Idaho's conservative conservatives

Following up with thoughts from the previous post, that the electoral tendencies of moderates are defined in large part by the political atmospheres of the states they live in doesn't necessarily mean the same holds true for their more ideologically committed cohorts. Conservatives are sparse in California, but the state still produces hard-liners like Tom McClintock and Brian Bilbray.

The following table ranks states by the percentages of their liberals who voted for Obama in the 2008 presidential election. The states are colored according to their contemporary political profiles, with purple states representing those in which Obama's total vote share ranged between 46%-54%. Due to insufficient sample size, Utah is excluded:

State	Obama %
1. District of Columbia	98
2. Delaware	95
3. Vermont	94
3. Oregon	94
5. Colorado	93
5. Washington	93
7. Illinois	92
7. New Mexico	92
7. New York	92
7. Minnesota	92
11. Hawaii	91
11. Maryland	91
11. California	91
11. Florida	91
11. Wisconsin	91
11. Pennsylvania	91
11. New Hampshire	91
18. Massachusetts	90
18. Connecticut	90
18 Virginia	90
18. Montana	90
22. Rhode Island	89
22. Iowa	89
24. Michigan	88
25. Nevada	87
25. New Jersey	87
25. Indiana	87
25. North Carolina	87
29. Maine	86
29. Texas	86
29. Missouri	86
32. Georgia	85
33. Tennessee	84
33. South Carolina	84
35. Ohio	83
35. Kansas	83
37. Idaho	82
38. North Dakota	81
38. Alaska	81
38. Oklahoma	81
41. South Dakota	80
42. Nebraska	78
43. Mississippi	77
43. Louisiana	77
43. Alabama	77
43. Wyoming	77
47. Arkansas	76
48. Arizona	75
49. Kentucky	74
50. West Virginia	71

The correlation between how a state voted and how its liberals voted is .79 (p = 0)--not quite as robust as for moderates, but still very strong for a measure like this. It's not just that blue states have relatively more liberals and fewer conservatives than red states do--blue state liberals also tend to be more liberal than red state liberals tend to be. Conversely, as the next table shows, red state conservatives are both more conservative and relatively more numerous than blue state conservatives are. Due to insufficient sample size, DC is excluded:

State	Obama %
1. Hawaii	41
2. Vermont	33
3. Illinois	29
3. New Mexico	29
5. Massachusetts	28
6. Connecticut	27
7. Delaware	25
8. Maryland	24
9. California	23
9. Rhode Island	23
9. Maine	23
12. Michigan	22
12. Ohio	22
12. Mississippi	22
15. Florida	21
15. Iowa	21
15. Nevada	21
15. New Jersey	21
15. Texas	21
15. Georgia	21
21. Wisconsin	20
22. Pennsylvania	19
23. Colorado	18
23. New York	18
23. Virginia	18
23. Louisiana	18
27. New Hampshire	17
27. Tennessee	17
27. South Dakota	17
27. Arizona	17
31. Washington	16
31. Indiana	16
31. Missouri	16
31. Alabama	16
31. Arkansas	16
36. Oregon	15
36. Minnesota	15
36. North Carolina	15
36. North Dakota	15
36. Kentucky	15
36. West Virginia	15
42. South Carolina	14
43. Nebraska	13
44. Alaska	12
45. Kansas	11
46. Montana	10
47. Oklahoma	9
48. Utah	9
49. Wyoming	8
50. Idaho	6

The correlation between how a state voted and how its conservatives voted is .81 (p = 0), almost identical to the liberal correlation and modestly weaker than the moderate one.

Parenthetically, the contemporary liberal/moderate/conservative trichotomy lacks nuance and is necessarily both historically and geographically disconnected. I get that. However, it has become part of the both the vernacular and the media lexicon in the US, and it works pretty well as a general framework for understanding and describing the political landscape of the country in a uncomplicated way. It satisfices.