From the eyes of this midwestern-bred, california-dwelling boy, the west coast is a very individualistic and culturally disintegrated place. It isn't so much "left wing" as it is "do your own thing!" It's a very different atmosphere from the midwest or even the east, where family lineage and provincialism runs deep and thus, midwesterners, southerners and east coasters are more prone to want to preserve their tradition and status quo. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland have a very creative/alternative/academic feel to them; which is sort of the anti-thesis to the extreme populist, anti-art and anti-intellectual vibe of the "foxnews conservatives". Tolerance for different people/cultures is high on our list of values. The anti-war/peace sentiment is also much stronger out here than the rest of the country. As individualistic of a place as it is, many west coasters are naturally fiscally conservative, but they still see the Democratic Party as the better choice for protecting their cultural values. Of course, many of these people are naive hipsters who are simply misunderstanding the concept of freedom; that left-wing economics are inherently authoritarian; but that's not what's been grabbing the headlines in recent years. The Iraq War, the Patriot Act and Sarah Palin have not helped Republicans out here. If the Republican Party was less like Mike Huckabee and more like Ron Paul, they would be more popular out here.
This so hard.
