Balkinization

Daniel Solove over at Balkinization links to an interesting study that discusses the 25 cities who vote the most liberal and the most conservative.

One fault with the study I have right off the bat is that the group conducting the study substitutes liberal for Democratic and conservative for Republican, but that is another matter. But as another matter, the group, the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, makes this earthshattering statement:

BACVR researchers found a direct correlation between a city’s political ideology and its racial makeup. “The great political divide in America today is not red vs. blue, north vs. south, costal vs. interior or even rich vs. poor – it is now clearly black vs. white,” said Phil Reiff, a BACVR director.

Now, I don't have a degree in survey research, only years of experience observing elections and here is my response:

DUHHH!!!!

Racially polarized voting has a long history in America, reaching back to the Civil War, when Blacks voted overwhelmingly Republican and now vote overwhelmingly Democratic. I guess teh BACVR is just now catching up to the rest of the world in this rather simple understanding.

But I don't think the difference between liberal and conservative voting is simply a matter of population make up, but one of population in general. Each of the cities on the Conservative side are generally smaller cities, where as those voting on the liberal side are generally very large cities, including the largest cities in America. While there are large minority populations in those cities, I think that the fact that the "conservative" cities are smaller means a more homogeneous population, leading to a political mindset shared by the majority of the population.