Extremes of climate, high taxes/burdensome regulation and congestion/traffic nightmares lead my list of undesirable attributes re places to live. Wildfires and earthquakes aren’t so great either.
So that lets out north central and deep southern states (including most of Texas), much of the east and west coastal tier, Alaska and Hawaii (too isolated for one thing).
Cheery thought: virtually all Dopers will be dead before climate change has much of an impact on your destinations. 
I think an exception might be the mid-atlantic coast from above VA all the way almost to MA. The South and Southwest are already intolerable during the height of the summer, but not so for the mid-atlantic coast: to say nothing of the incremental danger of flooding, a few more degrees in the summer could push them over the edge to intolerably hot as well.
Maryland is the only state in the northeast (New England & Mid-Atlantic regions) that averages less than 90% humidity during the summer. How on earth did you end up in Massachusetts if you hate high humidity?
Anyway, if I didn’t live in New England, I’d live in the northern most parts of the southeast. Eventually I may decide that my hatred of winter snow outweighs the things I like about living in the northeast.
Some parts of Texas are pretty blue. It’s a big state. Similarly it isn’t that hard to find red California - it’s a big chunk geographically, just not demographically.
My city of Overland Park Kansas wasrated #15 best place to live by MONEY magazine and #11 best place to live by Livability. Then CBS newsmade us #6.
We are growing as we are listed as one of the top places millenials are buying homes by Smart Asset.
So we are a great area to settle down and raise a family. Many find us boring though.
I would also recommend Watertown South Dakota. It boats 2 lakes, a zoo, an art center. a super low cost of housing, and plenty of jobs. Obama even visited there in 2015.
Whatever you need to tell yourself so you can sleep at night.
Trumpland is a racist shithole and the rest of the country is racist shithole adjacent, except Hawaii. So I guess my answer is Hawaii is the best and Trumpland is the worst.
Sometimes its about where you are in life.
For me right now its livability. Can I afford a home. Are there good public schools. Is the area safe. Can I get a good job there.
Now back when I was younger I think it would have been cool to live the single life in a hip area like NYC, Chicago, or LA.
Worst - Appalachia or Mississippi delta. Terrible economy, terrible culture.
Best - Maybe NYC or the SF bay. Good economies, contribute to science, art and culture. Of course they have serious problems too (Especially SF) so maybe not the ‘best’.
Rains all the time. ALL THE TIME.
As someone who lives in the most conservative part of LA county CA I can attest to the truthfulness of this …….
And if the sun should come out (which it never does), the glare from all the pasty-white skin is enough to blind you.
Yes, there are Republicans here. I’m still bitter that I didn’t get a birthday lunch because the team had a Trump victory party instead. My birthday falls pretty close to Inauguration Day
A hop, skip and a jump north of the border - my city Victoria. Not exactly a cultural hotbed, it’s known as a popular retirement destination, or for starting a family, hence our “newly wed/nearly dead” rep, and has moderate weather throughout the year.
For this city - that’s technically part of the rainy PNW - the past ten or so years has barely gotten rain anymore. Especially in summer, there used to be at least 7 - 8 days of rain per month; now we’re lucky if we see maybe two or three days of rain for the entire summer. Not crazy about that drought-y shit.
My only really major concern, though, is that when the Big One’s’ hit (being located almost directly above the truly frightening Cascadian Subduction Zone) we’re gonna be soooooooooo fu-huh-huh-UCKED.
So what’s wrong with Houston and Toledo? Deets, man, deets.
As someone who lives in Texas, and has conversed with you here over the years, mainly about the NFL, what about Texas disgusts you so?
It’s a very diverse place, particularly the large cities. You don’t have to take my word for it; go read magazines like GQ or Bon Appetit, talking about the great food scene in cities like Houston. I can go to, say, Marshalls in Houston, and without trying, hear 6 or more different languages in the store. (English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, French, Yoruba, (I think, I’m bad on placing exact West African languages), Hindi, Gujarati (I can only tell the difference between those because I had a co-worker who spoke Gujarati as a first language), and so on. Turns out everybody around the world who has an oil or gas well comes to Houston at some point… And they bring their relatives who can cook, and can start businesses, with them.
It’s not a place of Klan members who stroke their ARs, while going to church and praising Trump. I mean, I’m sure there are those types, but we co-exist with them, along with the people who think drag queen storytime at the city library is such a great idea, we’ll ignore performing background checks on the participants. Houston drag queen storytime reader charged with child sex assault - ABC13 Houston
That’s just peculiar, that management would let something as divisive as politics enter the workplace that way. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m glad my workplace didn’t have either a Trump or Obama party: it’s just not something appropriate for work, IMHO.
OTOH, I wasn’t a great fan of workplace birthday celebrations either. Give me the day off, pay me what you were going to spend on the cake/decorations/etc, and/or leave me alone. Though I did like ‘teambuilding exercises’ while watching something like March Madness, etc…
How prevalent are the “Don’t mess with Texas” lone star flag waving types? Because from the outside, I perceive them more than all of the other diverse Texans you describe combined. The image is of conservative, gun loving, boisterous, truck driving, fossil fuel loving “good-old boys.” Definitely “in your face” - which is not terribly pleasant no matter where one is coming from.
Sure, I’m willing to accept that it is an inaccurate stereotype, but it IS the image I (and I imagine many others) perceive.
Re: Houston, I’m not familiar, but my impression was that summers were VERY hot and humid. And I’ve heard unfavorable things about the lack of zoning and the traffic. But I’ve got a nephew down there who likes it just fine. Of course, that is where his job (refinery) is. Going down to his wedding near Austin in a couple of months.
My son worked in Harlingen for a couple of years. He thought it a shithole, and I’ve not read/heard anything to suggest otherwise. But I readily acknowledge that it is not typical of the state.
I’m less concerned than some about everyone or most people where I live agreeing with my (absolutely correct and righteous, of course :)) politics. 80%+ vote for the Democrats in my city in the inner NY area. I’m not a fan of the GOP, especially with Trump at the helm, but my ideological beliefs are generally closer to what they say theirs are (or were). Anyway I’m much less to the left than most people in my area, but it doesn’t affect my daily life much. Out west it seems more common for left/new age type people to be more aggressive pushing their beliefs in real life, internet style. My brother recently spent some time in a notoriously leftish area of Oregon, he’s well to the left of me, and found that quite obnoxious. NY culture is generally not that political, with some exceptions but generally avoidable.
As for more conservative parts of the country they wouldn’t greatly bother me either, because I’m not totally out of tune with them (not totally in tune necessarily either, but not diametrically opposed). I would still find it annoying to be asked* my politics by near strangers even if it turned out we agreed, but it wouldn’t have a big impact.
I’d rule out living in the South for cultural not political reasons. Being ‘the Yankee new comer’ is not for me. FL isn’t the South anymore except limited parts, though hotter summers than NY probably rules it out despite the better winters and tax advantage. I’d move to a conservative area in the Plains or Mountain states if everything else lined up. I like the West Coast climate(s), lived in LA for awhile and liked that, liked the SF climate when I visited. The issue there is cost, even aside from over-aggressive left politics in some places (though that wasn’t true in LA either back when I lived there at least). If we moved away from NY, cutting taxes and living costs would be a major goal. If we want to live in an attractive but expensive and high tax area, we can just stay put and consider NY ‘best’, which we might well do.
*or being effectively asked by some stranger expressing a strong opinion and expecting a response.
Was talking to someone yesterday who said how much his kids appreciated the slower pace of life and politeness they perceive attending school at Clemson and working in Louisville. I have to admit, that is something I could get used to.
Re: regional politics/culture, I imagine it would be most noticeable at the extremes, especially if that extreme culture was pervasive. Like you said, even a liberal like me might have issues in a community that was extremely left. I recall a friend of mine really disliking the influence of the LDS church when he worked in Utah. But I bet there would be relatively few states that would have extreme, pervasive cultures which would alone bar me from living there.
Houston is incredibly diverse on the same scale as NYC and LA. However, it is hot as Hades during the summer but relatively inexpensive. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it is unattractive for being the 4th largest city in the country but the food and entertainment are great.
People in the South generally won’t care if you’re a Yankee newcomer as long as you’re reasonably polite and don’t try to change and criticize everything. It’s the people that move to low cost of living rural areas and then start demanding luxury services that get people riled up. It is indeed a slower pace of life and a big-city intensity won’t make you too many friends.