California politics isn’t just left vs. right. Our analysis found a third extreme

cawacko

Well-known member
Into the weeds but interesting since we often like to see where we lay on the political spectrum compared to others.

The SF Chronicle laid out six groups withing the state: Staunch conservatives, moderate conservatives, standard liberals, tesla liberals, urban working class and left coast.

The three extremes they say are right, left-populist and left-technocratic

The way they did it you need to click on the link to follow. Hopefully its accessible:



California politics isn’t just left vs. right. Our analysis found a third extreme​


Earlier this month, the Chronicle published its guide to understanding the six groups that constitute California’s political geography — a schema showing that our communities don’t just lie along a left-right spectrum.

How did we get to six? Our analysis itself says something about how the state’s politics work.

To break down California into political groups, we examined how similarly (or dissimilarly) each voting precinct in the state voted on 65 issues that appeared on the ballot between 2016 and 2024. As part of that investigation, we performed what’s called a principal component analysis, which is a technique to try to distill all those measures down to a handful of dimensions along which precincts really differ.

The dimensions produced by the analysis don’t have an inherent meaning — the algorithm that produces them doesn’t even know they are about elections. But looking at the two most important of these dimensions revealed a telling pattern.


 
Into the weeds but interesting since we often like to see where we lay on the political spectrum compared to others.

The SF Chronicle laid out six groups withing the state: Staunch conservatives, moderate conservatives, standard liberals, tesla liberals, urban working class and left coast.

The three extremes they say are right, left-populist and left-technocratic

The way they did it you need to click on the link to follow. Hopefully its accessible:



California politics isn’t just left vs. right. Our analysis found a third extreme​


Earlier this month, the Chronicle published its guide to understanding the six groups that constitute California’s political geography — a schema showing that our communities don’t just lie along a left-right spectrum.

How did we get to six? Our analysis itself says something about how the state’s politics work.

To break down California into political groups, we examined how similarly (or dissimilarly) each voting precinct in the state voted on 65 issues that appeared on the ballot between 2016 and 2024. As part of that investigation, we performed what’s called a principal component analysis, which is a technique to try to distill all those measures down to a handful of dimensions along which precincts really differ.

The dimensions produced by the analysis don’t have an inherent meaning — the algorithm that produces them doesn’t even know they are about elections. But looking at the two most important of these dimensions revealed a telling pattern.


That is a great article, thanks for sharing. Its fascinating to me when you break it down beyond just left v. right.

I saw a lot of this when I lived in Alabama, the areas with basically one party rule always have subsets of people and the party ends up having basically groups that function like opposition but they are all super conservative, just different types.
 
That is a great article, thanks for sharing. Its fascinating to me when you break it down beyond just left v. right.

I saw a lot of this when I lived in Alabama, the areas with basically one party rule always have subsets of people and the party ends up having basically groups that function like opposition but they are all super conservative, just different types.
Yes, what you experienced is like living in San Francisco just opposite party.

In SF even though people agree on most things nationally, they call local politics a blood sport and go at each other hard. The tribalism you see on a board like this (discussing national issues) goes out the window.

The more granular we get (state and local) the more our differences come out.
 
Yes, what you experienced is like living in San Francisco just opposite party.

In SF even though people agree on most things nationally, they call local politics a blood sport and go at each other hard. The tribalism you see on a board like this (discussing national issues) goes out the window.

The more granular we get (state and local) the more our differences come out.
That is why the founders wanted things solved locally and not nationally

They were wise men
 
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