"Houston doesn't vote republican (not the city itself). The previous mayor (before the current liberal mayor) was a black carpet bagger liberal democrat and he got elected. The outer suburbs are republican, but the city is democrat."
2 words. Sheila Jackson.
The reason why I was at first liberal was because everybody around me was liberal, and if you were conservative, you were seen as some sort of "race traitor."
Now that I've grown up, paid taxes and have spent 5 years away from public schools, I've simply seen liberalism for the crock that it is.