Why is Dane County in Wisconsin so democratic

[Tartarus Sauce]

It’s full of absolute moonbats hence the name 30 square miles of nonsense surrounded by reality. It’s the Cambridge of the Midwest

All three claims in this post are nonsense.

The people are relatively moonbats, Dane County is larger than 30 square miles, and Wisconsin is not in the Midwest. So which is the Cambridge of the Midwest: Lawrence, Lincoln, or Iowa City?

Probably a city close to the state's largest city, preferably with multiple universities, a strong leftwing lean, and a history of leftwing activism. Maybe Ann Arbor?

Madison being the state capital and also the economic engine of the state makes it quite different from Cambridge, MA.

Milwaukee is actually the economic engine of the state, Madison is the education/governmental engine of the state.

As for why it's so liberal the Republican party's platform right now is to shrink the government drastically, destroy the universities while cutting their budgets to skeletons and tell everyone who works in those industries that they're evil, un-American mongrels and it's not hard to see why they're so liberal.

Epic Systems, Exact Sciences, and Spectrum Brands would like to have a word with you about economic engines.

Milwaukee is a bunch of middling manufacturing outfits whose best days are behind them (Harley Davidson, Johnson Controls, etc).

Milwaukee-Madison fight!

[Tartarus Sauce]

If you go back to say the 1960's and before, college town areas, particularly those in Yankee white and Scandinavian areas would most certainly be Republican because of the wealth gap of those who attended college versus those who don't. Beginning in the 1960's with a diversification of professions in the elite sectors and also with the generational dynamics at play, is when these areas shifted heavily to the left and heavily towards the Democrats. The same thing happened in places like Ithaca and Ann Arbor.

This actually makes Dane County's political history even more noteworthy, because while Tompkins County and Washtenaw County didn't vote Democratic during the 20th century before 1964 other than in 1912, Dane County started its Democratic streak in 1932 with FDR and was only briefly interrupted by narrow wins by Eisenhower in '52 and '56.

[Tartarus Sauce]

The next question is why is Portage so Democratic, and neighboring Waupaca and Waushara so Republican. I don't see any significant industry located in Stevens Point. I see that Portage has a very high population of Polish descent. Why is that, and when did it occur? OK, I find that it was rural settlement after the Civil War, when a Polish Catholic Church was established and the northeastern part of the county drew other Poles to the area.

In 2016, Rosholt and Sharon towns had 34% and 30% swing to the Republicans. Why is that?

Worth noting that Steven's Point has a decently large UW campus located there.