I'll admit to a great deal of ignorance about inland California and I hope that fellow FReepers can help me better understand the situation. My totality of direct experience beyond the coastal region is confined to a couple of business trips to Bakerfield (and I never had the chance to get to Fresno otherwise I would have a picture of Jim Thompson [sic] over my mantle). :-)
It is my understanding (perhaps in error) is that Kern County is Conservative in spite of being over 38% Hispanic, which I presume is predominantly Mexican. I see that Fresno County is nearly 44% Hispanic.
Let me phrase this delicately: Are the Mexicans who reside in inland California more assimilated than those in the large urban coastal regions? If so, might that be a factor to explain the sharp voting differences shown on county-by-county maps?
My observations while in Bakersfield were that the people there were more like what I see here in Texas, pro-gun, pro-American, pro-God and country music fans. I realize that the 1930's were a time of migration out of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas and into the farmlands of inland California. In short, I felt more at home in Bakersfield (Buck Owens was still alive, too) than in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Marin County and other areas close to the Pacific.
Please correct any misunderstandings I have about regional variations in California. Thanks in advance to all for schooling me!
Yes, inland California is flyover country. The California counties voting map reflects this. Where I live in the rural north eastern part of the state near the Nevada border, you still see gun racks in trucks, duck and deer hunters everywhere with Country music palying on their radios. Oh, and church is a big deal on Sunday.
As is the situation on a national scale, the people (especially the Mexicans) in the flyover areas actually WORK for a living. They readily realize that the societal parasites in the bigger cities on the coast suck directly from their wallets.