Fun concept. It’s occurred to me with all the marijuana legalization and anti-abortion initiatives, that what makes a real difference in living conditions might just be the state you live in, rather than the nation you live in. Perhaps if liberals and progressives were to move to a state en masse we could swing enough political power to take over the state legislature and run things our way. A good, progressive, well funded public school system, pot legalized, same sex marriage legalized, universal health care, all sorts of good things.
I have some candidates for states to take over which may surprise you:
Mississippi
California
Alabama
Connecticut
I’ll explain my reasoning in more detail later. But briefly, Mississippi and Alabama, though very conservative, have low population densities and a large working poor population that may be turned progressive with social programs that actually, you know, help them. California and Connecticut are both halfway to being progressive and a large influx of progressives may turn the states entirely progressive.
And there are some very low density Western states like Montana and Idaho that I rejected offhand because they are too fricking cold and inhospitable, but with global warming … that may change. Wonder if there are any good projections along those lines?
Whaddya think? Shall we send out the word, “progressives go here!” I know elucidator might be glad to move to some place hospitable from the frozen wastelands of Minnesota …
I’d prefer to model an education system afterthe one in Finland, the best in the world according to some, often coming in at number one on international standardized tests. Why go halfway?
That said, I regard this is a side issue. The central idea is creating an influx of progressive/liberals to take over a state and use it as a laboratory for progressive ideas.
Reminds me of a right-wing dolt on another site who claimed that liberals move somewhere, ruin it, and then flee their own handiwork to go ruin some new town while the rest of the innocent, hardworking residents are stuck to clean up their mess.
While I’m all for buying off people to get what one wants out of them, what are you going to offer to poor, conservative people in exchange for them switching sides on their deep-rooted, socially reinforced religious beliefs about abortion, homosexuality, etc.? A general promise of “better stuff for you poor folks” is not going to cut it. Their idea of a better public school system, for instance, is probably not the same as the one you have in mind.
Would that it were so. California is a very uneven state. I do not think a really progressive state would have some of the worst prisons in the United States, and absolutely the worst problem with overcrowding. (Granted, Gov. Brown is trying to fix this, but it was inflexible mandatory sentencing laws and “tough on crime” like “three strikes” that created the problem in the first place … not a hallmark of progressivism.)
Wait, what? There is almost nothing Libertarian about the Finnish educational system, from what I can tell.
Either way it’s at least somewhat nuts (no matter who is proposing it) to model our educational system on the one from a country with a population of only 5.4 million that is also one of the most homogenous countries around.
I knew I should have edited that first paragraph out. I was responding to the 2nd paragraph.
As for the Finnish model, I think there is something to be said about not ignoring the homogeneity of their population, but their population size is comparable to many US states, and education systems in the US are mostly run by the states, not the federal government.
Thanks for the explanation. I had no idea what was meant by progressive education; I grasped the rest of your platform well enough.
Back to your main topic, do you believe that there are enough people of your political persuasion that are willing to place politics before every other aspect of their lives and move to another state as a political experiment, to actually have the effect you envision? I suspect there are not.
Ok, to get back to my core idea, a state like Mississippi, to my mind, SHOULD be a virtual paradise. (You could substitute Alabama for Mississippi here, they’re very much alike. Hell Georgia, my home state, would fit right in there with them if it weren’t for metro Atlanta). It has a warm and pleasant climate, rich farmland, and a generaly abundance of what makes for pleasant living. Not a lot of industrial or commercial development compared to other states, largely I think for cultural reasons. Mississippi consistently ranks dead last or nearly socompared with other states in terms of economics, education and health.
Mississippi has sometimes been called the equivalent of a Third World country in the US. (That’s a bit of hyperbole, even the poorest Mississippians are better off than the poor in actual Third World countries, but it’s an apt simile. Mississippi is the US’s little Third World-equivalent shame.)
I think it’s because the culture and leadership of Mississippi have made it what it is. It’s basically an oligarchy, and has been for decades, perhaps always has been. I think an influx of progressives with their energy, money and enthusiasm would do the state wonders. There would just have to be enough to take over the state politically, perhaps not immediately but within a few years, because of course the oligarchy that runs Mississippi will resist change with every fiber of their being, and try to corrupt and coopt change where they cannot outright prevent it. It will take some political muscle to beat them.
That said, once some progressive laws get passed and lower and middle class people start having a hell of a lot more money and control over their lives, I believe the rate of change would accelerate greatly in Mississippi. After all, if you really think progressive/liberal ideas make the lives of average folks better, then it follows that implementing them will change minds. The REALITY of having more money and a better life would trump any fumings about “them damn progressive liberals” that conservatives come up with. After all, one of the favorite sayings of conservatives is “money talks, bullshit walks.” I believe that conservatives will have to do a lot of walking backward in any state that progressives can get an agenda passed in.