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Although I love California, I hate it's politics. There are cities there that I wouldn't live in if I won a big lottery. Hell, I have trouble with a lot of Portland's politics, which is one of the reasons I live in the suburbs. But I don't need to live in a real conservative place, either. I can handle 'centrist' as long as the good outweighs the bad.
Hi, just wondering how many of us look at the political leanings of our destination before we choose to move. Would you move to a place that is known for politics on the opposite side of the spectrum compared to your views?
Well, I sure did. I moved to what is probably the most liberal leaning socialist, taxing state...and I am a conservative.
It can be frustrating sometimes hearing so many people asking for handouts yet asking for even higher taxes and fees, as long as those taxes and fees are paid by "someone else".
How about moving to an area where people care more about whether you're a good neighbor than whether you're conservative or liberal? (Good neighbors, as well as bad, do come in both stripes, you know.) Where you wouldn't know the political leanings of your neighbors, or care, unless there was an election and you saw a sign in their yard or bumper sticker on their car? Where pushing your political leanings on others is considered in bad taste, though you're more than free to have them, of course? Where you could have all sorts of friends to hang out with that might or might not share your politics, and you'd still have more than enough to talk about?
Well said.
I don't mind what people's beliefs are as long as they're not annoying about it.
Fiscal Conservative, Social Liberal here.. my area pretty much reflects my values (but I didn't always live in Orange County.)
It depends how much the people in the area care about the details of your own life. And even in that case, I can probably a little better tolerate a Fiscally Liberal rather than a Socially Conservative area. So that pretty much only rules out the rural South for me.
I think I'd have to find some distinction between politics and religion. I would sure hesitate to move somewhere where people's religious affiliations or any religion belief was a social issue. Now, I don't expect to go just anywhere and announce I'm an atheist and expect to fit in, but I'd hate to be somewhere with "Jesus" all over the place, in conversation, billboards, and so.
For the record, the times I've been in Utah (rural/small town) I haven't gotten that sense about Mormonism, even though most people there are Mormon, at least nominally.
Now, I would worry about being in a conservative state that is conservative by religious influence on the politics and laws. I would dread getting into a car accident and being in a vegetative state in a place like, say, Missouri.
I suppose politics would affect gun laws, and if people have a primary concern about gun laws one way or the other, that could affect where you live.
A friend's husband is a "gun nut," and has several weapons. He was happy to move from Mass. to New Hampshire because it is more "gun-friendly," although I haven't seen how it affects his ownership or purchases or anything. I think he just likes feeling that he's more in tune with his environment (for which he had to change himself for his uber-liberal wife).
My take is that politics influences not only lifestyle, but cost of living.
I am extremely liberal in my social views, extremely conservative in my fiscal views - I don't care who you are, what you do, or who you sleep with, as long as you keep your hands out of my pockets and your nose out of my business.
The higher concentration of people there are, the more amenities they want, the more power to run other peoples' lives they demand, and the more politicians - liberal and conservative - think that they have to provide for their constituents.
The fewer people in an area, the more independent they are, the more self-sufficient they are, and the less they like people in their business or their pockets. The politicians don't even bother to try to give them anything, they are too busy trying to woo the higher-population areas for votes, so they leave the more rural folks alone.
There are very few social liberals who work 16 hour days farming or ranching, who are willing to have their hard-earned cash handed over to folks who think that work is a dirty word, or that anything over a 40-hour-work-week an insult to their tender sensibilities. There are very few social conservatives who, while working those same 16 hour days, try to demand that all of their neighbors go to church on Sunday and Wednesday, or have the time to spend proselytizing about God and hell to anyone. They don't care what color, race, or religion someone is, or sexual proclivity someone has, all they care about is - can they tote their fair share of the work, do they pay their bills on time, do they trade fairly, are they trying to sc*** their neighbors out of their hard-earned money?
Which is why I live where I do now - there are very few people here, everyone knows everyone else, people work together and trade honestly and fairly, no one lives off of anyone else, those who want to work can, those who don't want to work won't live here (or, won't for long), the politicians don't give a dam about us, and the politics of laissez-faire is alive and well - adamantly so. Politics definitely matters - and so does the lack of it.
How about moving to an area where people care more about whether you're a good neighbor than whether you're conservative or liberal? (Good neighbors, as well as bad, do come in both stripes, you know.) Where you wouldn't know the political leanings of your neighbors, or care, unless there was an election and you saw a sign in their yard or bumper sticker on their car? Where pushing your political leanings on others is considered in bad taste, though you're more than free to have them, of course? Where you could have all sorts of friends to hang out with that might or might not share your politics, and you'd still have more than enough to talk about?
I'd love to move to an area like that! Unfortunately, that does not describe (my part of) Central Texas!
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I moved to what is probably the most liberal leaning socialist, taxing state...and I am a conservative.
