Conservative and Liberal Cities: Where Does Nashville Stand ?

[Dale]

Interesting study from 2014. No surprises for me on Most-Conservative and Most-Liberal. Nashville near the head of the pack of Conservative-Leaning cities.

Surprises for me ...

LA is less-liberal than Austin.

San Diego and Denver are less-liberal than Miami and Atlanta.

NYC is less-liberal than Seattle.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/05/mesa-arizona-most-conservative-big-city/13641061/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[grilled_cheese]

The way our government is setup it gives more power to less populated areas.  Why does someone from Buttholeville, TN have any right to say what Nashville does.  But guess what, they do. 

I wish Nashville could treat those less populated areas the way they treat us.  How much money we could save on infrastructure alone.

[fieldmarshaldj]

11 minutes ago, grilled_cheese said:

The way our government is setup it gives more power to less populated areas.  Why does someone from Buttholeville, TN have any right to say what Nashville does.  But guess what, they do. 

I wish Nashville could treat those less populated areas the way they treat us.  How much money we could save on infrastructure alone.

Well, because Buttholeville shouldn't be forced to pay for expensive, harebrained schemes in Nashville.

[grilled_cheese]

1 hour ago, fieldmarshaldj said:

Well, because Buttholeville shouldn't be forced to pay for expensive, harebrained schemes in Nashville.

A similar argument can be made for projects and infrastructure in extremely low population areas in TN.  The difference between the two is that one is an economic juggernaut and constantly needing to adapt to changing issues while the other is an economic drain comparatively while resisting change at all costs.

[fieldmarshaldj]

True, you can make the argument, but Buttholeville has taxpayers, too, and their rights and concerns matter. Of course, some change is good, some isn't.

[Dale]

2 hours ago, grilled_cheese said:

The way our government is setup it gives more power to less populated areas.  Why does someone from Buttholeville, TN have any right to say what Nashville does.  But guess what, they do. 

I wish Nashville could treat those less populated areas the way they treat us.  How much money we could save on infrastructure alone.

Not germaine to the study I cited. If they studied metros, rather than cities proper, Nashville would be ranked even more conservative. Trump won the metro handily.

[CityHeart]

Dale, what is your source ?

[Dale]

13 hours ago, CityHeart said:

Dale, what is your source ?

Here it is again: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/05/mesa-arizona-most-conservative-big-city/13641061/

[CityHeart]

On 12/27/2016 at 9:13 AM, Dale said:

Here it is again: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/05/mesa-arizona-most-conservative-big-city/13641061/

Thanks. I read the article but the map graphic did not appear for me when viewing it from my mobile, so I had to view it from a desktop.  I really was asking for your source regarding Trump winning metro handily. Where can we view those stats ?

[fieldmarshaldj]

29 minutes ago, CityHeart said:

Thanks. I read the article but the map graphic did not appear for me when viewing it from my mobile, so I had to view it from a desktop.  I really was asking for your source regarding Trump winning metro handily. Where can we view those stats ?

Dale meant the Nashville Metro Area (MSA) consisting of 14 counties, not "Metro" as in Davidson County.

[CityHeart]

1 hour ago, fieldmarshaldj said:

Dale meant the Nashville Metro Area (MSA) consisting of 14 counties, not "Metro" as in Davidson County.

Got it. It all makes since now !!  I knew that Clinton won Davidson County 60.3 % to Trump 34. 3 %.  Thanks all. 

[Dale]

15 hours ago, CityHeart said:

Thanks. I read the article but the map graphic did not appear for me when viewing it from my mobile, so I had to view it from a desktop.  I really was asking for your source regarding Trump winning metro handily. Where can we view those stats ?

How the Metros voted: http://www.citylab.com/politics/2016/12/mapping-how-americas-metro-areas-voted/508313/

[ruraljuror]

17 hours ago, CityHeart said:

Got it. It all makes since now !!  I knew that Clinton won Davidson County 60.3 % to Trump 34. 3 %.  Thanks all. 

Seems like they went with some pretty large geographic regions and lumped them together as metros.  In our case, the graphic is more a representation of the Middle Tennessee vote than the Nashville Metro vote.

[Dale]

2 minutes ago, ruraljuror said:

Seems like they went with some pretty large geographic regions and lumped them together as metros.  In our case, the graphic is more a representation of the Middle Tennessee vote than the Nashville Metro vote.

As far as I know, they went with the standard metrics for metros. Why should anyone be surprised that the metro is conservative ?

[CityHeart]

14 minutes ago, Dale said:

As far as I know, they went with the standard metrics for metros. Why should anyone be surprised that the metro is conservative ?

I don't know if anyone is necessarily surprised. I think we are giving clarity to the meaning, representation, and the usage of the term Metro. I'm definitely not surprised that Middle Tennessee ( Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin,Tn is politically conservative. 

[Dale]

4 minutes ago, CityHeart said:

I don't know if anyone is necessarily surprised. I think we are giving clarity to the meaning, representation, and the usage of the term Metro. I'm definitely not surprised that Middle Tennessee ( Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin,Tn is politically conservative. 

I wasn't aware that there was any confusion as to what 'metro' entailed. We typically differentiate between cities and MSAs.

[Nashtitans]

Davidson county is liberal/blue. All the other counties in our MSA are conservative/red, so the overall MSA being red isn't surprising.

[Dale]

1 hour ago, Nashtitans said:

Davidson county is liberal/blue. All the other counties in our MSA are conservative/red, so the overall MSA being red isn't surprising.

And of course the whole point of the findings are to discuss how metros compare to each other. Some metros are blue. Some metros are red, etc.

[fieldmarshaldj]

4 hours ago, Dale said:

I wasn't aware that there was any confusion as to what 'metro' entailed. We typically differentiate between cities and MSAs.

The confusion is that Nashville-Davidson County is often called "Metro" (as in Metro Nashville) locally, but that is not referring to the counties that make up the MSA, which can also be called the "Metro (area)." As an example, the local law enforcement is simply called "Metro Police" (almost never any mention of Nashville in the name), but they are strictly just within the city/county, not the outlying counties. Again, very confusing for those not living here (and sometimes for those that are).

[Dale]

2 hours ago, fieldmarshaldj said:

The confusion is that Nashville-Davidson County is often called "Metro" (as in Metro Nashville) locally, but that is not referring to the counties that make up the MSA, which can also be called the "Metro (area)." As an example, the local law enforcement is simply called "Metro Police" (almost never any mention of Nashville in the name), but they are strictly just within the city/county, not the outlying counties. Again, very confusing for those not living here (and sometimes for those that are).

Yes, I am aware that Nashville is one of the few cities that has consolidated. Jacksonville is another. In any case, I tend to think of cities as MSAs. And here's something even crazier ...

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/here-are-the-real-boundaries-of-american-metropolises-decided-by-an-algorithm

[grilled_cheese]

If you say 'metro' in or around Nashville people will assume you are talking about the city of Nashville. 

I still disagree with Nashville, the city, being conservative.  We want decrim weed, we don't try to outlaw Muslims, hate crime LGBTQ people, etc. 

Head out to Rutherford, Sumner, Maury, or Williamson and you can find those things.

[Dale]

31 minutes ago, grilled_cheese said:

If you say 'metro' in or around Nashville people will assume you are talking about the city of Nashville. 

I still disagree with Nashville, the city, being conservative.  We want decrim weed, we don't try to outlaw Muslims, hate crime LGBTQ people, etc. 

Head out to Rutherford, Sumner, Maury, or Williamson and you can find those things.

Again, cities are always less conservative than their surrounding counties and states. The point of this study is to compare MSAs. Based on policies enacted and supported, Nashville ranks as one of the most conservative MSAs.

 

 

[fieldmarshaldj]

34 minutes ago, grilled_cheese said:

If you say 'metro' in or around Nashville people will assume you are talking about the city of Nashville. 

I still disagree with Nashville, the city, being conservative.  We want decrim weed, we don't try to outlaw Muslims, hate crime LGBTQ people, etc. 

Head out to Rutherford, Sumner, Maury, or Williamson and you can find those things.

Nashville hasn't had a "Conservative" Mayor in decades. Briley came closest, but he was a moderate. Everyone after him has been left-wing to hard-left. The last time Nashville voted GOP for President was 1988, although it did vote for Gov. Haslam in 2014 against a very weak and desultory Dem opponent (Haslam carried every county). It voted for Sen. Corker in 2012 (also against desultory opposition), though was the only county in the state to vote for Lamar!'s opponent in 2014, Gordon Ball. 

[Dale]

4 minutes ago, fieldmarshaldj said:

Nashville hasn't had a "Conservative" Mayor in decades. Briley came closest, but he was a moderate. Everyone after him has been left-wing to hard-left. The last time Nashville voted GOP for President was 1988, although it did vote for Gov. Haslam in 2014 against a very weak and desultory Dem opponent (Haslam carried every county). It voted for Sen. Corker in 2012 (also against desultory opposition), though was the only county in the state to vote for Lamar!'s opponent in 2014, Gordon Ball. 

There are only a handful of cities which have conservative mayors these days. OKC, Fort Worth and Tulsa among them. These are the cities which MSAs rank as conservative in the study. Nashville MSA is in the next category which is conservative-leaning. That said, Nashville MSA narrowly misses the conservative category.

To the other point, there are many cities that would never vote for a conservative under any circumstance.

My Charlotte might be an outlier. It ranks as less conservative than Nashville. But a conservative mayor served for 14 years as recently as a decade ago. And in the last mayoral election a radical liberal narrowly defeated a conservative. Also, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County (equivalent of Davidson County) voted to uphold traditional marriage in a 2011 referendum, which was overturned by the courts.

 

 

[fieldmarshaldj]

14 minutes ago, Dale said:

There are only a handful of cities which have conservative mayors these days. OKC, Fort Worth and Tulsa among them. These are the cities which MSAs rank as conservative in the study. Nashville MSA is in the next category which is conservative-leaning. That said, Nashville MSA narrowly misses the conservative category.

To the other point, there are many cities that would never vote for a conservative under any circumstance.

My Charlotte might be an outlier. It ranks as less conservative than Nashville. But a conservative mayor served for 14 years as recently as a decade ago. And in the last mayoral election a radical liberal narrowly defeated a conservative. Also, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County (equivalent of Davidson County) voted to uphold traditional marriage in a 2011 referendum, which was overturned by the courts.

Charlotte was a Republican city until a decade ago. Many cities used to be (Nashville never was, it has been Democrat since Reconstruction, the last GOP Mayor was elected in 1886. It was, however, Whig before the Civil War). Of course, ideology didn't necessarily line up neatly with GOP=right/Dem=left. NYC elected a Republican Mayor in 1965 with John Lindsay, a left-wing Congressman who eventually left the party during his time in office, he would be the polar opposite in management style to Rudy Giuliani, elected 28 years later. Philadelphia elected a law & order Conservative Democrat in Frank Rizzo in the 1970s (even Detroit in 1969 elected Roman Gribbs, the former police chief, a center-right Democrat law & order type). A few examples.

However, many cities have become more and more polarized politically over the past 4-5 decades. The center-right supporting middle class with 2 parents & kids would move out to the suburbs. In its place would be more "hip" young single adults who favored trendy leftist politics and the lifestyles afforded them, along with the non-whites that tended to be Democrat (especially in the post-Civil Rights Era) and unionized workers (although private sector union workers are more competitive for the GOP while public sector ones are uniformally Dem), and many in the upper-class, once the mainstay of the GOP, have moved to the Democrats (indeed, so much so that the old claim of the GOP being "the party of the rich" is no longer true, as the most upscale locales in the nation handily vote Dem now). In cities with prominent colleges or state capitals, that also has attracted more left-leaners.

A glance at many counties throughout the country that contain a state capital can see how far to the left they've moved in their voting habits just since the 1980s (for example, in 1984 that just 10 voted Democrat (Denver, Atlanta, Des Moines, Boston, St. Paul, Santa Fe, Albany, Providence, Richmond & Madison). Only 15 of these 50 counties voted GOP for President last month (Maricopa/Phoenix in AZ; Kent/Dover in DE; Springfield/Sangamon in IL; Topeka/Shawnee in KS; Frankfort/Franklin in KY; Augusta/Kennebec in ME; Jefferson City/Cole in MO; Helena/Lewis & Clark in MT; Carson City in NV; Bismarck/Burleigh in ND; OK City/Oklahoma in OK; Salem/Marion in OR; Pierre/Hughes in SD; Charleston/Kanawha in WV & Cheyenne/Laramie in WY). With the exception of Phoenix and OK City, none had over a half-million residents. A whopping 25 county-swing to the left.

All of this, of course, has contributed to a vast gulf politically/socially between Americans. Most non-city residents look with disdain and revulsion at the ideology of the cities and the feeling is mutual for city residents looking at the vast swaths of the country who voted for Trump. Like-minded people tend to want to live next to people that share their values, and if they have means to move from areas where they don't, they do so.