For me, the greatest factor has to do with living somewhere that more closely reflects my values.
I am not religious, I respect the right to choose, I support workers’ rights, I’m not racist, I support environmental causes… To the extent possible, I prefer to NOT see my government exerting considerable effort and expense on policies and actions that are opposed to my core values.
I haven’t done any kind of study, but my suspicion based on anecdote is that with reduced taxes come reduced services. I have never complained about the level of taxes I pay. I am also a firm believer in the provision of a variety of robust services but government at all levels.
You can expect taxes in red states to be much more regressive, not necessarily lower. They need to make up for low taxes on the wealthy somehow, and squeezing everyone else harder is a popular way to do it. Along with worse services, skimping on maintenance and so on.
Sorry if I caused any offense here. That wasn’t the intent, but I can see how the snark could be perceived as such.
Anyway, no, I’m not a woman. For what it’s worth, I have spoken to many of them about politics, voted for them, donated to them, marched with them, etc. I don’t have the lived experience of one, but their values and ideas still matter to me, both as a voter and just as a person.
I’ll leave it at that and excuse myself from further participation.
Yeah, I’m in a blue area (at least judging from local county government) in a blue state constantly cast as some anti-gun boogeyman and there’s at least two gun stores and an indoor firing range within a ten minute drive.
Anyway, blue states (at least this one) in my experience are more worried about the sorts of things I think are beneficial to the sort of society I want to live in: labor & wage protections, equal rights, social safety nets, women’s reproductive health, etc. Also fewer things like school boards freaking out that trans-kindergartners are going to use litter boxes if they hear that Black people were slaves. Things here feel a bit more… serious and adult.
I own several assault rifles*, I think some blue cities and states ban them. But again its not a deal breaker
*before anyone comments, yes I’m aware that technically the term ‘assault rifle’ means a fully automatic rifle, not a semi-automatic rifle. But I prefer the term assault rifle.
In California, by law I get to roll over any unused vacation days to next year, rather than having to use 'em or loose 'em. Also, when I leave the company they’re required to cash out any unused vacation time.
California is very car-centric, so not exactly true out here. But like others said, this one might be more dependent on the local area. I’m in a kind of purplish suburb, and we get a lot of pushback against public transit over fears that it will bring “undesirable” people here. But on the other hand I do kind of feel like in a red state a suburb this size would probably have little to no public transit at all, whereas here the public transit isn’t great, but at least it exists.
Now, Amtrak California does get funding from the state, and is pretty good for travel between the larger cities. All three intra-California routes are pretty popular – The Capital Corridor between Sacramento and the Bay Area, the San Joaqiuns connecting the Central Valley, and the Pacific Surfliner in SoCal.
As a well off, white, heterosexual, cis, male my personal well being would probably be just as good if not better in a Red state as a Blue one, but I don’t think I could handle it on a cultural level.
I would miss the diversity of the people. We have people here of all different races and national origins. I can hear a variety of different languages as I wander around town, I have access to grocery stores and restaurants cater to those people opening me up to different cuisine. I also have access to diverse art and culture. Some people would probably view this as a negative, (why can’t these people learn English, and not stink up the place with their weird cooking) but I love it.
For me, one practical advantage is that California created its own health care marketplace to comply with the Affordable Care Act, i.e. Obamacare, called Covered California. Like all the states were supposed to. I’ve found Covered California to be quite efficient and responsive, as compared to the nightmares I hear about the federal plan HealthCare.gov, which people in red states have to use.
I think that has more to do with living in a big city, than in a blue state. Houston, for example, is one of the most diverse cities in the US, but it’s in Texas, a very red state.
People from the East Coast (particularly the Northeast) don’t consider how damned big California is (third largest state geographically). One of the first culture shock moments I experienced on the East Coast was people casually traveling to another state in less than a day! Unless your starting point and destination are very urban, a car is likely going to be necessary for California travel.
A few months back I started a poll in the polls only thread about when you fill your tank on a long road trip. Several east coast people mentioned in the discussion thread that it depends on whether they’re driving to another state with cheaper gas. I have to admit, I guess I’ve lived in California for so long that the idea that one could make it to another state before needing to stop for gas didn’t even occur to me.
I can only speak for reliably blue Hawai’i, but here we have:
Same sex marriage rights (with a measure just passed, more complicated than I will go into here, that reinforces that)
laws regarding nondiscrimination in auto insurance coverage
excellent (or so I’m told, I’ve never personally used it) subsidized health care insurance
a high degree of confidence that I can relax in public and make a pro-blue political statement without causing anger or an argument
Guns are a mixed bag, I think. We used to have pretty strict gun control laws which was reassuring from a safety perspective. On the other hand, there used to be what looked like an extremely cool shooting range that my son and I wanted to take lessons at, and it went out of business. The laws are somewhat looser now but I think people tend to be pretty responsible gun owners (I just happened to learn, to my surprise, that my tenant owns a bunch of guns - but he said he keeps them under triple lock and key. I didn’t inquire but they are almost certainly for hunting.)
At my age I’m not directly concerned with most of the idiocies my national and state reps try to perpetrate in heavily red Kentucky. Just recently they’ve been slapped down by the voters in abortion and “school choice” referenda and we have a Dem. governor to help keep a lid on the worst crazy.
I have neutral to cordial relationships with the neighbors (we avoid discussing politics), the rural roads are kept in repair, and the power grid has been reliable, unlike the one in my former (blue) metro area.
Medical care seems decent to good thanks to competition in the nearby university-based medium-sized city.
Taxes are not insane.
What works for us might not be so good for some younger residents and certain minorities, but it’s not as if paradise necessarily beckons in, say, Massachusetts or California.
Most of our problems readily cross the red-blue divide.
It’s nice to have a net inflow of federal money (Kentucky is 7th in Federal Dependency). California and Massachusetts are among the states keeping Kentucky in the style they have become accustomed (48th and 44th in Federal Dependency respectively, which means more money flows out than in at the federal level).