Name Two States That a Very Similar Politically...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Most areas vote Republican due to economic libertarianism.

Since when was Bart Stupak an "economic libertarian"?

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UP isn't an agricultural area; mainly resource industries (especially metal mining).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Since when was Mitt Romney a liberal?

I've never said he is and I don't think that has much to do with anything.
I used Stupak as an example because most of the state/local politicians in the area have similer or similer-ish views to him... so unless there's something very odd about voting patterns up there

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I didn't make the claim, but while there are differences (PA coalfields do tend to be more socially conservative, and more Catholic, than the UP is) there are plently of similarities as well. Mind you the western and central parts of the UP (where most of the people live) are politically quite different to the eastern part.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

While it's true that the Marquette area is probably more liberal than the SSM/Mackinac part, neither can effectively be compared to the coal mining regions of Pennsylvania,

I don't really see why not; despite the differences (which are largely (but not entirely) due to the different ethnic composition of the two areas) they are *reasonably* similer; certainly *not* an exact match though.

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Not at all. The PA coalfields are strongly Catholic for the most part; the religious patterns of Central Appalachia are unique in the U.S; religious, yes, Evangelical, yes, Church going... not usually. At least not to the same extent as in the rest of the U.S
Lot's of small Charismatic churches, chapels etc. as well.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The differences are not only due to ethnicity, but type of land, economy, etc.

The historical economic structure (which is what generally determines voting patterns) of most of the UP is similer to the most of the PA coalfields; based around primaries industries the products of which were then exported to larger industrial centres.
Now when you go into more detail, differences emerge (coal in PA as opposed to Iron and Copper in MI, the use of a lake for transportation as opposed to rivers etc)... although there's a lot of differences between different PA coalfields; labor disputes were always more violent in the Anthracite Region than out West.

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I wasn't talking about central Pennsylvania

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And when you factor in the major religious and ethnic differences, you get two entirely different regions that sometimes have similar voting patterns. Wow.

I didn't say that they weren't different. I said that there are some simileraties.