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Originally Posted by IrishIllini
I don’t necessarily agree LA is more liberal than either NYC or Chicago. More voters in LA and Chicago may have voted for Clinton than in NYC, but that may just be because Trump is from NYC. LA is heavily Latino and Latinos tend to be astute Catholics, which aren’t a very liberal bunch. The community in LA be more secular these days, but I’d suspect it trails NYC and Chicago in that regard. The GOP has alienated most minority voters and has recently been particularly vitriolic towards Latino immigrants. I’d suspect that pushes a lot of them to vote democratic despite having traditionally conservative “family values” or beliefs.
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I don't necessarily agree with your assessment of LA, Latinos, or Catholics.
Traditionally, Catholics in the US have actually been the more liberal group compared with Protestants. A lot of them got involved in civil rights issues, social justice issues, and labor issues/workers' rights. Catholics were a persecuted group in the US historically after all, yet that doesn't seem to really be talked about in US history classes. A lot of the discrimination Polish and Irish immigrants went through in the US during the 1800s was not only because of their ethnicity, but a lot of it also had to do with the fact that they were Catholic. Where conservative Catholics today would have issues with are gay marriage and abortion, which not surprisingly, the Catholic church doesn't support. But many if not most Catholics in the US are for marriage equality and are pro-choice.
Not all Latinos are Catholic; it's been my experience that the conservative ones tend to be Evangelical Protestant/Born Agains, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Those seem to be the ones who kick their kids out of the house for being an unwed teen mother or being a gay son. The Latino Catholic families I know seem to be more forgiving or accepting of their gay son or daughter who is an unwed teen mother.
There are conservatives in LA, and many of them tend to be in some of the wealthier suburbs of LA County, like the Palos Verdes Peninsula and San Marino. But San Marino is changing because its demographics have been changing; it's far less white and maybe even less Christian than it's been owing to Chinese immigrants that have been moving there (but then it seems a lot of Chinese have been converting to Evangelical Protestantism, no doubt because of missionaries and possibly the desire to feel assimilated into the US).
Other wealthy enclaves in LA/LA County tend to be more liberal or progressive.