Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)
-   United States (https://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/)
-   -   Fun conservative cities?? (https://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/fun-conservative-cities-528799/)

bardo1 May 13th, 2005 08:51 AM

Fun conservative cities??
 
Another thread on this board got me thinking about this question.

Fun "liberal" cities might include Paris, Amsterdam, London, NYC, SF, Seattle, Montreal, New Orleans, DC, LA, Santa Fe, Key West, Portland, Seattle, Tuscon, Taos.

What are the most fun "red" towns???

I'll start with Cincinatti, Dallas, Houston, Salt Lake City. Any others??

my2cents May 13th, 2005 08:59 AM

Anaheim, home of Disneyland, of course!

JJ5 May 13th, 2005 10:14 AM

Actually a lot of people might disagree with me, but especially in conparison to those the OP mentioned, Chicago is quite conservative.

travelinandgolfin May 13th, 2005 10:58 AM

For better or worse, Honolulu, actually the entire state of Hawaii is about as liberal as you can get.

michaelcrane May 13th, 2005 11:08 AM

Spokane, Macon, Tulsa and Laramie.

jorr May 13th, 2005 11:14 AM

One "red" city which comes to mind is Moscow. Liberalism is still mostly looked down upon there. Washington D.C might come in a close second. I would also suggest Fargo ND, Houston, Salt Lake, and the entire states of Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Texas.

If you are looking for some foriegn countries I would suggest Pakistan, Afganistan and any other country which ends in stan.

Have fun!

bardo1 May 13th, 2005 11:20 AM

jorr,
I live in DC - 85% of residents are registered Democrats.

michael,
Are those really tourist destinations??? What gives them a fun vibe??

Judy24 May 13th, 2005 11:44 AM

Wouldn't "fun conservative" be considered an oxymoron? (Sorry, just couldn't resist.)

JJ5 May 13th, 2005 11:53 AM

Almost any interior city of the USA, when I think about this. Nearly all the coastal cities are much more liberal (as I think the OP infers) politically. But to compare (and even the ones the OP did) he/she would need to define "liberal". Is socialist liberal? Not to me. It's Socialism and not liberal Capitalism. And Communism is different yet again. This becomes relative to your own political stance in some perceptions of "common" definitions.

Fun is even more problematic. What is fun to you, may not be fun to me. Fun for those in their 20's is not necessarily fun for those in their 60's or in my culture.

And it may not be just about Political parties at all- because on a full scale political spectrum, ours (USA) are quite similar and not all that far apart.

Las Vegas is a "fun" city. Where does it stand on your definition of "liberal"?

jennymary May 13th, 2005 12:01 PM

Check out Sun Valley, Idaho. I think 90% of Idaho voted for Bush in the last election. It's a great little town too..... Ironically, John Kerry owns a house there.

Vittrad May 13th, 2005 12:12 PM

JJ5 -- I agree that Chicago can be quite conservative, but for those who only see things in the dynamics of Bush or Kerry wouldn't (as Bush only got 19% of the vote in the city proper).

HKP May 13th, 2005 12:22 PM

Pre-war Berlin.

"Liberal" in European parlance means almost the exact opposite of what it has come to mean in the US. "Liberal" there means subscribing to free-market capitalism and the opposite of socialist or communist, where here people insist on believing it means tendencies to socialism or .... the horror ... worse! ;-)


JJ5 May 13th, 2005 12:29 PM

Chicago is not as liberal as that particular vote would convey. Not even close. People vote at any one time on one or two issues; and sometimes vote in backlash fashion against something or other or someone or other. That's why "politics makes strange bedfellows."

And these narrow, narrow definitions of liberal/conservative and tying them totally by USA political party, is meaningless when comparing places like Paris, Amsterdam, London etc. to American cities.

And also Chicago is unlike many other cities in America, especially those in its size category. Many, many people actually do a "backward" or "suburb to surburb" commute to their workplace now, more than in Eastern cities for sure. Chicago area business is no longer totally in "Chicago" proper. Chicago center has become a tourist business more than the business of industry center, which it was. Many of the big companies are now gone to burbs. Primarily financial and service is all that is left.

So counting only city proper is very, very deceptive. As is structuring the value criteria by Democratic/Republican vote count.

SFImporter May 13th, 2005 12:43 PM

My criteria - liberal cities include those that will either allow - or would like to allow - my partner of ten years and I to be married.

Makes for a short list, doesn't it?

So much for "all men created equal". It's not really the "land of the free" - perhaps "land of the freer (than others)".

Vittrad May 13th, 2005 12:47 PM

SFImporter - well, you'd at least have our mayor's support ;) He came out in support of gay marriage a good while ago.

Shane May 13th, 2005 12:53 PM

jennymary, the county in which Sun Valley is located is the only Democratic leaning county in Idaho. It was the only county in Idaho John Kerry carried.

sunny16 May 13th, 2005 01:03 PM

I've heard that Co. Springs is very, very conservative. Not sure if it's really a tourist destination though.

travelinwifey May 13th, 2005 01:21 PM

JJ5, actually Las Vegas (clark county) voted blue this last election. It's the smaller parts of nevada that vote red:)

JJ5 May 13th, 2005 01:30 PM

By SFImporter's definition of liberal than nearly all of the Chicago area is liberal, and probably the state is as well. Social issues and financial issues that are tied together under a narrow political party stance are artificial, and do not necessarily denote agreement for every agenda by every voter who supports by their vote a particular party in any one election.

You can be quite conservative in financial policy and in law application, and yet be quite "liberal" by SFImporter's sense in social issues.

In this sense (SF's), the Govinator is a liberal, and yet he is also staunchly Republican.

By that same sense, Chicago is very much "like" the Gov. of California. Traditionally liberal on social issues, but much, much more Conservative on financial and law application issues than what the OP's "liberal" definition is.

Pre-war Berlin is an extremely good example that was given.

In previous times and in some periods, Chicago has not been dissimilar to a Pre-war Berlin. And some of that has gone, but not quite all- by any means.

RBCal May 13th, 2005 01:38 PM

Any city in Texas or Phoenix. Unfortunately, they aren't much fun though. Just like most conservatives (though apparently some are, John Bolton was reportedly a habitue of Plato's retreat in NYC).


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 07:38 AM.