To me the two states look fairly comparable.
The two states are actually quite different. VT is much more agricultural than NH, which has substantial tech and manufacturing.
Also, the labels “conservative” and “liberal” don’t really work in many standard ways in these two states. NH is often called libertarian since it has a very hands-off approach to things that is often in conflict with mainstream conservatism. And there are some very conservative sections of VT - read up on the “Take VT Back” movement in the aftermath of the civil union decision. Burlington, the largest city, is quite liberal but not all of the countryside.
I don’t really know much about NH beyond its importance as a presidential battleground state, but the leftwing tilt of VT can’t be understated. In a few years, it’ll become the first state to have enacted a single-payer health care system, which, in American politics, is about as leftwing as it gets.
All of which is very remarkable for a state that’s majority affluent & White.
In the contrary, the relative scarcity of minorities might actually be the reason that there is little resistance to universal health coverage. No “undeserving” recipients of aid, you see.
Vermont is filled with Vermonters.
New Hampshire isn’t.
Seriously. The people in the two states are very different.
NH benefits from being just north of the people’s republic of MA. Lot’s of people get so fed up with MA that they leave to head north to NH. There they can still work at the same job but commute home to a state that has sane management. This feeds in fiscally conservative people.
Another thing worth mentioning is that VT does have a conservative side. Drive around the state and you’ll see barns and houses with signs saying “Take Back Vermont”. That’s the outnumbered conservatives venting their outrage.
You’re overlooking the small point that the jobs, the tech, the development are all in the sadly-liberal Massachusetts. NH’s “flinty individualism” has resulted in nothing more over the years than a general attitude of pettiness and spite, not a rise out of agrarianism - and even that’s gone backward.
But NH is coming into the modern era anyway, like it or not, as more of the state becomes suburban Boston, due to commuters who are looking for housing further afield, the strong demand closer to the region’s liberal economic engine causing prices to be difficult to afford.
Because Vermonters are rebels from way back!
For a moment there, I thought you were talking about ways in which Vermont and New Hampshire were different.
But how many people live in Vermont and commute to Boston? Maybe parts of New York, but Boston?
True, New Hampshire is more influenced by Boston (so is Maine), Vermont more by New York and even Montreal. Just look at who owns the vacation houses and who you meet on the ski lifts in both states. Vermont has a much-better-established granola munching hippie population possibly because it has a larger supply base for them.
Vermont’s been handbasketing to Hell ever since Ben met Jerry.
Exactly. People from NY travel to VT on the weekends to go skiing. People from MA travel to NH to go skiing.
For most people in MA, getting to VT is a lot longer of a drive than getting to NH. Most people live in the eastern part of the state.
Not if they want good skiing. 
It’s a much lower connection. People who work in Boston live in New Hampshire. Southern New Hampshire is only thirty miles away from Boston.
Vermont doesn’t have the same relationship with Montreal or New York City. Montreal is on the other side of a national border. And even the closest part of Vermont is over a hundred miles away from New York City. So people in those cities might visit Vermont but they don’t live there.
Speaking from personal experience, New York City’s influence extends north to about Kingston. North of Kingston and you’re out of the New York City zone and into the Albany zone.
I lived and worked in Nashua for a decade and a half, there’s lots of tech up there and many folks don’t commute to MA. Manchester is a small but active city in its own right.
The problem with living in NH and commuting to MA is the taxes. You pay income tax in MA and property tax in NH, the worst of both worlds.
But I know people who do that and *still *express deep yahoo pride in not living in Taxachusetts. :rolleyes: It’s true that NH has no state sales tax or income tax, but that’s mainly because the state foists off so many functions on the municipalities instead, hence its eye-popping real-estate taxes. The poorer communities can only tax themselves, and so they stay poor. “Live Free or Die” is not a choice; many do both.
The only person I know who commuted to the Boston area from Vermont did it only on weekends. I know several who do it from Maine, though.
It’s because all the hippies moved here in the sixties, man!
Tales of the super high property taxes in NH are mostly not true.
The state can get away with not having a sales tax or income tax because it has a smaller government.
There are plenty of towns in MA with higher property tax rates than towns in NH. Plus the houses are generally more expensive so you pay a higher amount in absolute terms even if the percentage is the same.
Some examples of differences between the states:
Representatives in MA get paid generous salaries. Representatives in NH get $200 a year and are basically volunteers.
Every road construction site in MA has a state cop standing by texting on his phone for $40 an hour. NH only uses a cop if one is needed. Flagmen direct the traffic.
Unemployment payouts in MA is the most generous in the country at $674 a week. Lot’s of people work just long enough to “fill up the tank” to max out unemployment and then take a layoff to collect for six months.
NH is more in line with the rest of the country at $427.
VT is $425. Anyone know how much their legislators make? Do they have cops as flagmen? Do you need to pay a bribe to get a job working for the state like you do in MA? (It’s about $5,000 for a job on the MBTA last I knew. The price starts there and goes up for a liquor license.)
That’s a big part of it. Vermont was rock-ribbed Republican for years after the Civil War (FDR lost only Maine and Vermont in his 1936 reelection blowout). But its population changed dramatically in the Sixties, as hippies and other free spirits moved in, taking advantage of the new Interstate. People who settle in New Hampshire tend to be conservative/libertarian and tax-averse; people who settle in Vermont tend to be liberal/progressive and to not mind taxes if they’re spent for good purposes (eye of the beholder, obviously). Like attracts like.
Yes, housing demand is much higher closer to civilization, as already noted.
Which ones are more susceptible to bribery, then?
That law was changed about five years ago. Apparently Howie Carr hasn’t mentioned that lately. It was still petty cash, in the big picture.
That’s common folklore, yes, but do you *know * or know *of *any? Somebody who can arrange to be laid off every six months? UI is funded by employers, not taxpayers, btw, and MA employers don’t seem to mind much. To get the best employees, you have to do business where *they *live, and UI in line with the cost of living is part of the cost of that.
When NH *gets *mass transit, we can discuss its corruption. 
Must be nice to have a completely honest government up there, huh?
Change the station once in a while.