Please don’t move to Nevada. We have enough people here trying to turn this into California. I’m from here and it depressing to see what is happening to Nevada. Idaho or Wyoming will be my next move and if those don’t work, then it will be to Mexico. I left the US in 2002, came back in 2014 and it has turned into a nanny state.
I find the OP’s use of “free state” in reference to liberal (blue) states to be amusing and delusional. By definition, the most liberal and conservative states (cities, groups, etc.) are anything but free. A free state would be libertarian, with as few regulations and taxes as possible. I’d venture that Montana, Vermont, Nevada and maybe Alaska qualify the most.
What you want is a small ultra-liberal college town like Grinnell or Oberlin. Of course those are red or at best purple states.
Yeah, ok, this isn’t the pit and that is your opinion.
you get to use the word “Free” anyway you want to but the rest of us don’t have to agree with you.
in libertarian land poor people can be FREE not to have health insurance. lucky people!
and a corporation can be FREE to pollute the air and water all they want. yay!
Yeah, that’s pretty much the core of being a libertarian. I’m not forcing you to do anything. Not calling for a law to be passed, nor a regulation to be written, nor a tax to be paid. You can use “free” any way you wish, and I am free to point out that your use is absurd. You can even call Obamacare “Affordable”.
I would say you’d be happier/better off if you moved from a more rural environment to an urban one, regardless of state. Which is to say, it’s where you move in a state that’s going to matter, not which state necessarily. You could move to liberal California and, depending on where you move you’d be in a more ‘red’ area than you left. Same goes for most states. I’ve lived in blue states where the folks around me are quite conservative and red states like Texas where folks are very liberal.
I think this is true, but part of it depends on how politically focused one is, and where their concerns lie. There are certain parts of state government and politics that are frustrating for someone who disagrees with the state norm. Gun laws in NY, NJ, MD, CA, etc. are an example for someone who believes in the second amendment and enjoys owning and shooting guns, even if you live in a rural/conservative part of one of those states. It is frustrating, for example, to be an upstate New Yorker or resident of western Maryland, due to state politics. I’m sure the same applies to urban liberal residents of conservative southern states. But there is more to life than politics, for sure, such as friends, family, weather, hobbies, etc.
Boston has a history of racism, that’s for sure.
But do you really want to conduct a racism-off between Boston and Alabama, winner take all?
I have lived all over the US, on both coasts and in the middle. I am much happier in a more liberal state, even if I am in a more conservative part of the state. Nowhere has been ideal, of course (e.g., gun laws in the US are frankly insane IMO, no matter which part of the country you happen to be in).
My husband and I have been discussing making another move out of the US. Unfortunately, the only country that is realistic for us to move to at this point is Russia. Though we spend a lot of time there, I am not prepared to move back permanently in the current political climate. And yes, from my perspective Putin’s Russia is without question worse than Trump’s America. So we’ll stay in our blue state bubble.
We lived in a liberal area of a conservative state for a while. Yes, it was preferable being in the blue island to being out of it. The state as a whole, however, still approved laws and policies that I would prefer not to be a part of. We moved back to California and never regretted it.
Sampiro - I think moving to a city would definitely help, but moving to a blue state is much more likely to be closer to welcoming. Red states are going to lag behind on issues that are important to you, if they get to them at all (like religious freedom and LGTBQ rights).
I think it’s worth moving. If you don’t like it, you can leave. Your family and friends will still be around, and you can always visit.
Did you move BECAUSE of politics, though?
Unless you did, it’s polluted data. Most people who move prefer their new circumstances because, well, that’s why they moved.
We chose Maryland over Virginia because of politics, but we moved to the DC area because of a job.
Has it become that bad? I remember when Borat came out, you wrote a very pissed off (and informative) post about how the film misrepresented Alabama.
If you are thinking of making a big change, you probably should and have already delayed longer than necessary. All else being equal, humans have huge status quo bias. So I’d say give it a shot. Move back if you aren’t happier.
The new governor, who was formerly the AG, said he would not be enforcing that legislation. It was really much ado over nothing. Don’t worry, there are no restroom gestapos.
And in a blue state, you have to put up with pie-in-the-sky laws about gun control, passed by people who are inexplicably convinced that the best way to prevent gun violence is to make it illegal to protect one’s person and property.
And then there are all the laws from liberals regulating how people are allowed to live their personal lives – seat belt laws; helmet laws; restrictions on what people can do with their own property; putting the welfare of some mouse/bird/fish above the welfare of humans; etc, etc.
It’s not the official enforcement that’s the issue. The empowered citizens who think they have the right now to check and enforce bathroom laws.
Libertarians are not conservatives. And libertarians certainly do not want to closely regulate either personal life or businesses. Libertarians think both conservatives and liberals are too nosy and intrusive.
You left out the part where all of this leads to a higher quality of life, red state America is pretty much the third world.