"They" are composed of all manner of individuals bad and good just like any large population. Your fortunate Austin doesn't dominate Texas. On the whole there are a majority of liberals or worse there, no doubt. Unfortunately the good people are out voted and it sucks for them. I spent time there and escaped to eastern WA, where we also get affected politically by the left coast leftists. In spite of the hard core mutton heads, many people in that area are not hard core leftists and really aren't that political one way or the other. They are a product of their upbringing which means they've been adversely impacted by systematic leftist efforts from early on. Those same efforts are underway to some extent throughout the country, many red states have turned blue. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water and assume there are no decent people trapped behind enemy lines. I haven't lived there for 14 years and amazingly its only gotten worse in that time. It's gotten so bad that some of the decent people are finally starting to question the local government and take more of an interest. Too bad it's had to go so wrong for that to happen. Seattle and Portland are both [bleep] shows at this point.
