San Juan Islands Politics (George: house, live, dangerous)

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Are the San Juan Islands pretty liberal on the political spectrum? If they are, is it more or less a live and let live, liberalism (if there is such a thing), or an impose my views on you, liberalism?

[allforcats]

Hi. Google is your friend...

Generally, western Washington leans to the left of center, but is not nearly as liberal as New York City, for example. The political atmosphere of western WA is pretty much live and let live as this is not a confrontational culture.

Recent San Juan County voting results:
2008 elections:
Election Results (http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/sanjuan/ElectionResults/currentelectionresults/Pages/ElectionResults.aspx?e=20081104 - broken link)
which is a sub-page of this official San Juan County site:
Archived Election Results (http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/sanjuan/ElectionResults/Pages/ArchivedElections.aspx - broken link)

Historical San Juan County voting results (see "Politics"):
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed

General historical politcal info:
San Juan County, Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Sounds good thanks for the info.
Anybody else have any input?

[AzDreamer]

I don't live up there and have only visited a few times but since nobody else is speaking up I'll toss out an opinion or two.

You will have to register your car, wear pants in public and toe the line for stupid stuff like "click it or ticket", but folks up there will leave you alone as long as you aren't dangerous.

[509]

Originally Posted by JoeyJoeJoe

Are the San Juan Islands pretty liberal on the political spectrum? If they are, is it more or less a live and let live, liberalism (if there is such a thing), or an impose my views on you, liberalism?

When we were vacationing there...people were in my face all the time.

I don't know if it was the Palin/McCain bumper sticker or the George Bush is Right sticker that did it.

Not very tolerant folks.

[AzDreamer]

Originally Posted by 509

Not very tolerant folks.

They are like most liberals, very tolerant of ideas that mirror their own. I learned a long time ago that GOP bumper stickers bring out the worst in some people.

[CoastieTX]

Yeah, they can be an interesting bunch over there. I've always found it odd how some of the most vocal and opinionated people you'll ever meet are the ones least affected by the issues they're rabid about. In my dealings with them, I've certainly had the impression their upper-crust lifestyles insulate them from the problems mainstream America has to deal with. Very defiant with anybody working in some official capacity with a "police the police" mentality.

I laughed when I read about them only being tolerant of ideas that mirror their own. Yes, they're big believers in their right to free speech: Freedom of speech for me but not for thee...

[j_k_k]

It would probably be like driving through Aiken, SC with bumper stickers that say "There Is No God".

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by 509

When we were vacationing there...people were in my face all the time.

I don't know if it was the Palin/McCain bumper sticker or the George Bush is Right sticker that did it.

Not very tolerant folks.

I'm surprised you got that far west (islands) with that message!

They would have had you cornered and rolled your car over if you were in Portland.. yes... very tolerant indeed... NOT

[jenlion]

There's a lot of study lately about how people self-sort themselves into places where people have beliefs similar to their own. I know we are part of that. It was impossible to express any of my views in Texas, where at best I'd be ostracized and at worst have to deal with child services (people honestly think that it's child abuse if you don't take them to church) and vandalism of home and car. I was SICK of it and I'm so much happier here, where I don't have to fear for my life or livelihood if I don't agree to pray with everybody anymore.

What's interesting is that I used to consider myself pretty much in the middle -- I grew up in a conservative home -- but over the years find I went from indifference to irritiation to "bothered" to now outrage at the more-recent policies of the "right", both religious and political.

I am happy to have self-sorted into a place where I know people who are quite religious and people who could care less, all on the same street, and where neither of them states publicly that they care much about about what I believe. I no longer worry about rocks being thrown into my house or my car being trashed by people I'm not in total political or religious agreement with. HURRAY for self-sorting! Let somebody else try to be the emissary or ambassador so we can all learn to get along. I'm DONE with that. Now I wanna roll over some cars with Bush bumper stickers.