Ernest Callenbach’s *Ecotopia * describes a liberal paradise in the forested areas of Washington, Oregon and northern California down to San Francisco. I’d agree that most people who actually live there wouldn’t sign on to anything like it. Plus San Francisco is too expensive for a hippy, except the Steve Jobs variety, to afford anymore. The metro areas are comparatively socially liberal though.
If you like to think of liberal vs conservative in terms of voting, the old red state-blue state thing, here is a red/blue map of the last Oregon governor’s election by county. The major city area of Portland and college areas are blue, the rest of the state is red.
Further down the article you see a somewhat different green/purple map showing the counties who voted for legalization of pot. They are not the same.
It is important to realize when looking at these maps that beyond the eastern edge of the blue or green areas on the map is a whole lot of nothing much. Wilderness, sage brush, high desert, some farming, but few people.
The eastern part of the state will always vote red because apparently trees don’t vote and antelope are Republicans.
I wonder why Oregon tends to vote blue (at least Presidentially) even though most people here are pretty centrist or conservative in their outlook. My guess would be that most of the blue voters are Hispanics and people who have migrated to Oregon from other states. Native Oregonians are as parochial and conservative a people as you will come across.
The only “progressive” issue I find most Oregonians are in favor of is environmentalism, and even that seems skin deep being every other car here seems to be a truck or a huge SUV. :rolleyes: Racism and classism in the sense of opposing welfare services, public school funding and public transit is pretty entrenched in Oregon. Believe it or not, Portland actually voted down the MAX airport line back in the 90s.
Edit: I’d also say the relative lack of religion in Oregon makes the GOP’s pandering to Christians far less effective. I’d say most of the people here could either be considered fiscally conservative secular Republicans or blue dog Democrats, but the relatively few people who are religious tend to be extremely so. The bohemian/hippie population probably makes up no more than 5 percent of the populace in general, but the way people stereotype the West Coast you’d think everyone here was like that.
I should know better than to open any thread by protoboard. Like I said a few months ago: *MOVE *already.
I’m going to say Vermont. They have elected a socialist to the House and then the Senate for the last 14 years.
Isn’t it cute how the OP equated “liberal” with “open minded”. Bless his heart.
I think he moved to Eugene then Grass Valley, CA.
They’re both still the abhorrent west coast!