When most people look at Texas politically they see Dallas, they see Austin and maybe Houston. But Mckinney and Collin county are really more important than anyone sees. First off, it has a pretty big population of people (19th biggest in Texas) and more importantly, it has a big population of people that LEAVE when they get old enough... So, that makes the primary residents of Mckinney and the surrounding suburbs older and republican, and because of the number of churches, the cities status as "dry" and the lack of nightlife forces people into a Christian lifestyle. When we were younger we used to say "You need to be 40 or extremely Christian to have fun here." So even the kids are going other places to have fun, spreading their politics and stuff. But I'm not to that yet. It is primarily Christian, Older & Republican (most of the wealth comes from oil companies, prison industry or weapons technology companies like RAYTHEON, which is the single biggest employer in the entire town, including city staff and the school district.). So the 19th biggest population in Texas has a PRETTY solid voting status, with the exception of people who DO stay when they get older, in which case they will have more liberal, democratic, libertarian or in most cases democratic-republican or liberal-republican veiws views because of the house-to-house party and crazy police environment they were raised in. Which brings me to my next point in the importance of Mckinney and Collin county in general. The kids grow up there, and go to Dallas or Arlington or Fort Worth or Austin or Houston or Denton looking for people more similar to them, so the kids from Mckinney are in some cases important to the politics of the other political hubs of Texas. And with all this political importance, the town runs on arrests (tax money going to privately owned jails), probation fees, court fees, tickets and basically other predatory tactics on its own citizens, with a fairly heavy focus on arresting minors. The mayor is a LAWYER (I went to school with his daughter ) But I sense a change in the politics in Mckinney and thus a change in the politics of Texas. 1st, tons of people are staying to go to community college instead of real college, because it's not a community college now it's a "real 4 year university" since UNT adopted it. 2nd, it is the hub of jails, courts and probation so everyone has to go to Mckinney, and not only learns where it is, but meets the other criminals from there and around there. And mckinney has a lot of money, which I'm guessing is appealing to criminals. And in my opinion, the police focus too much on children and aren't prepared for 30yr old meth heads with AK-47s, as proven by the 1 man assault on the police station a few years back, in which one man blew up a truck in the police parking lot and fired three weapons for 5 minutes before being shot down. 3rd, there are so many schools there, and most of them are NOT making kids republican because they are (*)(*)(*)(*) testing them and filling the halls with officers. 4th, Mckinney hides most of it's politics, making it seem like it's something lawyers and doctors do and not regular people. The most you see is a sign on the side of the road or in someone's yard, which means that if some new wave of politics hits Texas, they aren't prepared to fight it... McKinney's current slogan is "Unique by Nature", I believe it should be "Et in Mckinney Ego..."
