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This post is not at all intended to be negative, but there's been something I've been rather curious about: Do people living in New Hampshire feel disconnected from events in the rest of the U.S.? Beyond election season, I almost never hear NH mentioned in the national news (which is probably a good thing, as no news is good news) or really discussed at all in the media.
This intrigues me, as it's also a rather libertarian-minded state from the posts I have read here and it almost seems as if NH is fed up with the rest of the nation and has become one of the more withdrawn states (I also see some of the rural states out west in this way (Such as Montana and Wyoming).
I've never been to New Hampshire, so I can't judge it first hand, but I'm extremely curious. Only been to CT, RI, MA, and VT. I was planning to finally go this past October, but a friend convinced me to go to Vermont instead, saying it was "a better state".
It's funny that you mention New Hampshire, Montana, and Wyoming as states that you don't hear about, because those are three of the states I am considering (along with Idaho). And it is partly for that reason: they are peaceful, beautiful, wonderful places. There is not a whole lot of bad stuff going on in those states that warrants national attention. Just a lot of beauty and tranquility as far as I can tell from visiting those places.
I used to live in Worcester, so I spent a LOT of time hiking in the White Mountains, and it (along with western North Carolina) is the most beautiful place in the east. Just absolutely breathtaking. Sorry to go off on a tangent like that, and I know that didn't completely answer your question. I would say that if NH (and the western states mentioned) are disconnected from the rest of the U.S., let's keep it that way!
New Hampshire has, for several reasons, fewer of the problems with over crowded declining cities than much of the country although unemployment problem is becoming significant as the tourist industry and consumer purchasing are ravaged by the slowing ecomomy.
It depends on what you are looking at in terms of disconnected. I would say NH residents, on average, tend to have a different viewpoint on certain things: debt, government, responsibility, etc. But in terms of being disconnected in the sense of back-woods maple syrup makers...not anymore than any other state (just not mocked here).
I'd also say that folks up here seem to be a little more universally engaged with what is going on in the world and perhaps a little less passive than other areas I have lived.
Also depends on what you mean by 'disconnected'. No, NH seldom gets mentioned by the news at all. Which really annoys me at times: some states get flooded and are constantly in the news with people raising money and all sorts of things - but NH gets flooded and houses wiped out (occasional bad spring flooding, like a couple of years ago) and there might be a mention on the news, usually in the weather 'and NH is still getting rain'. no help, no nothing.
Disconnected from news (rather than 'by' news)? probably not more than most states. Living in "news central" I hear stuff regularly in our daily paper and on our local news reports about politics and things going on that never make it elsewhere - except in snippets and then its slanted. We knew about Iran Contra a year before it made it big. Old news. A lot of stuff about Bush and various 'three-letter agencies' are known quite differently around here. So... yes, NH is disconnected, doesn't get the full story and what it gets is often slanted... but not more than many other states.
No place in the USA is disconncted any longer. In the 60s, and even the 70s before the interstate highways were finished Vermont & NH were much more disconnected from current events. Life in central NH and above still reminds me of what it was like 30 years ago....but that is even changing fast.
why does the national media so often choose to ignore New Hampshire?
Because it's a small state, way out of the way, where most of the time nothing much ever happens (except during election season). News mostly only gives shocking/bad news and there isn't that much in NH worth bothering other people with. But that's a good thing!
We tend to get recognized nationally for our husband murderers, boyfriend murderers and our robbers that camouflage themselves with tree branches. Which means we generally stay out of the news. Who wants to hear about the local church supper, or the ice fishing derby except for us anyway?
I think the last time apart from elections that we got any really big coverage was when the Old Man left the state.
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