What made Colorado Springs so right wing?

[ButterflyBlood]

I know Focus on the Family is based there, but it seems they decided to locate there because it was a right wing haven, not the other way around. It's such a shocking foil to the not so far away very liberal Denver/Boulder area. Just about everything in reverse.

[T Roosevelt]

1. My guess - Air Force Academy

[hexola]

2. My impression of Boulder was different...

It seemed like conservatives in Birkenstocks...

But I was only there 2 weeks...10 years ago...so ignore me.

3. I lived in Boulder

I'd describe it more as liberals with a lot of money so they aren't really liberal anymore even though they think they are.

Just to make sweeping generalizations. .:evilgrin: I know they're not all like that.

[ButterflyBlood]

7. I think CO-2, the district based around Boulder

was Nader's best in 2000. Don't know why though, maybe it was the environmentalists and not the rich liberals.

[paulk]

17. a lot of the Boulder "liberals"

are just trust fund reactionaries, especially now that Boulder has become such an expensive place to live. I used to call them "granola Nazis", in that their "leftist" ideology was just as rigid (and cut off from reality) as any right wingers.

[maggrwaggr]

22. we used to call ones with dreadlocks "Trustafarians"

you'd see some kid who looked homeless but he'd be riding around on a 3,000 dollar mountain bike, dreadlocks trailing behind him.

[paulk]

28. LOL

One of my defining moments in Boulder - I was sitting in a coffee shop; these two waif like young women came in, neither of whom looked like they they had eaten (or bathed) in a week. They were literally dressed in rags. I was going to offer them some money - I thought they were panhandlers trying to bum a coffee.

They bought two lattes, jumped in their brand new Toyota land cruiser and drove off. Everyone in the shop was left staring after them with their mouth's open.

Boulder turned me into a cynic.

[cprise]

31. I used to live in that area

..about 4 years.

I never expected Trustafarians to be clean or wearing their best duds when coming back from a long hike. I may have envied them, but I didn't begrudge privileged kids who wanted to be irresponsible for a while or push themselves near the edge.

Also being relatively well-off, their leftism is more international. They are more comfortable with secular structures that assert some authority beyond the EOFF (equal oppotunity for fundies) mentality that's usually found in the U.S.

I am from a poor background from a rundown N.E. textile town. These people scared me at first, but they are easily 100% better than the Cambridge crowd.

[Hotler]

4. All the fucking transplants.

That's all I have to say.

[Ksec]

5. water?

or maybe the local news media which can shape people, hard to say.

[drkedjr]

6. Colorado Springs

My aunt & uncle from New Hampshire, moved to Colorado Springs many years ago. (30 years or so)
I could never understand why. Eventually, it came out that they were taken by the New Age crap
that infested the area at that time and still does as far as I can determine. They were strick Catholics,
yet, whatever the new age stuff going on was all about, it really took them in. Now, I'm sure it's a form
of republican brainwashing - I know that offends spiritual persons, but the connection is too clear.

[Nostradammit]

10. You have no idea what you are talking about -

no offense, but you clearly know nothing about C. Springs.

[maggrwaggr]

23. but they know a thing about "strick Catholics"

n't

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

8. Air Force Academy, Space Command HQ, and a big Army base.

...(I dont recall the name of the Army base)....this right there pumps a lot of right wing blood into the town (& alot of $$$ into the economy).

[kentuck]

25. Not only Fort Carson, they also have Peterson Air Field...

Norad, AFA,...... and the old ENT Air Force base is now occupied by the US Olympics , athletes and offices. There is the highly official Schrivner Air Base (sp)? And there are many retired generals and high officers living in hte Springs..

[Nostradammit]

9. Uh, Lessee -

Air Force Academy, Peterson Field, Fort Carson, NORAD, and at one time Ent AFB.

Mucho, mucho military. Prime breeding ground for the right-wing. I grew up, in the military, in Colorado Springs, and still have family there and it is just un-frickin' believable how that town has been taken over. You drive down I-25 and there are huge highway signs directing you to Focus on the Family's headquarters. You turn on the radio and try to find a secular station and you just keep flipping the dial.

My poor mother-in-law is fairly liberal and has to live in that culture. The Gazette Telegraph reads like an English version of the Taliban Times.

*sigh*

You just can't go home anymore...

[ButterflyBlood]

11. strange

a rather leftist friend of mine is planning on moving there with his fiance once they get married. he is seriously stoked.

then again he currently lives in Springfield, Missouri, another far right haven. maybe he's used to it.

[Nostradammit]

15. Oh it's a beautiful city -

Landscape-wise, I don't think you'll find a prettier town of that size in the world. The Rocky Mountains begin right there at your feet, and though they've over-developed the hell out of the state, there is still some serious fun to be had. We were living in Littleton, 60 miles to the north, but eventually got driven out by the strip-malls that stretch from the foothills to the Kansas plains these days.

Your friend is in for a brain-washing, though, no two ways around it. I think the nightly news always begins with a two-minute moment of prayer while they show pictures of G.W!

:puke:

[Touchdown]

18. The larger the city gets, the less of a stranglehold they have

They still win local elections, and El Paso County still always goes red, but they don't have dictating power in city council anymore...they have to actually debate and compromise to get what they want, something their none too happy about. But with such a large influx from California, it was bound to happen eventually.

I know what everybody's thinking, but it's a start.

If I recall, FOF came from Oklahoma.

[paulk]

12. not just active military -

but a lot of military retirees, also.

[ButterflyBlood]

13. think they might be a little pissed at * slashing their benefits?

if we can cut down on the margin of loss in Colorado Springs, carrying the whole state will be a lot easier. Especially if Salazar running for Senate increases Hispanic turnout.

[paulk]

20. it's hard to say, when it comes to the Springs

that place is seriously right wing. A few years ago I did some work down there right on the Air Force base - we got put up in a motel nearby - ran into a lot of active and retired flyboys, and it was like being in another country.

A lot of troops out of Ft. Carson have been killed and / or wounded in Iraq - I wonder if that's having an effect?

The Colorado Springs economy has also been hurt pretty badly by all the soldiers leaving.

I think we have a real shot at winning the Senate seat this fall. Seventh district is also a good possibility in the House, and I've heard rumors that the western slope could also be up for grabs. The national party paid no attention to CO in 2000, they just wrote us off. With a good turnout and a motivated party I think Colorado could really be a surprise come November.

[arewethereyet]

14. Army has or had a big pressense there

my Dad went to OCS there.

caught some damn fine rainbow trout as well

[K-W]

16. I was born there, but I doubt that relates :) nt

[RapidCreek]

19. Most western states are conservative because

their economies are based upon resource extraction. Their governments and media are controlled by companies which make their money off of resource extraction. In Deadwood/Lead South Dakota Homestake Corporation at one time forced all employees to register Republican...after which they continuously barraged them with Republican propaganda. Homestake employed probably 80 percent of the population of these two towns directly and 45 percent of four others. The majority of those people in these communities not employed directly by Homestake served it's employees in way way or another.

The same can be said of Anaconda Copper in Butte Montana. I imagine a similar set of circumstances apply in Colorado Springs.

RC

[kentuck]

21. At one time it was referred to as "Little London"....

So it has been somewhat elitist for a long time. It goes back to the days of goldmining up in Cripple Creek also. Many of the wealthier people of that time built big houses down in the Springs. Presidents and world leaders have visited the Springs many times.

Indeed, there were one or two religious cults that sprung up near the Springs in the '60's and 70's but moved to Montana or Idaho or some other isolated spot. Still, there were about 55-60 different religious organizations in the city at one time - about 10-15 years ago - I have no idea if that number has decreased or increased.

Focus on the Family now has their own large, green roadsign to point visitors to their landmark institution off I-25 South from Denver. It sparked a little controversy when people first heard about it.

However, the local newspaper has been very conservative ever since I can recall and it has impacted the community to a large degree. When I moved here in the late 70's, I was told by an old lady about 85 years old that there was a time in the 40's and '50's that you could not rent a place in Colorado Springs unless you went down and registered Republican...

[maggrwaggr]

24. But then there's Manitou Springs

which is a little hippie enclave halfway up the mountain.

And there's Colorado College, the "Harvard of the West".

Weird place. I almost moved there once in about 1984.

[kentuck]

27. But weatherwise, it is special for Colorado, in my opinion..

Denver, just 60 miles to the north, is usually colder in the winter, and Pueblo, just 40 miles to the south, is usually hotter in the summer - by about 10 degrees. So the Springs has some of the best weather in the state, I think. The southern currents circle at Monument Hill and protect us from the usual harsh winters and the horrific hot summers.

34. sssshhhh

don't be talking about Manitou Springs

[mike1963]

26. I was in the USAF there back in the late 60s. The short answer:

morans at high altitude. Lack of oxygen makes them airhead stupid pricks.
It really doesnt get any more complicated...
:eyes:

[Touchdown]

29. Hey now! The high altitude...doesn't...

...affect....what were we talking about again?

[kentuck]

30. The Springs has always been anti-union also....

A couple of older neighbors remember when the trolley stopped right in front of my house. They refused to run it any further. People farther to the north had to walk. They believed that anybody that carried a lunch bucket was never worth more than a dollar an hour. They have always gone after the highly-skilled and low wage jobs. They attracted a lot of industry that way. By the way, Focus on the Family was lured to the Springs by the El Pomar Foundation and the Chamber of Commerce. They offered them money to move here instead of southern California. Of course, they don't pay a dime in taxes.

[Hekate]

32. A trance-channeler I knew moved there with her followers

I was briefly her office manager here on the Central Coast.

There were several things she said about Colorado Springs that have stuck with me: one is that it is in the Bible Belt, hence the conservatism. The Air Force presence also militates ;) toward conservative attitudes.

As to the attraction the area has toward New-Agers, she said it's the same reason the Air Force built so much in the area, though unknowingly: there is a convergance of ley-lines, which according to her makes it a power-center.

She would have built her conference center in the big power-spot, except the Air Force already had it. So her conference center, which at the time I was there was a campsite on a steep mountainside, is built a bit off of the convergance but still counts as majorly spiritual.

She and I guess any number of the New Agers who live there think California is slated to drop off into the ocean, and made little jokes about how this would be ocean view property some day. Considering what humanity is doing to the environment, the drowning of California may actually happen but just not for the same reasons.

Hekate

[welshTerrier2]

33. Little Haven of Liberalism--

If you want to find a little haven of liberalism in the CS (local lingo) check out Colorado College and the rest of the downtown area. Having lived there for four years I sometimes forget how conservative the rest of the town can be, but that doesn't mean that liberalism doesn't exist in the town. And don't get me started on Boulder or even Denver...they too can be very liberal regardless of the cost of living!

(Written and Produced by friend of welshTerrier2)