What is it about cities that make people vote Democrat?

[Del Tachi]

Are cities overseas (Western Europe/Canada) as liberal as the ones in the United States?

It seems to me that the European centre-right parties have had much more success in appealing to an urban electorate; why is that? 

[Del Tachi]

I doubt there is any form of cities "brainwashing" voters, but if you believe in the presence of subliminal messages, I will not attempt to persuade you otherwise.

I actually think that this is a legitimate point.  Cities have long attracted people whose lifestyles would be bizarre or unusual in more rural settings:  immigrants, bohemians, homosexuals, etc.  The presence of these type of people could in a way "brainwash" the people living in cities into being more open-minded towards lifestyles that fall outside of the mainstream, and that could make them more liberal.

Of course, in cases like that illustrated above, "brainwash" is a bad term that implies something negative.  I think that the term "urban socialization" captures the essence of this phenomenon while keeping a neutral tone. 

[Del Tachi]

However, the most obvious answer to this question is that cities are much, much poorer than your average suburb. 

Rapid surbanization has removed any amount of considerable wealth from our inner-cities and relocated it to the fringe.  However, in Europe many more cities retain a "wealthy core" of city bourgeoisie that in many cases are relatively conservative-voting (Wimbledon, Kensington, 16th Arrondissement, Charlottenburg, etc). 

[Del Tachi]

This urban-Democratic thing has big implications. If Republicans did just decent in Chicago, they take Illinois, for example.

However, the most obvious answer to this question is that cities are much, much poorer than your average suburb. 

Rapid surbanization has removed any amount of considerable wealth from our inner-cities and relocated it to the fringe.  However, in Europe many more cities retain a "wealthy core" of city bourgeoisie that in many cases are relatively conservative-voting (Wimbledon, Kensington, 16th Arrondissement, Charlottenburg, etc). 

The highest income-areas per capita are all in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Miami, etc. Basically, cities.

Cities are not poorer than suburbs.

Actually...only five of the twenty most populated cities in the United States had median household incomes above the national average of $51,413 in 2011:  San Jose, San Francisco, Washington, Seattle and San Diego.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/205609/median-household-income-in-the-top-20-most-populated-cities-in-the-us/
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-02-09/income-rising/53033322/1

Now, what I suspect you meant to say is that cities tend to have higher GDP per capita than suburbs or rural areas, and in that category you would be correct.  However, stats on median household incomes show that most of that "wealth" talked about in the GDP/capita figure tends to leave the city every weekday at around 5 o'clock.  It works a little something like this...professionals and other "white color" types come to the city and produce goods and services that jack-up that city's Gross Domestic Product, but when the paychecks come in these same professionals are not keeping this wealth within the city proper; rather, it goes home with them to the suburbs! 

Proof:  The top 100 cities for median household income with a population of over 50,000 are all considered "suburban".  Find one city on this list that is not a suburb:  http://www.city-data.com/top70.html

[Del Tachi]

Are cities overseas (Western Europe/Canada) as liberal as the ones in the United States?

It seems to me that the European centre-right parties have had much more success in appealing to an urban electorate; why is that?  

The center-right definitely does better in the large cities in Scandinavia. Most of the larger cities here in Norway are ruled by some sort of bourgeois-coalition.  There are a lot of state and municipal employees in the city, as well as minorities and poor people. But there are also a lot of doctors, lawyers and other professionals, and they skew heavily to the center-right, and they are more likely to vote than the base voters of the socialist parties.

These voters might be “liberal” on issues like abortion and homosexuality, but so are the mainstream parties of the right. But they also want lower taxes, the freedom to choose which schools they send their children to and generally more personal freedom. That is why they vote for the center-right.

This is interesting because I can foresee (sort of) the US being this way in 40-50 years. When the GOP catches up on social issues and elections become even more focused on the economy than they already are, our maps will tend to look more like Europe. Rich neighborhoods in the cities will trend to the right-leaning party (Poor minority neighborhoods will remain solidly D, but probably around 10% less than they are now) while poor Appalachia will trend back to the Dems

Exactly right!  The next American political realignment (due to favor the Republicans) will probably see the Republicans molding themselves after Europe's center-right parties.  Of course, that isn't due until sometime between 2040 and 2060.