Good question. I picture a snake and the head is resting right on San Francisco, it's just a way lefty liberal way of life. If it all came out of the deep south, it would be a different story I think. - Mike Lewis

...most people in that space seem to be early adopters; open to the dissemination of information and change. Things that seem to line up with what I feel are qualities of the Democratic side of the political scale. - JA Castillo (جاسون)

Right, JA. Conservative = status quo. Social media = new, early adoption, change. - stretta from twhirl

Maybe as Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Glenn Batuyong

Mike's right I think - its the location. The problem is everyone is caught up in the "left vs. right," "us against them," "red state/blue state" b.s. - With all the collective intelligence here, I'd personally like to see some more substantial policy discussions instead of the "my politician can beat up your politician." <sigh> - Bill Sanders

@Matthew I'm not sure that's it. If so, then we should also slap the negatives of early adoption on Democrats as well, and I don't think that would be fair. - Shey

@Bill +1000!!!! Excellent point... - JA Castillo (جاسون)

You almost have to be an open minded person to be an early adopter. - Shawn Farner

There is a pretty close correlation between Intelligence and political persuasion. Just saying, I think you folks are smart! - Geoff Schultz

Bill: me too. That's why I wrote this: http://beta.friendfeed.com/e... - Robert Scoble

It's probably unfair to paint conservatives generally as 'closed minded;' It is reasonable, however, to draw a correlation between early adoption and a progressive mindset. Also, social media users tend to be young, I would guess, and young people tend to be more liberal, generally...if the target demographic of FF were 45-60 year olds, the conversation would probably skew more conservative. - सत्याग्रह {Bren}

Why should we stop and ask this? Does it effectively move forward the dialog about how we make America better? It seems only another way to divide and segment and create friction. NOT what this country needs. It's pure meta IMO. - AJ Kohn

liberal=loud; conservative=quiet. Social Media is the ultimate megaphone - Dave Wirsching from twhirl

Robert: thanks - keep it up, will watch the video and comment tonight. - Bill Sanders

Matthew's comment reflects a hideous bias. No reason that conservative ideology equates to anti-tech feelings. Much more likely that the bias is regional; City=Liberal, Rural=Conservative. Very little work for techies in the rural areas. California, for example, is vastly Republican by land area, but the cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego) tilt the overall counts towards the Democrat side. Where are the better tech jobs, Bakersfield or San Jose? - Glen Campbell

I think it has to do, somewhat, with the geography of the most popular people we follow. They tend to be tech and be in Cali., the center of tech, right? or is it the forum. This ain't no AM radio talk show, huh. - Eric @ CS Techcast

@dave that's hot juicy bait if i ever saw it. - Geoff Schultz

I don't fit the typical FF user I guess. I'm 49, and quite libertarian in my views. I think that partisan politics generally has a negative effect - left or right. I always feel that policy is more important than any party line. - Ian May

Regretting getting sucked in but @Dave W: Stereotypes of any stripe are generally bad. Division is not what this country needs. That said ... Rush and the Evangelicals are quiet? It simply proves that the volume of your views isn't related to your position on the views. There's loud and quiet throughout the spectrum of views. - AJ Kohn

The Social Media space has lots of roots in the Bay Area, and it's also a fairly educated crowd: both of those are strong demographics for Democrats. I don't think it's a stranglehold; there are Republicans and independents, too. - Dan Ciruli

The social media space tends to be tech-savvy, and rooted in science. The right wing is more likely to deny evidence and eschew experimentation. It's only natural for those that value science to side politically with groups that feel the same way. - Jason Francis

Living in SF is the same as FF. - Oldengrey (Jay)

So, let me get this straight. If I'm not pro-Democrat, then I must be dumb and uneducated. But if I am intelligent and educated, then I must be a Democrat. Good to know. I'll try to remember that in November. - Gregory Pittman from twhirl

Because social media is about hanging with your friends and friends tend to congregate around similar thinking individuals. I am on plenty of social nets that are more conservative than the ones others may have here. I think the real issue is why some folks have no red / no blue friends in their lists. Shows a lack of diversity in my book. - Andrew Leyden

@Gregory Pittman -- no, definitely not. But demographically speaking, the Bay Area (which is one of the geographic locations where Social Media is strong) is very democratic. And, on average, higher educated people are *more*likely* to be democratic. I'm definitely not implying that conservatives are dumb or uneducated. - Dan Ciruli

Is it really that surprising when the face of the GOP is John McCain? This is a man whose hostility towards the internet is legendary. - stretta from twhirl

+1 Matthew - Sally Church

While I think that "location" is the explanation, we probably need to take a step back and wonder if our data is skewed. I spend very little time on the "Everyone" tab of FriendFeed, or the everyone stream in Twitter; for much of the social media community, U.S.-centric political definitions are irrelevant. - Ontario Emperor

In addition, the Ron Paul phenomenon should be taken into account. While Paul isn't really a Republican, he certainly isn't a Democrat. - Ontario Emperor

Ron Paul is closer to what a Republican _should be_ compared to what the GOP has been offering. - stretta from twhirl

Ron Paul is what most Republians were 30yrs ago. - Michael W. May from twhirl

Ron Paul has said more that I agree with than any other candidate. - Ian May

I'm just pro-Republicans and Democrats returning to the notions of good leadership and good stewardship. I think Dems talk that talk better right now. - Christopher Galtenberg

I think the answer is basically demographics - without looking at actual numbers right now, we can safely say that people who use social media are: more educated, more urban, and younger. These all correlate strongly with being a Democrat. Or we can just go with Glenn B.'s Cobert quote above. - Zachary Reiss-Davis

I'lI add that I also agreed with Ron Paul more than any other politician this cycle. That being said, you can't be an impartial american and be in favor of the current iteration of the GOP. That political party has been overrun by crooks, theives and liars who prey on the stupidity of the American people. Until the Ron Paul types, who stand for true GOP values, re-take the actual GOP, a vote for the GOP is vote for a fascist crook. The selection of Sarah Palin is an insult to the country. - JonathanJoseph

@Zachary Wow. "more educated, more urban, and younger. These all correlate strongly with being a Democrat." Personally I take a bit of offense to that. To slant that "more educated" = Democrat is a slap in the face to Republicans, or at least it should be. I think it has more to do with Democrats tending to be more vocal, especially in social media. Many conservatives tend to also be conservative in their interactive dialog. - Jeremy Hall

It's pure demo. Most early adopters are NYC,SF,LA...etc. - Erlend Wilhelmsen