderman said in a release Thursday. ‘As the most conservative city in America, Provo is overwhelmingly white and solidly middle class. This is in stark contrast to Detroit, which is impoverished, black and the most liberal.'”
Pretty thought provoking actually. Are we that “blue”?
would it be safe to say that the UAW and the fact that most african-americans vote democrat has something to do with this report??? i don’t think it means that detroit is the most liberal city, i think it’s means that detroit mostly votes democrat, which isn’t necessarily “liberal”…
Anyone who isn’t “hardcore” Republican,with 100% support of Bush might I add, is considered “liberal” these days.
There are also more people coming back, not afraid to use the term ‘liberal’. After all, the most important and seminal moments in our country’s history were due to liberal politics.
Urbantiki,
You are right (or maybe left if I can gather anything from your comment :) about “liberal” politics as being responsible for important and seminal events in history. But this argument is based on a technical definition of “liberal.”
If by liberal, you mean someone who, within his time dissented from the awful things that other assholes were wanting to conserve…then it is a true argument…but if you are to use the term “liberal” in its political sense then you would need to concede that it was the republicans that formed to oppose slavery, “From 1854, when the Republican Party was founded, Democrats labeled it adherents “black” Republicans to identify them as proponents of black equality. During the 1860 elections Southern Democrats used the term derisively to press their belief that Abraham Lincoln’s victory would incite slave rebellions in the South and lead to widespread miscegenation.” (Source: “Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War”, found at http://www.civilwarhome.com/republicans.htm)
If you mean it was liberal, progressive minded people that voted for the civil rights acts – you would be right – but you would need to concede that these people fall under the moniker “Republican” – which is “conservative” in its desire to align the country with its moral aims and the constitution, 94% of REPUBLICANS voted for the civil rights act of 65…DEMOCRATS were only at 74% in the same vote (results derived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965)
I could not agree more that it is the “liberal politics” that make a change; but the ironic thing is – now that the country is on its crash course to remove God from everything, as though he were a stain on an otherwise good country; our race for bolder and bolder displays of filth and our slackened willingness to believe in truth – the political conservatives are “out-liberaling” the liberals these days.
By the way, I heard about this site from a friends at Wayne State and it is pretty cool – I’ll definately be checking it out when I can. So to answer your question, Doug, YES we are that blue – and that makes me sad (I resisted the pun!)
-Steve
Steve,
True the Republican party did lead the cause to end slavery, but that was before they became the party of privilege.
The roles of Republicans and Democrats QUITE OBVIOUSLY looped along the way.
The point is:
– there were conservatives during the Revolutionary War: they supported King George.
– there were Conservatives during the Civil War: They supported Slavery
– there were Conservatives during WWI: they opposed the League of Nations
– there were Conservatives during the 60’s: they opposed Civil Rights
It’s quite obvious that Liberal politics have been the catalyst and biggest force of the most important changes in our history. Also, you’ll notice, Democrats win wars. You can say what you want about how Liberals don’t support the military, but if you look at VOTING RECORDS – not what the GOP tells you – you’ll notice the opposite is true.
We could do this all day.
(in point above, also meant to point out that, in the early 1900’s, Conservatives also opposed Women’s suffrage)