Mass migration of Northern conservatives to GA in 2019 (Atlanta, Columbus: transplants, houses)

[TJJT]

Anyone else noticed this, especially with conservative celebrities? Seems people are taking their money south..

[citidata18]

I have not.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by TJJT

Anyone else noticed this, especially with conservative celebrities? Seems people are taking their money south..

Yes to Florida, it's been going on for the last 50 years.

[TJJT]

Originally Posted by bellhead

Yes to Florida, it's been going on for the last 50 years.

GA not FL.. Anyone who lives in the US knows about Florida..

[Saskia Calico]

I haven't noticed it but it wouldn't surprise me. One of those paradigm shifts, or sea changes, that occur every few decades or generations.

That said, I wouldn't know a contemporary celebrity if I came face to face with one in the middle of Buckhead.

[Born 2 Roll]

The mass migration of Americans (including many conservatives) from points north (particularly the Rustbelt, including the Northeast and the Midwest) to points south (the Sunbelt, including California, Florida, Texas, the Carolinas and Georgia) that the OP speaks of has been going on for decades.

Atlanta's Northern suburbs (including Cobb, North Fulton, Gwinnett counties, etc.) are a prime example of an area in the Sunbelt that has experienced explosive growth because of conservative suburbanites moving from Northern metros like New York, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Minneapolis to Southern and Sunbelt metros like Atlanta (and Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Washington DC, Nashville, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, etc.).

One of the major reasons why the Republican Party has been so strong in a Southern/Sunbelt state like Georgia in recent years is because of Republican-voting transplants who've moved into the Atlanta suburbs in heavy numbers from Northern states over the last several decades.

(… The heavy migration of Northern moderates into Georgia seems to have begin in earnest with World War II and the immediate post-war period when many Northern-born soldiers were stationed at military installations in Georgia, including Fort Benning (outside Columbus), Fort Gordon (Augusta), Fort Stewart (outside Savannah), Robins Air Force Base (Warner Robins), and Fort MacPherson, Fort Gillem and Dobbins Air Force Base in the Atlanta area.)

(… The heavy migration of Northern moderates seems to have increased with the reopening of the World War II-era Bell Bomber Plant as the Lockheed aerospace plant at Dobbins AFB in 1951 which attracted many Republican-voting moderate transplants from Northern states which eventually turned Cobb County and the Atlanta suburbs into Republican powerhouses from the 1980's until the 2010's.)

Those moderate Republican-voting transplants in the Atlanta suburbs have formed a coalition with deeply socially and culturally conservative exurban and rural natives (who historically voted solidly Democrat, particularly before the 1964 Civil Rights Act) to dominate the political structures of Southern/Sunbelt states like Georgia.

Though, as of late, particularly during the Trump era, it appears that coalition between moderately conservative suburbanites and deeply conservative exurbanites and rural residents has started weaken considerably as many moderate suburban voters appear to be voting more for Democrats and as the minority population continues to increase in suburban areas and in many large major metro areas as a whole.

That's including here in Georgia where racial and ethnic minorities appear to be on the verge of becoming the majority of the state's population within the next 5-10 years or so, on the strength of continued explosive population growth in Atlanta's traditionally supermajority-white outer suburbs.

Increasingly high living and business costs also appear to be fueling increasing amounts of migration out of a Sunbelt state like California (to other Sunbelt states like Texas and Georgia) that traditionally was the beneficiary of massive amounts of in-migration from Upper Midwestern and Northeastern states.

Though many (if not a majority) of those residents who are migrating out of a high-cost Sunbelt state like California and that are continuing to migrate out of Northeastern/Midwestern Rustbelt states to Sunbelt states like Georgia (and Florida, Texas, the Carolinas and Tennessee) appear to lean more Democratic than Republican in their voting patterns at this point in time.

And while many of them may be capitalists who may personally be fiscally and financially conservative, the Democratic lean in their voting patterns seems to be motivated by reasons of personal social and cultural liberalism that have evolved left while living in the suburban and urban cores of large major metro areas while the personal ideology of many exurban and rural voters appears to have continued to evolve to the right in many instances.

[aus10]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

And while many of them may be capitalists who may personally be fiscally and financially conservative, the Democratic lean in their voting patterns seems to be motivated by reasons of personal social and cultural liberalism that have evolved left while living in the suburban and urban cores of large major metro areas while the personal ideology of many exurban and rural voters appears to have continued to evolve to the right in many instances.

I think this paragraph is so true. And unfortunately, I think more and more folks are becoming more libertarian, yet both political parties are become more "left" and "right". I only wish that we had a third party that was more "center". There are a lot of folks like me who are so conservative fiscally that it would make your head spin, but socially a tad left of center. I don't agree with either party in any whole fashion....

[Born 2 Roll]

i agree with most of what you say, but to call San Fran and Wash DC "Sunbelt or Southern" is very off mark. Both cities have grown due to tech, int'l and higher education reasons, not for cheaper land in warmer climes. DC and NY are only 4 hrs apart.

To the person who left this comment while giving me some rep, that is a good point that both San Francisco and Washington DC have grown because of "tech, international and higher education reasons" (… that is in addition to San Francisco's growth being fueled largely by Finance and Washington DC's growth being fueled largely because of that city's status as the capital of the free world).

But calling San Francisco (and the Bay Area) "Sun Belt" and calling Washington DC "Southern" is not "very off mark."

Calling San Francisco "Sun Belt" is not "very off mark" because San Francisco (and the Bay Area) is often, but not always, identified as being part of the Sun Belt because it is part of a state (California) that is readily and unarguably identified as a Sun Belt state, and because the Bay Area is an area that (with the exception of some relatively cool and foggy/smoggy days) generally features weather that is often sunny and relatively warm (… that is even though the weather in the Bay Area is generally rarely hot).

Calling Washington DC "Southern" is not "very off mark" because up until at least about the 1970's or so, Washington DC was widely known as and identified as a Southern city (along with the entire surrounding states of Virginia and Maryland).

Neighboring Maryland traditionally has been considered a Southern state because it was a slave-owning state that was located below the Mason-Dixon line that separated Southern slave-owning states from Northern non slave-owning states.

Up until about 1970 or so, Maryland (which is officially geographically classified as a "South-Atlantic" state) was identified with the South before becoming more identified as a "Mid-Atlantic" state and eventually becoming commonly identified with the Northeast (along with the District of Columbia and parts of suburban Northern Virginia) starting in about the 1980's and later.

Neighboring Virginia (which is also officially geographically classified as a "South-Atlantic state) has traditionally been (and often continues to be in many circles) identified as a Deep South state because of its past status as a slave-owning state located below the Mason-Dixon line, because of its history as one of the 13 states of the Old Confederacy (Virginia state capital Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America), and because of the state's history and reputation as a hotbed of neo-Confederate activity that continued well after the end of the Civil War and into the early 21st Century.

Sun Belt

Southern United States

South Atlantic states

Confederate States of America

[Taksan]

Taxes are too high in Georgia to attract Northeastern or Californian tax refugees... only Florida and Texas do that. The only state tax rate that works since the federal SALT reforms is 0%.

[Taksan]

Originally Posted by aus10

I think this paragraph is so true. And unfortunately, I think more and more folks are becoming more libertarian, yet both political parties are become more "left" and "right". I only wish that we had a third party that was more "center". There are a lot of folks like me who are so conservative fiscally that it would make your head spin, but socially a tad left of center. I don't agree with either party in any whole fashion....

I was raised a Democrat but not as we know it today. When I was young and when my parents were young the Democrats were the Conservative party of the south. Since the 1960’s everything got screwed up and now it’s the a Republicans that are the party of South. I’m personally a libertarian conservative on most issues. Neither of the major parties represents my views.