Residents Complex, Polls Show : Orange County--Home of the Happy and Optimistic

Orange County is a state of mind.

Over its 100-year history, dreams, big plans and fantasy have played a vital role in turning this seaside desert by stages into bean fields, citrus groves, thriving communities, theme parks, marinas, airports, shopping malls, and booming centers of technology.

New arrivals continue to drive median home values to levels that are among the highest in the nation. In each of the last three decades, 500,000 new shoppers have made the pilgrimage to this swap meet of the American dream.

And, Times Orange County Polls indicate, once they become residents, they continue to believe in the dream.

An astonishing 96% of those polled say that they are happy, and one-third go so far as to agree that “Living in Orange County is the closest thing to paradise in America today.”

A majority--51%--say they prefer living in the county to anywhere else. Only 3% would rather live in New York City, and a mere four respondents in a polling sample of 600 prefer Los Angeles. What’s more, the pollsters did not find anyone over the age of 35 who wanted to move to Los Angeles County, even though about one-half of the adults lived there at one time.

“You’re talking about a major rejection of not only Los Angeles, but of a past life,” said Mark Baldassare, whose firm, Mark Baldassare & Associates, conducted the poll for The Times on Jan. 13-17.

The survey, together with others taken in previous years, offers a kind of statistical portrait of Orange County residents, and the image that emerges on Orange County’s centennial is not of a conformist community but of one attempting to balance competing goals: personal liberty against a safe, crime-free environment, a strong national defense against low taxes, and effective use of the national political system against a suspicion of Washington.

The polls also indicate that social expectations and values are far more complex than the county’s reputation as a leading center of conservative culture might suggest. What has been true through the county’s 100-year history still holds today: There is nothing simple or predictable about the response of its residents to a host of social issues.

Abortion Issue

For example, despite their political conservatism and although about one-third say they accept a literal interpretation of the Bible, a majority of Orange County residents oppose a ban on abortions or on the rental of X-rated videotapes. An earlier survey shows that they also tend to be more tolerant of homosexual rights than the national average.

In present-day Orange County, shifting values and other signs of profound social change do not seem to have produced the widespread sense of dismay or disorientation they occasionally did in past generations.

Historians have attributed the appearance of a virulent Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and the ultraconservative John Birch Society in the 1960s to the sense of social disarray brought on by waves of newcomers and by economic development.

Today, changes in the economic environment are more profound than previously, but the public appears to have taken it all in stride.

The most recent Times Orange County Poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4%, shows that while there is a keen awareness of persistent problems, optimism is endemic.

Most Are Happy

For many, the survey indicates, this may be that rare community where fantasy and reality coincide--56% of the respondents called themselves “very happy,” and 40% said they were “somewhat happy,” while only 4% said they were “not too happy.”

When a nationwide survey asked the same questions a year earlier, it found that only 34% described themselves as “very happy.”

But if Orange County is pleased with itself, it also admits concerns. Asked what is the biggest social problem facing youth in the county today, 45% of the respondents named “drugs,” 18% chose “no sense of values” and 13% said “alcohol.” No other choice got more than 8%. When the same question was asked about social problems facing adults, alcohol moved to first place with 28%, a lack of values remained second at 16%, lack of work ethic moved to third at 15% and drugs was fourth at 14%.

The Times polls and other evidence do reveal one major area of discontent with the county itself--traffic and growth. The revolution of unbridled growth that has marked the very essence of Orange County has been betrayed by traffic gridlock and smog. Now the idea of curtailing growth--and indeed government planning of growth, once a dangerous heresy--is a popular cause. Conservatism in Orange County turns out to be highly pragmatic, that which does not work is rejected and, as a result, planning is no longer a curse word.

“For the last three years, three out of four residents named traffic and growth as the main issues facing the county,” Baldassare said, referring to the annual survey of the county conducted by UC Irvine. “Everybody agrees that something should be done but there is no consensus on who should do it and how to pay for it.”

A Cost-Free Miracle

A number of surveys show that most people think car-pooling is a solution but most don’t want to car-pool. There is no agreement on how to pay for improving the freeways. In concept, residents approve of mass transit, but in practice use of mass transit has declined, and most respondents say it is not a method of commuting that they would use. “What it comes down to is that people are hoping for a miracle that won’t cost them anything and that will allow them to commute the way they always have, which is driving alone in to work,” Baldassare said.

In the current survey, those who would prefer to live elsewhere object primarily to growth and traffic, and the largest group among those who would leave--17%--said they would choose “rural America.”

But if they reject the urban environment of major cities, Orange County residents are not provincial. In two decades there has been a 600-fold increase in companies doing business here, and increasingly workers are transferred about by high-tech corporations so that many of those here are newcomers from other parts of the world or nation. The county’s residents also represent a very large concentration of personal wealth, with 40% of families having incomes of more than $50,000 a year.

The newly cosmopolitan nature of the county may account for the complexity and contradictions of its political and social views.

The county remains highly conservative in voting patterns but somewhat less so in self-identification. When polled, two out of three respondents identified themselves as middle of the road (31%) or as somewhat conservative (35%). Only 10% called themselves very conservative, while 19% said they were somewhat liberal and 5% called themselves very liberal.

Not Predictable

And, as polling data indicate, there is nothing “monolithic” or in any other way predictable about the views of county residents, including Republicans, on the more controversial issues.

Not only are they more tolerant of homosexual rights and more inclined to oppose banning abortion than respondents in national polls, but they also are less inclined to cut social spending to balance the federal budget.

When asked in the 1986 UCI Orange County Annual Survey, “Do you think that homosexual relations between consenting adults in the privacy of their home should be legal or illegal?” 67% said such activity should be legal and 27% said illegal. Nationally, in a Los Angeles Times Poll that same year 53% said it should be legal and 35% said illegal.

And even with a conservative government in Washington, county residents appear to feel alienated from national governmental power. Although the county voted overwhelmingly for the winning candidate in the last three presidential elections, those polled in The Times’ most recent survey stated by a 5-1 margin that the government in Washington responds to the large corporations rather than people like themselves.

Even among Republicans, 46% said that the federal government responds most to the needs of major corporations and only 15% said it responds to people like themselves.

There seems to be no strong inclination to want government to set standards of individual morality even on issues like pornography and sexual abstinence among teenagers.

Asked whether the moral climate in their community was permissive or strict, 66% said permissive, and they apparently like it that way--69% of those polled approved of the community’s moral climate. This was a sentiment held across the board, from those who classified themselves as liberal to those who called themselves conservative.

The issue of abortion does offer a clearer example of a split between liberal/moderate and conservative factions. Here, while 60% of all those polled opposed a Supreme Court ruling that would ban abortions, 74% of those calling themselves liberal opposed such a ban and 65% of the moderates opposed it. But even among those calling themselves conservatives, 48% opposed a ban, while 47% favored one.

On social spending issues, conservative opinion again does not conform to the national stereotype. A solid majority across the ideological spectrum support health care for the elderly, and fewer than 3% in any group say they are unconcerned about this issue.

The poll also shows that a majority across the ideological spectrum are opposed to cutting social and health programs “in an effort to reduce the federal deficit.” Even among those who call themselves conservatives, 52% oppose cuts and only 35% favor them.

Being a conservative in Orange County has nothing to do with denominational religious preference; 47% of Jews, 49% of Protestants and 48% of Catholics say they are conservatives.

The breakdown only varies with those who say that they would call themselves religious fundamentalists. One-third of those polled said they are fundamentalists in the sense of “someone who takes the Bible literally on issues such as the creation of life.” In this group 56% say they are conservatives, but even here more than 40% say they are liberal or moderate in political orientation.

Diversity of Views

While references to fundamentalist Christians in the media have tended to imply a uniformity of outlook on social issues, this Orange County survey indicates a more complex set of views.

For example, a majority--52%--of those who identify themselves as fundamentalists do favor a ban on abortions, but a strong minority--41%--are opposed to such a ban. And while 45% in this group favor a ban “on the rental of adult X-rated movies in home video stores in your community,” 47% oppose such a ban.

The survey also suggests that political conservatives in the county are rethinking their foreign policy views. It shows that only 23% of conservatives and only 8% of liberals regard the Soviet Union as the “biggest threat to America’s future.” At least 30% of conservatives, moderates and liberals alike name the Third World as the main threat and at least 20% in each group name Japan.

“We’re witnessing the emergence of a new type of conservative in Orange County,” Baldassare said, “someone who is young and affluent, sophisticated on social issues and traditional on economic ones.”

Times researcher Nina Green also contributed to this report.

ATTITUDES IN ORANGE COUNTY These are some of the results of a poll of 600 Orange County adults conducted for The Times by Mark Baldassare and Associates. The poll has an error factor of plus or minus 4%.

HAPPINESS “Taken all together, how would you say things are going these days? Would you say you are very happy, somewhat happy or not too happy? (by income groups):

up to $20,000/ $40,000/ Over Total $20,000 $39,000 $59,000 $60,000 Very Happy 56% 35% 53% 56% 62% Somewhat Happy 40 58 42 39 36 Not too Happy 4 7 5 5 2

SOCIAL PROBLEMS “In your opinion, which of these is the biggest social problem facing young people in Orange County today?”

All respondents Drugs 45% Lack of values 18 Alcohol 13 Lack of work ethic 7 Promiscuity 2 Other 7 Don’t know 8

“And from your personal observations, which of these is the biggest social problem facing the adult population in Orange County today?”

All respondents Alcohol 28% Lack of values 16 Lack of work ethic 15 Drugs 14 Promiscuity 2 Other 8 Don’t know 17

MORAL CLIMATE “How would you describe the moral climate in your community?” (by how respondents see themselves politically):

Total Conservative Moderate Liberal Very permissive 12% 13% 13% 10% Somewhat permissive 54 51 56 58 Somewhat strict 28 29 28 24 Very strict 6 7 3 8

(69% approve of the moral climate in their community.) ABORTION “Do you favor or oppose having the Supreme Court outlaw abortions except in the case of a threat to the mother’s life?” (by how respondents see themselves politically)

Total Conservative Moderate Liberal Favor 34% 47% 27% 17% Oppose 60 48 65 75 Don’t know 6 5 8 8

Source: Times Orange County Poll