Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

HOA communities in general have rules, including at times how you can change the outside appearance of your dwelling.  Otherwise, someone could paint their door orange and reduce property values, or fail to mow their lawn, or put up an above ground pool.  If you don't like the restrictions, don't move there.

I don't see any overlap at all with whatever conservatives want, or liberals want.  We had an HOA where I lived and they were unobtrusive in the main, and the one here is the same, though more evident because it's a condo.  I've noticed quite a few of our neighbors are married men, to other men, so it is probable they are leaning liberal.  Our real estate agent is gay and we got friendly enough to broach the topic and he is very liberal as well.  He's also a tremendously nice guy who was very professional and competent.  We probably also have some conservatives around somewhere.  Fine with me, I enjoy diversity of opinion.

I'm sure SOME conservatives prefer to live as independently as possible out in the wilderness, but like liberals, they are not somehow all the same in every respect, at all.  A buddy of mine was like that, wanted to live on 10 acres with no zoning around him, but in fact, he is about as liberal as anyone can be (from GB originally).  He hates guns and wants them banned, for example. He wants universal health care, though he says the British system is a mess.

Some people actually have some views that are liberal and some that are conservative all at the same time.  Others find their political positions as being whatever their party defines them to be, down the line.  That has the benefit of eliminating any thinking process of course.  I would bet the group here is mostly the former type, able to hold divergent views on various topics because the posters here show evidence of critical thinking skills in nearly every case, I can't think of an exception right now.

I'm against all over generalizations.

You've completely missed the connection I was making.  In no way was I suggesting tenants or renters or homeowners, nor real estate agents were conservatives.  I'm not sure how you got that from what I've said.

yup, don't like HOAs, don't move there

I didn't introduce the race thing, but this is exactly what they said about the cost of the suburbs.  It's vaguely judging people based on income.  More specifically, it's uglier than that.

same thing in a small town city council
I guess an HOA might be needed if the standards of the city are not high enuff or not enforced

This is the situation where I live.  I'm in a small HOA, 12 homes, with 11 good neighbors and a nut job.  The majority of the homeowners are elderly widows.  The HOA takes care of all the exterior maintenance including painting, roofs, yards, etc.  The one old guy is a horder so his home and garage are full of trash and he keeps trying to put more of it outside his home.  He even buys old SUVs and vans just to put more trash in.  He is up to 6 cars and 2 motorcycles.  He dug a 10' square by 9' deep hole in his back yard with the idea he was going to build a "bunker" in it to store more trash.  He removed all the grass from his lot 5 times, hauled in 5 dump truck loads of dirt and planted melons all over his property. The city would do nothing to rein him in.  
I moved in and got on the board of directors and promptly took him in court.  The judge curb stomped him and he had to pay our attorney fees and back fines in addition to hiring contractors to regrade and seed his yard and repair the exterior of his house.  He has been out about $40k so far and I'm still fining him almost daily because he is doing stuff the court permanently enjoined him from doing.  
I might mention, he didn't buy his house.  His aunt was the original owner and took him in because he was homeless.  Things were fine when she was alive but when she died and left the house to him he went berserk.  He terrorized the little old ladies who made up the previous board by screaming and cussing at them so they didn't know how to deal with him.  
With the HOA covenants and a good lawyer, the community has been restored to a peaceful place.

Landscape plans are just cartoons when they are submitted.

Do I wish a few of the neighbors were a tad more aware of their upkeep?  Yes, but it’s worth it to me.

Ed Zachery.
I suppose a few of my neighbors think I should do thing a bit differently as well, but is it worth fighting about?
no - small stuff
now if a neighbor is creating a problem big enough to fight over, there are ways to handle it. Lawyers getting paid.

HOAs seem to be more a characteristic of residential areas with higher housing prices.  These areas can have amenities like pools and tennis courts, or at least some common landscaping areas, that require funding.

I grew up in residential areas that had none of the above.  I'm sure one can avoid HOAs easily enough and rely on local zoning ordinances unless one wants to live in a half million dollar house, and up.

With condos, it's inherent of course.  

I grew up in Austin and the city has many public pools and a good bit of parkland.  As you might expect in a city metro area of over a million people, it all gets very crowded at the most desirable times.
Our HOA has two pools and three parks including tennis courts, basketball courts, large modern childrens' playscapes, etc.  They also maintain other large areas of common green space (avenues, running paths, access to the greenbelt/preserve surrounding the neighborhood.).  None of those amenities are ever overly crowded.  
Paying extra for a premium experience is about as American as it gets.  Sounds like some folks have had problems with their HOA committees and that would totally suck.  Ours has been great, and I'm happy to be a part of it.
There are definitely rules about permissible paint colors for my house, and I'm fine with that, I knew all of that when I moved in.  I always have the choice NOT to live in an area with an HOA, where I could paint my front door whatever color I wanted.  
There are other rules all designed to maintain the cleanliness and orderliness of the neighborhood, and I'm fine with all of those, too.  Again, I had a choice to live in areas where such covenants and restrictions aren't in place.  I did it, too, for the first 35 years of my life.  Having neighbors that literally had cars on blocks in their front yards became something I didn't want anymore, and I made a choice for change.

My TV went out for a few minutes today.  It is drizzling rain, not hard at all.  I heard that was an issue with DirecTV at times.