I listened to Rabbi Dan Lapin one night recently on the radio. I had never heard him before. He's fun.
The subject that attracted my attention was that he was pondering why the big coastal cities are Lefty havens. I started thinking about that back in August of last year and went much further than Rabbi Lapin because I have the facts: all cities vote Democratic.
Rabbi
Lapin's explanation is the people who earn their money with little or
no effort or special skill feel guilty and vote Lefty (to ostensibly
give tax money to poor people). He points out that Hollywood actors
and performers are nearly all Lefties because they earn $ millions
without hard work or skill while athletes are mostly conservative
because they work hard and know they have unique skills.
Rabbi Lapin connects that psychological analysis to coastal cities because trust fund kids and government employees predominantly live in coastal cities. That is his explanation.
I like his explanation but it doesn't fit the data. Cities have been Democratic in almost every instance since they became big, even Northern cities during the Civil War when the Democratic Party was pro-slavery. Hollywood is Lefty because it was founded by Lefty Russian Jews and run by Lefty Jews to this day.
Cities are definitely filled with trust fund kids, bureaucrats, academics and firemen who are paid high wages and do very little serious work, but in most cities that is not enough votes to account for the oblivious Lefty Fundamentalism.
At this point (I'm still thinking about the reasons and searching for data) the two dominant facts I keep in mind are that (1) there is a founder effect; the founders of big cities are historically immigrants, laborers and social outcasts (think New York, Boston and San Francisco). These kinds of founders tended over long periods to support unions and corrupt city machines. There is also a (2) 80% rule of social life; people new to an area or institution need to have 80% of the same ideas and values of the people they live with in order to remain... which keeps cities Democratic over long periods.
I'm not satisfied with my theory yet... but it fits most of the data I have.
The subject that attracted my attention was that he was pondering why the big coastal cities are Lefty havens. I started thinking about that back in August of last year and went much further than Rabbi Lapin because I have the facts: all cities vote Democratic.
Rabbi Lapin connects that psychological analysis to coastal cities because trust fund kids and government employees predominantly live in coastal cities. That is his explanation.
I like his explanation but it doesn't fit the data. Cities have been Democratic in almost every instance since they became big, even Northern cities during the Civil War when the Democratic Party was pro-slavery. Hollywood is Lefty because it was founded by Lefty Russian Jews and run by Lefty Jews to this day.
Cities are definitely filled with trust fund kids, bureaucrats, academics and firemen who are paid high wages and do very little serious work, but in most cities that is not enough votes to account for the oblivious Lefty Fundamentalism.
At this point (I'm still thinking about the reasons and searching for data) the two dominant facts I keep in mind are that (1) there is a founder effect; the founders of big cities are historically immigrants, laborers and social outcasts (think New York, Boston and San Francisco). These kinds of founders tended over long periods to support unions and corrupt city machines. There is also a (2) 80% rule of social life; people new to an area or institution need to have 80% of the same ideas and values of the people they live with in order to remain... which keeps cities Democratic over long periods.
I'm not satisfied with my theory yet... but it fits most of the data I have.