Political Liberalism and the Concentration of Hate Groups: A Proposed Study

The magazine Business Insider came out with a map showing the most conservative (colored red)  and most liberal town (in blue) in each state.  I had two posts on the hate group and ethnic profile of the US using maps which which are reproduced below.  Hearing about these three related topics made me wonder if there was an association between these three topics in terms of geographical proximity.  It's hard to tell merely by eyeballing the map. For example in Texas, the most conservative town, Garden City, is west of the westernmost hate group is in an area with a plurality of Mexican Americans.  A similar pattern emerges with the most liberal town in the state, Sarita but with a hate group nearby. 

On the other hand, in the most conservative town in Pennsylvania, Allendale, PA is in the predominantly German part of the state has hate groups nearby while the most liberal city in the state, Philadelphia, is mainly Italian but also has hate groups in the vicinity.  Both the number of hate groups and the political conservatism at the state level have been correlated with poorer heath outcomes.

To determine whether there are more hate groups which are also in closer proximity to liberal or conservative towns one would need the GPS coordinates of both the groups and the towns.  The average distance between the towns and the groups could be computed as well as the number of groups.  This type of study could be enlightening about the spatial relationships of political ideologies.  The video below describes how such a study could be done.  The spatial distances could be computed for both types of town to see which has a greater spatial concentration and distance.  Would liberal or conservative towns have a larger Sd? 

**Related Posts**

Correlation with the Number of Hate Groups per Million, Poor Health Suggests More Hate

 

How do the States Stack Up on Infant Mortality? (Cross Post with PUSH)

A Statistical Profile of the Uninsured in Washington, DC, New Mexico, and Texas

 

A Wave of Hate Groups in California? No in Washington, DC