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As far as why Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont are no longer Republican, well they were always moderate Republican states. They were never socially conservative areas, and the takeover by the Evangelical southern wing of the Party really doesn't sit well there. Also they put a strong emphasis on education, so gutting education funding as well as shoving "Creationism" into Science class just is a turn off.
The same reason Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia shifted from blue to red over the same time period.
The realignment of the parties and the shifting of the views, getting rid of the lingering effects of loyalty to the other party they supported for so long.
I was looking at American electoral history and it seems that these three states almost entirely voted Republican up until 1992 and then switched to the Democrats apart from New Hampshire which went Republican in 2000, what happened to make these states change from the Republicans to the Democrats so drastically?
I remember I watched the film "How to marry a millionaire" and one of the lines was were the girl asked "were is your dad" and the guy said "he's at a Republican rally" and then the girl said "he should join the Democrats" and the guy said "Not in Maine, he would be too lonely" that film was from the 1950's but it shows how much those states have changed politically, and I just wondered why?
I suspect that "W" may have had a lot to do with it.
Thats not even true, in fact some of the stronger Democratic portions of these states are the parts which haven't seen as many transplants. Look at New Hampshire for example, most of the transplants have settled in the southern portion of the state on the outskirts of Boston. That is the most Republican area of the state.
As for the vote in Maine, it was quite close and it was in an off year. Put that vote up during a year with a midterm or Presidential race and the higher turnout that comes from it, the ban doesn't happen.
As someone who lives in Maine, I'm only guessing that the reasons for it in NH and Vermont are similar as Maine. We have a lot of transplants in Maine... sometimes it seems as though the People's Republic of Massachusetts is trying to reclaim the territory. I blame them for the nanny state we now have, that we didn't have when I was a kid.
No, it is not 100% their fault. As more and more of these nanny-state liberals get their way, more and more locals get fed up with the high taxes and government meddling with their property rights and move away. It's a combination of the two.
Oh well. At least I can still buy a used gun out of Uncle Henry's with no record for the government to track. Exactly as it should be. That drives the nanny state liberals from Massachusetts nuts. Anything that pisses them off, I'm in favor of.
As for the vote you mentioned... we had a 60% turnout that election. Not exactly a small number for a non presidential election. (source: Bangor Daily News (http://www.bangordailynews.com/electionresults.html - broken link))
It's because more green people have moved here. The schools, the everything has been a liberal everything! Everyone loves Dems here. Vermont is the most democractic state.
Haven't Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont been losing population? The theory that their politics have changed because of large numbers of people from other states moving in doesn't seem credible to me.
The politics and culture of a state evolve naturally. Sure, there have been people moving from other places into those states, but not enough to dramatically change the political scene all on their own. That's just another excuse to blame liberals for anything and everything.
No, it's well known in Vermont, what happened in the 60's and 70's, which is what changed the state. The population and its increase was fairly steady until the 1960's through to about now. Vermont - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You can see on the census figures for population how it took off in the 60's whereas it had never gone over 400,000 before then.
What was happening was in the 60's and 70's the state was literally overrun with hippies and various sorts of marxists (many came inspired by the Nearings, who oddly enough left the state because of the individualistic and self-reliant culture here then, others found it was one of few places that wouldn't persecute them, others came specifically for political agendas, seeing it as an easy target to take over being a small and rural state) and they went into politics and radically changed the state.
It was over when Kunin got elected governor. She was of the rural-cleansing elitist types and suggested the state be turned into a park (and passed environmental regulations that would assist with that agenda, but luckily it caused a massive backlash getting Snelling re-elected, but unfortunately he died and Dean became governor). Northern New England is a target of some radical environmentalists to de-populate and turn into a "wilderness" where people won't be allowed for the most part. They nearly succeeded in Northern Maine in the past several years with their goal for a large national park up there (and in the process, drive people out whose families have been there generations...).
Not new either, FDR wanted to de-populate Vermont in the 1930's.
It's because more green people have moved here. The schools, the everything has been a liberal everything! Everyone loves Dems here. Vermont is the most democractic state.
Take a trip to the Northeast Kingdom with that attitude and see how much everyone loves democrats...last stronghold of true Vermonters in the state.
As someone who lives in Maine, I'm only guessing that the reasons for it in NH and Vermont are similar as Maine. We have a lot of transplants in Maine... sometimes it seems as though the People's Republic of Massachusetts is trying to reclaim the territory. I blame them for the nanny state we now have, that we didn't have when I was a kid.
No, it is not 100% their fault. As more and more of these nanny-state liberals get their way, more and more locals get fed up with the high taxes and government meddling with their property rights and move away. It's a combination of the two.
Oh well. At least I can still buy a used gun out of Uncle Henry's with no record for the government to track. Exactly as it should be. That drives the nanny state liberals from Massachusetts nuts. Anything that pisses them off, I'm in favor of.
As for the vote you mentioned... we had a 60% turnout that election. Not exactly a small number for a non presidential election. (source: Bangor Daily News (http://www.bangordailynews.com/electionresults.html - broken link))
Northern Maine is still pretty sane for the most part (less socialists from MA). It showed in that election results, Northern Maine went against all the socialist stuff whereas southwestern Maine went for it. But eventually it'll get like the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont, unable to counter the population centers the leftists went to. Some relatives of mine up in Northern ME like the idea of seceding from Maine and forming a new state of their own.
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