Why people in red areas don't just pick up and move to blue areas

[raccoon]

Even in good economic times, it isn't easy for many people to get a job over a long distance. In hard times, fuggetaboutit.

Add to that some obvious liabilities the individual may have: too old, too inexperienced. And they might be going into a workplace so toxic that no local person would touch it. BTDT.

There's the problem of one's spouse/SO getting a job, moving away from parents, adult children, other relatives, etc. For various reasons one might not want to move away from them.

Why am I even posting this? Because some people say, why don't you just move? Oh, and it costs money to move.

I even wonder why I'm posting this.

[Radical Activist]

1. I enjoyed living in the South.

Those liberal enclaves in red states are some of the coolest places to live in America. Austin, Asheville, Atlanta.
There are some up sides to living in a red area even if you're not stuck there.

Besides, we don't need another liberal activist in a major city on the east or west coast. We need more liberal activists in red areas. That's where it counts even more.

[LostinVA]

17. Charlottesville

[supernova]

2. Additionally, we might just enjoy

where we are, despite the problems and want to help our communities grow and change for the better.

[w8liftinglady]

3. If I could find a sugar-person,I would...trust me

unfortunately,with a minor kid,an asshole ex and sick leave,I'm stuck....trust me,most of us would rather pluck ourselves bald than put up with this shit.There was a time when my state(Texas) was fairly liberal.It changed over a generation...and now I'm F%cked(and not in a good way)

[MadHound]

4. Or it could be as simple as you like where you live.

I live in a very red county in a red state. But the fact of the matter is I like where I live, out in the country where the air is fresh and I don't hear that traffic rumble. I can plant what I want, raise what I want, run around outside naked if I want, and nobody is the wiser, nor do they care.

I got sick of urban life, the sounds, stenches, expenses. When I am at home, it is like my own personal little vacation house out in the woods, every single day of the year.

As far as my neighbors go, well yes, they are conservative, but that doesn't mean that we don't talk politics, or that we shun each other, or refuse to help each other. Politics is not the top priority in our relations, being a neighbor is. Besides, I've even helped a number of them see the light and they voted for Obama.

And as far as culture and art goes, well, if I want that, it's thirty miles down the road, where I can attend concerts, galleries, what have you. Then I can go home and not deal with the urban mess.

That's why I live in a red state, that and the fact that I can't stand the megopolis that the east and west coast has become.

[LWolf]

8. lol

I just gave almost the same response.

[Mudoria]

18. You said it much better than I could

[LWolf]

5. It would be hard to move to a blue area and maintain my lifestyle.

I like living rurally. I like having no neighbors. I don't like noise and light pollution, traffic, or over-crowding. I don't much like concrete. I like starry skies, dirt and gravel roads, and miles and miles and miles of open space. I like being surrounded by blm and national forest, and being able to reach more than a dozen lakes in a day. I like being able to get 13.5 miles to work on back roads, without a single stoplight, and just 4 stop signs. I like that our "rush hour" traffic at it's worse is better than 2 am in L.A..

Those are quality of life issues for me.

There may be rural blue areas, but I've never seen them. I like the PLACE I live, even if I don't like the politics.

[KamaAina]

21. Northern California and Oregon west of the Cascades

also, southern Vermont and parts of Maine.

[LWolf]

22. I live in Oregon.

And I love the blue cities west of the Cascades. I don't live in the rural areas there, though. Are they really also blue, or is it just the city suburbs?

[county worker]

6. I have made several geographical moves as a single person and with my wife.

It is not easy. If it were easy everyone would be doing it. You have to set moving as a long term goal and work at it. When we moved from the city to the mountains we wanted space for us and our horses. We each looked for work in the area where we wanted to move. The plan was that the first one to get a job would move and rent until the other could get a job. It took 5 years before we were settled in the same house and land together with our horses. We made the reverse move a couple of years ago in the same manner as before, a step at a time.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. Because they might be nice places to live?

Florida was technically red in the 2000 and 2004 elections. The legislature is still predominantly Republican thanks to gerrymandering.

But I love it here. And I wouldn't move to some state just because it happens to be "blue" for the time being.

[Uben]

9. Where I live, it's really red!

But, politics is not a part of daily life here. I think most of these people vote republican because they think that's in their best interest, although it is not. They are politically ignorant, but not necessarily unintelligent or unfriendly. My family lives here, I've lived here my entire 55 years, and I am not planning on moving. I like it here! Where else can you live in a gated community with a 700 acre lake, a PGA rated golf course, tennis courts, a disc golf course, a club or organization for everyone, all for less than $200/month? I know of no ther place like that, this cheap.

Yeah, it is discouraging when the repubs win every local election and always vote republican on national tickets, but hey, life is not based solely on politics. I can be friends with "rabid reds" and never get into political conversations. I do't go looking for arguments and I don't play into theirs. Life is too short to let politics dictate who your friends are. Politics are important to me. I have been here almost since this place started and I intend to stay around a while longer.

I'm a fisherman, not a politician.

[elocs]

10. Because there is more to life than politics as hard as that is for some here to believe.

Some people live where they grew up and just love the land and have lots of family and friends there, and those are very good reasons to live in a place regardless of its poltics.

[jobycom]

11. Plus, who wants to live around a lot of elitist Yankee snobs, anyway?

It's a joke, I swear, it's a joke. See, I'm laughing. :rofl:

I live in Texas, and like it here. I don't like the politics, but I like everything else. Granted, aside from being a vegetarian and an atheist I don't really have any major reasons people would discriminate against me. I have no trouble marrying who I want (aside from not having found her yet), I'm not Hispanic or African American, etc. So while I don't like the politics, they don't really affect me directly, so I can ignore them.

And by staying here, I can be ready for when people are ready to change. This was once a populist state, electing people like Ralph Yarborough, Ann Richards, LBJ, Barbara Jordan... It can be that again, maybe, but not if all the voters with sense move away. We may be on the verge of electing a Democratic governor, even.

So, yeah, if I move away, it will be because I want or have to live somewhere else, it won't be because of politics.

[Uncle Joe]

12. Nashville and Tennessee are in my blood, the good and the bad.

It's like Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."

But as someone up thread posted, this doesn't prevent me from attempting to enlighten or sway my family, friends, and co-workers' political perspectives.

Thanks for the thread, raccoon.

[get the red out]

13. I like living in my city

It's my state that has "issues". I have always been fine with being a Kentuckian, still am, I just think it is terrible that the media and religion in this country have corporate power giving them talking points, and in the "red" areas the Churches are the strongest and the unions and education is weakest, so the RW/corporate talking points distributed through the Churches get the most attention. It's shameful that people fall for it, but I don't fall for it and I let people know that. I have just as much right to live here as a Fux addict.

Then there is the natural foods co-op here that I love, and the farmer's market... It's not all red state gloom anywhere.

I would seriously miss college basketball season here in Lexington too. (Evil, unrepentant, Wildcat fan here).

:evilgrin:

[flvegan]

14. If the cost of living were the same, AND I could move with my job

I'd happily think about returning to Boston to live. I miss so much about it.

Besides, I like to think that I'm helping to turn my area blue.

[Codeine]

15. And they may just like the place.

I wouldn't leave Southern California no matter how red it got or how broke it went. I'm inherently Southern Californian -- it's part of who I am.

[uncommon]

16. I live in super liberal Massachusetts, and there are times I wish I could pack up

and head out to some more open place, with less traffic, less stress, less daily elbow throwing.

Living here has its perks, especially for the poor, but it also has its drawbacks.

[bobbolink]

19. Simple solution

Its much easier when you are homeless have have nothing but a shopping cart full of stuff to move, and no change of address forms to fill out.

Just a consideration.

[ashling]

20. I've lived in Maryland and Northern Va

(worked in DC), Mississippi, New Orleans, Washington (Puget Sound)
I am home in Texas now.

[Flying Squirrel]

23. It's the same reason I don't move to Canada.

God knows I hate what this country has become, and Canada really appeals to me. But the logistics of moving to another country, the isolation that would result from being away from family, the sense that I should remain in my own country and do what I can to try to improve it.. many, many reasons why I don't "just move."

[seabeyond]

24. 6 more years for youngest to get thru high school. 6. more. years.

i can do that.

[Maru Kitteh]

25. I don't move because this is my HOME. Generations of my people are buried here,

and generations live here now.

Unemployment is among the lowest in the country. Cost of living is low. Wages are decent. There may not be a Trader Joe's, but there's no commute and damn little in the way of crime either. Merchants leave goods out in front of their stores at night and there isn't a single building with bars on the windows in this whole town. Not even the blood-sucking Cash-till-Payday bastards have them.

It's been so long since there was a trial for a murder committed here I couldn't even find one in Google but I'm thinking it was about 1989.

I might move again one day (I've lived in other states before) but for right now, nooooo thanks. I'm staying.

[cherokeeprogressive]

26. I lived in Texas and fucking loved it. Loved it.

Trying to get people to LEAVE red states is idiotic on its face. Try to get them to vote BLUE instead.

I'm tired of this vein of discussion in any case.