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Im not here to change anybody's political views, but I have to categorically disagree with TX being live and let live. Having minority political positions "know their place and sit down" is not "live and let live", and no different than the "have a great day! racism" BS i dealt with during my time in AL. The level of vitriol over masks and the 2020 election here in comal county was legendary, and my family dealt with multiple instances of confrontations by openly social conservatives in public areas that left a pretty sour taste in our continued dwelling here. They're not federally prosecuting 6 residents of this political hegemony of a city over the trump train fiasco last year, for nothing. And that made national news.
Having political silos within a state does not at all mean a place is live and let live. The closest I've got to not having to actively hide my social-democratic politics from my surroundings were two college stints in Atlanta GA and Lafayette IN. I also dealt with relationships with local women (the IN one being my exwife) and can categorically say that outside of the silos of those places, neither place I would construe as live and let live, in fairness to TX.
I used to think college towns were good places to find a live and let live reprieve even in red states, and then i finished my undergrad in Tuscaloosa AL and found out different lol. I could say the same thing about college station.
As to liberal politics and cost of living, that tired talking point is getting turned on its head with covid and all the wfh transitions from the upper middle class, so I won't waste my breath drawing the distinction between causation and correlation with my eight year olds Crayolas for the benefit of those slow at the pickup.
Silos in a big state like TX? Sure, all day.
Live and let live? Not in our experience. Good luck!
Texas and Alabama have two VERY DIFFERENT social and political cultures. My daughter was born and raised in Texas and I remember how shocked she was by the social and political culture she observed in Tuscaloosa when we drove through the south doing college visits. She actually had dreams of being a sorority girl at Alabama until she actually visited and saw what it was like. University of Alabama and University of Texas are two very very different places. And yes, TAMU and College Station are notoriously conservative. But most of the college students in TX go to school in Austin, Houston, DFW area, San Marcos, and San Antonio.
I also remember the aftermath of Katrina when the school I taught at absorbed a lot of refugees from Mississippi. These were mostly middle class white kids. They were surprised by how much more friendly, open, and diverse the culture was in Waco Texas compared to say Biloxi Mississippi and none of them wanted to return. We actually had many class discussions about this very topic. I had one girl who went on to Vanderbilt tell me how nice it was to have lots of Black and Hispanic school friends in Waco when that just really wasn't done in Biloxi.
I'm not claiming that TX is the same as California. It isn't. But it isn't the deep south either. Far from it. Sure you can find redneck rural areas everywhere you look in rural Texas. But you can find just as deep-red redneck areas in rural Oregon as well. Or rural any state. Urban Texas is quite diverse in every way, and mostly too big and busy to mess with those sorts of identity politics.
And we had the same anti-mask and anti-vax freak show here in suburban Portland as well. For example: https://www.columbian.com/news/2021/...entary-school/ and https://www.columbian.com/news/2021/...equity-policy/ so it isn't just some Comal County TX sort of thing. And the hissy-fit over the 2020 election is white hot here as well as thousands of MAGA Trump supporters are trying to figure out how to primary our Republican congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler here in the WA-3rd because she voted for impeachment last January. And this is a purple suburb of a reliably blue state.
Last edited by texasdiver; 06-28-2021 at 12:50 PM..
As someone who was a waiter way back when, I assure you my ethnicity has been a factor, as in some customers didn't want me to wait on them.
We were talking about politics, not ethnicity. There are racists everywhere and TX is no exception. Plenty of them here in the Pacific Northwest too. Maybe even more so as the Pacific Northwest is much more white and some folks are less used to living in a multi-ethnic or multi-racial environment. Honestly, if I was Black I think I might actually prefer to live in Dallas or Houston over Seattle or Portland where you won't be everyone's one token Black friend, or everyone's token Black co-worker.
I was just saying that if you are living in any of the larger metro areas in TX then no one is really going to be concerned about your politics. We lived in an upscale red suburb of Waco. In 2008 I put up blue Obama08 yard signs to contrast with the sea of red McCain signs in my neighborhood. Honestly no one cared. I still chatted with my neighbors. I'm still Facebook friends with some of them. My kids still had playdates with the neighbor kids. Life went on as usual. Politics just wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe some of that changed a bit with Trump. I don't know. We left before the 2016 election so I never experienced Texas under Trump.
By definition a southern suburban construct is the antithesis of good public transpo infrastructure. This isn't old city close-in social-democratic Europe OP. I don't mean this incisively, but by economic makeup you're dead smack middle pack member of the American Precariat. The last place I'd want to get caught dead in on that economic bracket is in the car centric, "drive til u qualify" American Sunbelt.
From a public infrastructure support front, you re looking at finding something in New England or the very upper Midwest (twin cities suburbs) and just dealing with the winters. Not being EU member citizen, no Spain or Italy Mediterranean climate reprieve on a lower class worker earnings for any of us I'm afraid.
I don't know what part of VA you are in or what's the dynamic that you want to escape there, but I legitimately cannot see how even metro TX (suburban and exurban TX are right out from the jump, in both the logistics and political fronts) is gonna be a material improvement for you. I sincerely wish you luck in your search.
We were talking about politics, not ethnicity. There are racists everywhere and TX is no exception. Plenty of them here in the Pacific Northwest too. Maybe even more so as the Pacific Northwest is much more white and some folks are less used to living in a multi-ethnic or multi-racial environment. Honestly, if I was Black I think I might actually prefer to live in Dallas or Houston over Seattle or Portland where you won't be everyone's one token Black friend, or everyone's token Black co-worker.
I was just saying that if you are living in any of the larger metro areas in TX then no one is really going to be concerned about your politics. We lived in an upscale red suburb of Waco. In 2008 I put up blue Obama08 yard signs to contrast with the sea of red McCain signs in my neighborhood. Honestly no one cared. I still chatted with my neighbors. I'm still Facebook friends with some of them. My kids still had playdates with the neighbor kids. Life went on as usual. Politics just wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe some of that changed a bit with Trump. I don't know. We left before the 2016 election so I never experienced Texas under Trump.
I think things have changed with Trump, but still civil overall. I saw trump signs in Kirkland. You're right, libs and conservatives are everywhere.
I think things have changed with Trump, but still civil overall. I saw trump signs in Kirkland. You're right, libs and conservatives are everywhere.
If you look at the geographic election maps of Oregon or Washington compared to Texas they look pretty similar. Blue urban areas surrounded by a sea of red. There are just a LOT more people living in rural and exurban Texas due to the vastly different history of land ownership (unlike WA or OR, Texas has virtually no public lands). So it is easier for the blue cities in OR and WA to outvote the red rural areas compared to TX.
But there are plenty of redneck conservative small towns in OR and WA where I wouldn't choose to live or raise my kids. Not because I would be in any kind of danger or anything like that. I would just grow weary of having people I disagree with running all local institutions from school board to town council.
Politics is like religion - it's a not good to idea to talk about either of those 2 subjects to other people outside of family and close friends, and even with them, tread lightly and proceed with caution. Many, if not most people, are turned off to people who are constantly talking their politics and/or their religion.
Great advice. I rarely see (or hear) anyone mention it.
As for not discussing politics online it's a free-for-all including here on City Data in the politics forum. I however, do not partake online or in person. You will never agree with anybody or reach any conclusion. Seems like a waste of time to me. I read it though, just for laughs.
You won't have a problem as a liberal if you're ok with staying in your lane. If you're passionate about liberal causes then I'm sure you'll encounter people who'll get all up in your business about it - especially outside the big metro areas.
You'll have to get used to throwing away your vote for a lot of political offices. A Democrat hasn't won a statewide election in Texas in over 20 years, and in some places a trained chimp could run as a Republican and still get 75% of the vote.
Public transportation is generally not very good in Texas. You will more than likely be car-dependent
You won't have a problem as a liberal if you're ok with staying in your lane. If you're passionate about liberal causes then I'm sure you'll encounter people who'll get all up in your business about it - especially outside the big metro areas.
You'll have to get used to throwing away your vote for a lot of political offices. A Democrat hasn't won a statewide election in Texas in over 20 years, and in some places a trained chimp could run as a Republican and still get 75% of the vote.
Public transportation is generally not very good in Texas. You will more than likely be car-dependent
That is really no different from any other state. If you live in say Philly or Seattle you can be as liberal as you want. But move to rural central Pennsylvania Trump country, or rural eastern Washington and people may look at you crosswise if you wear your liberal politics on your sleeve.
But yes, Texas is definitely car-centric. You have to be pretty deliberate about planning your work, home, and shopping/entertainment geography to avoid depending on cars. It can probably be done in some of the more urban centers if you are into walking and biking. But you will have to be very deliberate about it. You can't depend on the infrastructure to just be there like in big urban eastern cities.
Location: East Texas, with the Clan of the Cave Bear
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Quote:
Originally Posted by texasdiver
I would just grow weary of having people I disagree with running all local institutions from school board to town council.
I get weary like that dealing with the lib agendas and love-ins here on C-D. There is the same old tired anti-Republican, anti-conservative, anti-inclusive semantics that is overwhelmingly prevalent in this mostly lib website.
It does get old countering the standard lines : Repubs/Conservatives are Neanderthals, or idiots too stupid to function (like voting for chimpanzees if they were Repub) , racists (the most tiring one) and then last but not least ... rigid ideologues . . . pot meet kettle!
This state has sure prospered under that Conservative leadership. (Abbott is far from a Conservative though)
So much of the time I come here and read the Lib lovefests and marvel at how much y'all slobber over each other. You want this state to be like California or NY, or Chicago or any number of Democratic/Leftist strongholds that are now in fiscal, social, and moral hell ! I then move along and just SMDH !
Great advice. I rarely see (or hear) anyone mention it.
As for not discussing politics online it's a free-for-all including here on City Data in the politics forum. I however, do not partake online or in person. You will never agree with anybody or reach any conclusion. Seems like a waste of time to me. I read it though, just for laughs.
I don't think OP's asking for a liberal area because she wants to talk politics all the time with like minded people. She's probably asking because her lifestyle/gender identity requires an area that is at least LGBTQ neutral. That I don't think is still something that one can take for granted even in this day and age unfortunately. Most small towns or rural areas in most states likely won't work for her, especially if she needs low COL and public transit on top of it.
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