Austin is known to be more liberal than the rest of the state of Texas. “Moscow-on-the-Brazos” is a seldom used nickname for the town, borrowed from “Moscow on the Hudson (River),” the title of a Robin Williams movie and a nickname for New York City’s liberal Upper West Side of Manhattan.
 
“On the Brazos” comes from Washington-on-the-Brazos, the place of Texas independence. Compare “Moscow-on-the Brazos” to “Harvard-on-the-Brazos” (a nickname of Baylor or Texas A&M) and “Berkeley-on-the-Brazos” (a nickname of the University of Texas at Austin).
 
Other Austin nicknames or slogans include Moscow on the Colorado (the correct river in Austin), “The People’s Republic of Austin” and “Keep Austin Weird.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas
Washington-on-the-Brazos was a settlement along the Brazos River in Texas, then part of Mexico, which was the site of the Convention of 1836 and the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence. The name “Washington-on-the-Brazos” was used to distinguish the settlement from “Washington-on-the-Potomac”.
 
On March 1, 1836, Washington, a small, ramshackle town built next to a ferry landing on the Brazos River became the birthplace of the Republic of Texas. It was here that delegates elected from each municipality in Texas convened in an unfinished building in near-freezing weather to declare Texas’ independence from Mexico, write a new constitution and organize an interim government.
 
The delegates declared independence on March 2, 1836. A constitution was adopted on March 16. The delegates worked until March 17, when they had to flee, along with the people of Washington, to escape the advancing Mexican Army. The townspeople returned after the Mexican Army was defeated at San Jacinto on April 21. Town leaders lobbied for Washington’s designation as the permanent capital of the Republic of Texas, but leaders of the Republic passed over Washington in favor of Waterloo, which later was renamed Austin. 
 
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Tryxxq)
Date: 1997/11/16
Subject: Re: Paying Addicts Not to Breed
 
Don’t be too critical, living here in the “People’s Republic of Austin” (also known as “Moscow on the Brazos”) has a way of inculcating far-left fantasy thinking in its residents.
     
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Louis)
Date: 6 Nov 2004 00:34:47 -0800
Local: Sat, Nov 6 2004 3:34 am
Subject: Re: Ivins on The Values Ruse
   
I actually went to college in Austin, Ms Ivins hometown.  Austin is sometimes referred to as “Moscow on the Brazos River”.  Austin is beautiful and a great city.  But it’s university attracts the less
than mainstream. 
 
The Minor Fall, The Major Lift
November 10, 2005
DOWDWORLD
Maureen Dowd brings her “subtle, snarky wit” to Moscow on the Brazos.
 
Roadfood.com
Photokirk Posted - 02/10/2006 : 12:25:01
Austin? You mean Moscow-on-the-Brazos? Austin ain’t Texas, it’s where we send the liberals, hippies, freaks, commies and other misfits.
   
Living in Texas - SatelliteGuys.US
02-22-2007, 01:49 PM
Texas is God’s country !
Can not think of any where else to live .
But I do not live in Austin ( Moscow on the Brazos ) .