Vermont v. New Hampshire. So similar, yet why so different? (transplants, sales)
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How did two states that have such similar climate and similar population develop such different politics in the last generation?
What made New Hampshire maintain more of it's traditional upper New England heritage of low tax, less government politics, while Vermont seemed to reject it's old Yankee republicanism( wasn't Calvin Coolidge from there?) and become a magnet for liberal/left-wing politics?
Location: Philly suburbs or Jersey Shore or Philadelphia
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That is such a good question. I've been wondering that too. I couldn't tell you why...maybe it has to do with the influence of academia on their populations? The two states have a similar number of colleges and universities, but New Hampshire's population is twice as large as Vermont's population. That's my hypothesis, but I have no idea, really.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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A lot of it has to do with the recent migrants to both states in the last generation or so. New Hampshire has taken in many transplants from Massachusetts looking to escape the bureaucracy of state and local governments in Mass., less taxes (no sales or state income tax in NH), an easier environment for small and commercial businesses, and lower cost of living.
Vermont on the other hand is sort of a Shangri La for people from the Tri State area (New York/ New Jersey/ Connecticut) that want to escape the rat race and live rural but still liberal and progressive. That's my take on it anyhow. The two states on a map are almost like a yin and yang.
How did two states that have such similar climate and similar population develop such different politics in the last generation?
What made New Hampshire maintain more of it's traditional upper New England heritage of low tax, less government politics, while Vermont seemed to reject it's old Yankee republicanism( wasn't Calvin Coolidge from there?) and become a magnet for liberal/left-wing politics?
Yup. As I've mentioned in times past Vermont was one of only two states that FDR never won. He won New Hampshire from 1936 to 1944 with a fair majority in 1940. (Indeed in 1940 it looks like FDR did slightly better in New Hampshire than Massachusetts)
I don't think that's quite right, for one thing this N.H./V.T. difference is not new. New Hampshire and Vermont have had a Left/Right divide for a very long time. Living in both states during my life I'll say I met many more people from Mass in Vermont than in N.H. New Yorkers (as in from NYC) tend to steer clear of N.H. but they steer clear of upstate N.Y. as well. I've heard endless speculation on the mystery of the "twin states" but have no answers but I'm pretty sure it cannot be blamed on recent transplants from either the Bay State or The City.
Vermont got overrun by Liberal New Yorkers escaping the hectic lifestyle of the city.
New Hampshire got overrun by the conservitives trying to escape Massachusett's liberalness.
The differences are much older and deeper than that.
Vermont was not one of the original 13 colonies... it used to be part of New York... and had an independence movement (from NY) around the time of the Revolution. Vermont even had its own money (look on ebay for Vermont copper coins). However what Vermont really wanted was statehood of its own, they didn't really want to be a separate country. They were admitted 14th state to the Union, which is what they really wanted, to be free of New York. So that is why they have such a "radical" streak.
New Hampshire had a different history.
However, Vermont becoming Granola Haven is only relatively a late development... Vermont actually used to be pretty backward and conservative (even racist).
The population has practically doubled since the 1960's, starting with hippies and then the yuppies from MA, NJ, CT, NY, etc. As jobs have disappeared in the state (in large part due to politics lately, though the state always lacked opportunity) a large portion of the remaining real Vermonters have fled to states with more jobs and less extreme politics, making the change more dramatic. The 3 northeastern counties of Vermont, called the Northeast Kingdom, is as close to the old Vermont culturally and politically you'll get, but even there outsiders have been moving in to a degree...
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