Why are Western Coast whites so Democratic?

[So rightwing that I broke the Political Compass!]

Curious. It's not just the cities, it's along all the coast(except non-urban SoCal's coast).

[phk]

Liberal Whites moved to the West Coast in the 1960s/1970s.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Liberal Whites moved to the West Coast in the 1960s/1970s.

It's not only that. California was solidly Republican until the 80s, and it still has a huge military industrial complex. I think it also has to do to a large degree with older, more conservative whites retiring to Arizona, Texas, or Florida, changing their views, or dying off.

[phk]

Liberal Whites moved to the West Coast in the 1960s/1970s.

It's not only that. California was solidly Republican until the 80s, and it still has a huge military industrial complex. I think it also has to do to a large degree with older, more conservative whites retiring to Arizona, Texas, or Florida, changing their views, or dying off.

Oh good point. A lot of jobs in Southern California were supported by high defense spending in the Cold War.

The 1990-1991 recession coupled with defense spending cuts basically ended a lot of jobs and with that. An outflux of conservative Whites to NV, AZ, ID, UT, WY, etc.

[So rightwing that I broke the Political Compass!]

I know liberal whites moved to some Western cities like San Francisco and Portland, but even the non-urban coastal areas(and hinterland to a not insignificant degree) have that. This particularly apparent in Northwest Cali and Western Washington.

I mean if that's the reason OK, but I thought their might be something about the economic nature of coastal areas as well(which seem disproportionately left wing, and not just in America).

[phk]

I know liberal whites moved to some Western cities like San Francisco and Portland, but even the non-urban coastal areas(and hinterland to a not insignificant degree) have that. This particularly apparent in Northwest Cali and Western Washington.

I mean if that's the reason OK, but I thought their might be something about the economic nature of coastal areas as well(which seem disproportionately left wing, and not just in America).

They were a lot more moderated while the Cold War went on.

It's not economic reasons that make them left-wing but more like lack of economic reasons to make them right-wing.

[H. Ross Peron]

Most of SoCal outside of Los Angeles city, some of the rich Liberal areas (ie Hollywood), and the Hispanic majority districts are fairly Republican-that is most of Orange, San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernadino counties and much of suburban LA>

[Linus Van Pelt]

I know liberal whites moved to some Western cities like San Francisco and Portland, but even the non-urban coastal areas(and hinterland to a not insignificant degree) have that. This particularly apparent in Northwest Cali and Western Washington.

I mean if that's the reason OK, but I thought their might be something about the economic nature of coastal areas as well(which seem disproportionately left wing, and not just in America).

The Democratic counties on the CA coast north of the Bay Area are very hippy-ish, more so than the Bay Area itself.

The Democratic counties on the west coast of WA outside the Puget Sound area have robust unions in the forestry sector (in the broad sense, including paper manufacturing). (There are a couple of posters here who know a lot about this area, but I'm not one of them).

[justfollowingtheelections]

Having lived on both the East Coast and the West Coast I would say that people on the West Coast are a lot more open minded.  It feels like an entirely different country.  If California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii seceded and formed a new country, they would be the best country in the world by far.

[Smash255]

Many of those areas have very high education rates.   Typically heavily white, well educated areas tend to be quite liberal and Democratic  This goes for most parts of the country, the areas along the west coast tend to have a concentration of them

[bgwah]

The NW has historically been one of the least religious regions of the country. The more rural nature of the West resulted in lower church attendance than elsewhere in the country, even among those who would still consider themselves Christians. I imagine that this lack of church in everyday life slowly but surely led to more and more people considering themselves non-religious, or at least non-practicing Christians who know little of the religion. The NW Republican parties, however, tend to very conservative, with the religious right being quite influential. Exit polls suggest that WA and OR have the two most polarized political parties in the entire country. Just look at some of Washington's initiatives... 2/3 of this state's voters rejected a high-earners income tax while simultaneously keeping a Democratic legislature . In fact, initiatives are one of the biggest problems for the local GOP... Voters get their conservative out of them via initiative, and also gives moderate voters a way to keep a check on the Democrats without actually voting Republican. A former state chair of the GOP even complained about this fact. Looking at initiatives on social issues, however, presents a different picture, and WA voters are shown to be quite socially liberal. We are the only state to approve of gay unions/marriage when it came up for a vote by the people. WA and OR were the first two states to legalize assisted suicide. Most of the first states to legalize medicinal marijuana were in the West.

Previously, the WA GOP had been much more moderate and appealing to Puget Sound voters. Gov. Evans was quite moderate (a Taxpayers/Constitution Party got something like 6% against him, so conservatives weren't necessarily happy with the guy), and so was Spellman. Evans founded as Governor, and presided as President afterward, of the radically leftist Evergreen State College. Looking at legislative and precinct results shows that people like Evans and Spellman (at least in 1980) did pretty well in parts of Seattle and the San Juans that were already turning ultra-leftist, with the candidates often doing much better than their party's presidential candidates. As for the Democrats, Ray was a pretty conservative Governor who environmentalists did not like, and Senator Jackson was a military industrial neoconservative. Anyway, back to the Republicans. By 1988, however, the state GOP had taken a decidedly religious tone. Robertson won the GOP caucus. In 1996, the GOP picked theocratic maniac Ellen Craswell to be their candidate for Governor. Seattle's last Republican Mayor in the late 1960s was a huge proponent of bringing mass transit to the city--a bid that ultimately was rejected, tragically--but today that would be simply unimaginable. Republicans fanatically oppose even modest light rail projects, frothing at the mouth at the mere mention, complaining about minorities gaining access to white suburbs, and a wide array of truly revolting beliefs. Republican county prosecutors ignore police officers murdering minorities in cold blood, and allow women to be raped by sports stars in order to ensure their teams win. Indeed, the WA GOP has devolved into a most reprehensible organization that has caused many moderates who would have previously voted for them to lean D now.

As for some of the areas on say, the coast, the NW does have a history of more radical left-wing politics. The Wobblies were strongest in the NW, Seattle had the only general strike ever in the United States, WA was one of Debs' better states in 1912, the state was labeled "the Soviet of Washington" in the 1930s, and so on. Overall, this has subsided quite a bit since WW2, but its still notable.

Washington is also one of the most unionized states in the country--3rd or 4th. Boeing is still a very large employer, and used to make up a much larger proportion of the Puget Sound's work force. Just looking at Snohomish County's voting patterns suggests that these workers made up a large chunk of the Democratic voter base in the mid-20th century.

More recent developments have also contributed to the region's politics. Seattle is very trendy for white liberals, and is certainly on the exclusive list of many college graduates figuring out which cities would be acceptable to live in. Seattle is a gay epicenter, 2nd only to San Francisco in terms of % homosexual. Obama actually got a higher % in Seattle than SF, and is probably Obama's best city without a very large black population. Tech jobs at places like Amazon and Microsoft have brought a lot more Democratic-oriented voters into the region, and helped turn the Eastside suburbs D (many Democratic politicians on the Eastside, like Ross Hunter, Suzan Delbene, and Darcy Burner are all ex-Microsoft).

Of course, as a whiter state, Washington lacks the racial polarization you would find in other parts of the country.

The Democrats have controlled the Governor's Mansion since 1985, and haven't raised the state sales tax. The last time that happened was in the early 1980s under Republican Governor John Spellman. Under Democratic control, government spending per person has actually fallen quite a bit. Our Democrats are not that leftist, despite what local Republicans would try to tell you. Who could forget Gary Locke & crew allowing a few silly anarchists to smash some windows in order to gain public support for crushing tens of thousands of non-violent WTO protesters in 1999?

[timothyinMD]

Having lived on both the East Coast and the West Coast I would say that people on the West Coast are a lot more open minded.  It feels like an entirely different country.  If California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii seceded and formed a new country, they would be the best country in the world by far.

I wish the West coast would leave the country.

That would be a third world country, not the best country in the world

In case you didn't notice, California is a banana republic now thanks to liberalism

[ottermax]

because the west coast is beautiful?

I have always wondered this myself. There are a lot of speculative reasons I have such as:
people here like to be outside, therefore they care more about public funding for things like parks, open spaces, clean water, clean air. When you live in such a beautiful place you care about these things, especially when you pay an extravagant amount to live in these areas.
Economically people here largely started out in those union jobs that have long been the base of the Democratic party. Other places like San Francisco and Seattle have long been bastions of liberalism for their urban setting.
In general people are more educated here. We don't have the historic struggles that the East has faced with racial polarization, civil war, etc. In general we have been a new frontier and people come here because they want to take risks, try new things, be somebody different.

Things are changing of course. California isn't that great anymore because it's no longer new or exciting. But those non-idealistic people leave and go to Arizona.

And the West Coast only has White Democrats north of Santa Monica anyways. Most of Southern California is pretty darn conservative, especially a few miles inland.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

I mean if that's the reason OK, but I thought their might be something about the economic nature of coastal areas as well(which seem disproportionately left wing, and not just in America).

That's not true for Sweden at least. The Swedish West Coast votes very heavily centre-right. The East Coast is a bit more mixed, but includes Stockholm County...

[Franzl]

That would be a third world country, not the best country in the world

Are you on drugs?

[Antonio the Sixth]

I mean if that's the reason OK, but I thought their might be something about the economic nature of coastal areas as well(which seem disproportionately left wing, and not just in America).

That's not true for Sweden at least. The Swedish West Coast votes very heavily centre-right. The East Coast is a bit more mixed, but includes Stockholm County...

Yeah, actually the Coast/Hinterland divide seems an American specificity. You can't find it in France (there are right-wing coast, left-wing coast, right-wing hinterlands and left-wing hinterlands), Italy (otherwise the country would be 95% left-wing), UK or Germany (AFAIK).

[Sbane]

Having lived on both the East Coast and the West Coast I would say that people on the West Coast are a lot more open minded.  It feels like an entirely different country.  If California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii seceded and formed a new country, they would be the best country in the world by far.

I wish the West coast would leave the country.

That would be a third world country, not the best country in the world

In case you didn't notice, California is a banana republic now thanks to liberalism

How stupid are you? California gives out more in income taxes than it gets back. The reverse is true of the Republican rural welfare states.

[All Along The Watchtower]

-Education levels are higher typically for West Coast whites

-Church attendance is low for West Coast whites

-There's just a very "cosmopolitan" reputation to the West Coast that attracts liberal-minded people.

-A lot of people have immigrants here as their friends and neighbors, and many of the immigrants on the West Coast are more educated and higher-income than immigrants in say, Texas or Arizona, so the whites here tend to be more open to immigration in general based on experience and aren't really bothered by illegal immigration.

-History and culture. San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles have historically all attracted many well-educated, creative, and otherwise liberal people from all over the world, and continue to do so to this day.

-Whites who were more conservative left the West Coast, particularly the Bay Area and SoCal  because of higher taxes, lost jobs in areas like the defense industry,  and because of a sense of feeling alienated culturally and politically from the people and  immigrants (both legal and illegal) who have come to the West Coast in droves.

[phk]

Having lived on both the East Coast and the West Coast I would say that people on the West Coast are a lot more open minded.  It feels like an entirely different country.  If California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii seceded and formed a new country, they would be the best country in the world by far.

I wish the West coast would leave the country.

That would be a third world country, not the best country in the world

In case you didn't notice, California is a banana republic now thanks to liberalism

How stupid are you? California gives out more in income taxes than it gets back. The reverse is true of the Republican rural welfare states.

Actually this is basically a long running misconception. The GOP voters in those state's are not being net subsidized or as net subsdized as the Democrats.

Reason why many GOP states receive federal funding is for a few main reasons though.

1.) Military bases. Federal funding for Northern states declined as military bases were being consistently shutdown throughout the 1990s. New bases opened up in more rural and more Southern states, which is better for year-round operations anyway.

2.) National Parks such as Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. In general more land tends to be federally owned in the West than it does in the East thus shifting the costs to the Federal government.

3.) Minority communities who vote heavily Democratic. Shannon County, South Dakota; South Texas; Black Belt.

4.)2004 Bush States have over four times the length of Federal Highways to maintain than they do in 2004 Kerry States.

[Sbane]

Well, number 1 and 4 are expected, and basically what I am bitching about. If North Dakota gets two interstates, California can get high speed rail.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Well, number 1 and 4 are expected, and basically what I am bitching about. If North Dakota gets two interstates, California can get high speed rail.

North Dakota probably wants a 3rd so that they can have as many as Montana or Wyoming.

[Sbane]

Well, number 1 and 4 are expected, and basically what I am bitching about. If North Dakota gets two interstates, California can get high speed rail.

North Dakota probably wants a 3rd so that they can have as many as Montana or Wyoming.

It's only fair.