Conservatives go to red states and liberals go to blue as the country grows more polarized
Conservatives go to red states and liberals go to blue as the country grows more polarized
TBF considering red states want to make my existence illegal and send me to jail for being me(Trans) it does make sense for me to go to a place where I'm not threatened. Pennsylvania is more of a purple state but at least I know they aren't going to turn on me for some political points.
From a political perspective, moving to purple states (e.g. PA, GA, AZ, NV, NC, WI, MI) makes much more sense than sorting into blue and red states, which would give Republicans disproportionate power at all levels.
The wealthy want us to fight a culture war to distract us from the class war we should be having.
.
The rich waged wars on democracy since the beginning of European colonization in North America. They’ve been winning steadily, with few losses since the beginning of money in society.
In any war the only winner is the rich. If the rich lose, then it's called a revolution instead.
Democracy is good for the oligarchs. Trump is a populist. The oligarchs definitely don't like him. Even the Koch family is against him.
Tbh, I prefer to live in a purple state.
I am in a battleground state, in a pretty rural area, filled with a decent amount diversity, including trump crazies.
I feel I'm doing more good here than living in the city.
I like to get down and dirty, pushing.
(Tbf I am a straight white male, so I can totally see getting out of dodge if that wasn't the case)
I totally respect the stay-and-fight position. Godspeed.
If I could relocate to a state where my views aren't swamped by the overwhelming redness of the state, I would in an instant, but sadly it's not in the cards until retirement.
Yeah... living in a deep red state goes against every bit of my moral fiber. But I can't leave. I can only sit here, helplessly trying my best to vote for equal rights but then I see people are voting for red no matter what is at stake. The party system is trash and it needs to be gone.
Your comment fits me perfectly. Listening to my coworkers discuss the most garbage vitriol and bullshit mental gymnastics to justify they're beliefs while trying to shoehorn them into their religion. Good times
Important data to understand, there are fewer blue states than red states. These actions allow for Republicans to gain far more power in Government as the states elect the President and Congress. Democrats are essentially giving Republicans full control of the Federal Government which will be used to erode all progressive laws in blue states.
The only reason some states are red is due to gerrymandering. Blue voters outnumber red voters by a large margin.
This depends on how you define red and blue. If it's who the state voted for president, then gerrymandering doesn't impact that
This also isn't accurate. There are bright blue cores of red states like Austin in Texas. I doubt that the wealthier republicans are moving to a trailer park in Alabama.
I don't think so, I think this is actually disastrous for Republicans. You have a number of trends and statistics reducing their voter count and appeal in battleground states. Consolidating their base in safe red states hurts them even further here, and some of the people they drive away are going to settle in swing states instead.
It isn't smart from a strategic political position, but it's probably smart from a personal position. Hopefully eventually the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact goes into effect and we don't have to worry about crap like this.
Oklahoma here and am ready to get the fuck out
There are a good number of Okies on here and Mastodon. Welcome!
I actually think Oklahoma is a few years away from a blue tipping point, similar to the effect Denver has had on Colorado, where the urban majority has rapidly tipped things blue.
The awful superintendent is low key the best thing to ever happen to education here—there is a bubbling reaction even within the right to react to him and Stitt’s policies. And turning around education is the only thing needed to stop “blue” families from declining job offers here. Which would cascade the social landscape rapidly.
I hope Stitt opens people's eyes a bit. Guy is the sludge at the bottom of a sewer pipe.
Northern Michigan is about to have the same temp as Tennessee in the next decade. Blue states won't be frigid for much longer and red states are about to swim in the humidity. Still, it varies quite heavily more by terrain than by lat/long.
I just escape that jail, moved to California, it's actually shocking how much nicer it is.
There's a streep aweaper that comes through the neighborhood once a week, so the streets are extremely clean, and like, the roads are actually well maintained. Just from the like, extremely surface level things.
Transplant now residing in Oklahoma. I wish things would get better. It's honestly almost an embarrassment to live here.
Funny, I just moved to Oklahoma from Seattle and it’s been a nice change of pace.
But why are all the blue states cold?
My husband and I thought about Arizona, or Virginia to get away from one of the highest CoL areas in the country.. but eventually decided to focus on Connecticut instead, because we don't want to be in a red state. With the exception of CA, none of the liberal states are sunny and all of them are expensive!
It's such a weird time in the U.S.. Also, it might be a better choice to go to a battleground state.
That's what I did. Moved to AZ, which is a purple state, from CA. I joined a writing group here, and one member is an out gay conservative. No way could he have been that outspoken in a casual writing group in CA, he'd have been chased out.
As someone more on the liberal side of things in general, it's incredibly refreshing to be able to hold a good-natured conversation with him involved where he didn't feel worry or concern about discussing his ideas.
We have another lady in the group who writes hardcore far-left poetry, and those are always followed up by great conversations. She's nice and not condescending to the conservative guy.
I love being in a purple state, I wish more states were battleground states.
I joined a writing group here, and one member is an out gay conservative.
I find it unreal that an LGBTQ person would actually even consider the current Republican Party as a viable option.
I live in a purple state in a rural area, and I HATE it. Not because there are conservatives, but because massive numbers of these conservatives are trembling with fear of the other and if they think that I am on their "side" for whatever reason, they won't hesitate to say the most ignorant, racist, bigoted shit about "those people" - essentially anyone who isn't straight and white, while demanding prayer of the exclusively evangelical variety in public meetings. Their world view is so insular that it's suffocating to be around.
When one group became openly hostile to multiple populations of people based on things like race and sexuality, it's no longer 'voting with your feet', it becomes 'go somewhere they're not gonna shoot my son'
Yeah this article was interesting, but absolutely drenched in both-sides-ism. "I wanna be able to fly a thin blue line flag" doesn't compare with "I'm LGBTQ and fleeing for my life."
Thin blue line flags and safe places for trans people can not coexist.
I have a fantasy where DeSantis and his supporters cause Florida to secede, then all the most die-hard evangelicals, fascists and chuds, the worst the republicans have to offer, all flock there to protect their glorious revolution. Then the rest of us can just wall it off and have healthcare, sane governance, green energy, adult discourse, and all the stuff we're prevented from having because republicans refuse to support anything unless it allows them to be cruel to someone.
I'm a progressive living in a red state and I would love to leave, but who has the money or connections to just fucking move states? Like who the hell do I know in Washington state? And because the cost of living tends to be higher in blue states, it's impossible to save enough to move to one of those areas from fucking Arkansas.
I've moved a ton all over. I apply for a job in the place I want to move to and move when I'm successful in landing a job.
It might seem impossible but it's not. Do you live alone? It will be easier to cut costs if you don't need to convince family.
“People want to live where they know their neighbors don’t want to wipe them from the face of the earth. More at 11.”
There is a real threat of harm to various minority groups living in red states. Hell, there’s a real threat of harm to women who can fall pregnant living in red states. I’d certainly not want to live there if my accidentally falling pregnant (which would likely be ectopic in my case) would result in a very high chance of my death.
Exemplified by the fact that we have started having free states again like during the civil war. The Maryland governor has been very clear and direct that the state of Maryland will take in political and social refugees from Florida and Texas. Where transpeople are being forced to die or pretend not to exist in Florida, Maryland is codifying their right to be and live as who they are.
You can't blame lefties and progressives for wanting to escape to freedom when their other option is death or hiding.
Both sides?
My generally open minded historically liberal friend called me the other day.
He moved to a very conservative area a few years ago, and the other night in a phone call he was saying "I'd feel far safer being a liberal at a Trump rally than wearing a Trump hat at a BLM antifa rally".
It is very much perceived on the right that the left is a violent mob waiting to burn down your neighborhood at the smallest slight. While the right is a bunch of friendly Sunday school help thy neighbor types.
I tend to lean towards this is all bot farm propaganda trolling, and that only a very small percentage of either side are actually bad people I would want to avoid.
The problem is, this is how people are getting their information now days, and the idea that "Oh that's just people on the internet" is no longer valid. Social media and algorithmic rage bait driven content are having a very real impact on the "real" world.
Since he is an old friend, I was able to get him to pause for a breath in this talking point fueled screed he was on, and point out "Dude, I just want the same simple things you do, abortion access, religion out of schools and politics, reasonable gun ownership, healthy air/food/water, a strong national defense, etc".
When one of the first arguments you bring up is the "violance" of drag people reading books to kids, well shit, I just don't think we're having the same conversation.
I’m sure both sides are actually doing this. It’s just that only one side is actually being persecuted and forced to leave their homes.
It's sad how we can't just talk, and always segregating themselves.
Is the majority people liberal on Lemmy?
Yes. By the looks of it, this place is a echo chamber. Sadly.
The reason for this is due to the Reddit exodus. All of the r/politics users moved to c/politics.
Conservative terrorism is out control. It breaks out specifically across racial and socioeconomic lines.
Moderates and liberals are trying to protect themselves, while conservatives are hell-bent on tearing everyone down.
My hope is that these are the death throes of the Republican party. A loud gasp for air before the party croaks and shatters.
This is a good thing. The only way the red states will change is by getting worse and worse. They will have no doctors, teachers, nurses, lawyers, or corporations that will purposefully live or do their work there if they can help it. If you are a woman, a person of color, a migrant, an LGBTQ person, a child, or anything other than an old white man, the red states are no longer safe for you.
I basically refuse to go to most of those states if I can help it. Florida? You couldn't pay me to set foot in that state. I feel they same about Texas and many others.
I want conservatism to thrive. It does have a place in a healthy political system. But, my friends, the conservatives are the moderate Dems now. I don't know what else to call the Republicans, other than fascists or cult members. It is a sickness that any person in their right mind should run as fast as they can from.
The truly upsetting part about this is that there are people that are desperate to leave those fascist states, that can't for a variety of reasons outside their control. I wish things were different. This is just insanity.
They don't care.
Drive through WV and let me know how much further it has to fall for them to get it.
Go to full red states and listen to them complain about issues that are 100% state legislature and governor issues. But they find a way to blame Obama, Biden, and still fucking cry about Clinton. Both of the Clintons.
The brainwashing is 100%
I wish there was some kind of fund that we could setup to help relocate the vulnerable in red states (aka everyone but straight white men) but I'm sure they'd figure out a way to mess with it.
I want conservatism to thrive. It does have a place in a healthy political system.
What place is that? Conservatism at it's core is about maintaining the aristocracy/hierarchy. That's what it started as, and it's never wavered from that mission. All of the claims towards 'conserving what is good' or 'fiscal responsibility' or 'protecting individual rights' are just that: claims. They have never acted in ways that would back those claims up unless their actions also helped maintain/promote the aristocracy. The rest is just noise and propaganda designed to make their positions sound palatable.
I don't see any place for that in a healthy political system.
I disagree with you, but respectfully. Conservatism is basically just people who, for a variety of reasons (not all of them bad), generally vote for the status quo. This is human nature. Progressives are willing to push forward but also sometimes without regard to some of the consequences. Also human nature. Some people are bold and some people are timid. Having both around in a balanced way helps us all move forward with careful thought. That system is good overall.
The problem is that conservatives are really moderate democrats now. The modern Republicans are not conservatives. They are fascist cultist morons. I believe I explained myself fairly well in my first post. You might want to read the whole thing next time :)
The only way the red states will change is by getting worse and worse. They will have no doctors, teachers, nurses, lawyers, or corporations that will purposefully live or do their work there if they can help it. If you are a woman, a person of color, a migrant, an LGBTQ person, a child, or anything other than an old white man, the red states are no longer safe for you.
ah so if you're poor, taking care of loved ones, or otherwise unable to move, then your life is acceptable collateral damage? accelerationism has victims.
ah so if you’re poor, taking care of loved ones, or otherwise unable to move, then your life is acceptable collateral damage? accelerationism has victims.
People who've never been to those states don't realize they're literally a trap.
The rent and cost of living is lower, sure, but so is the pay, and so even if you want to leave you just don't nake enough money to save up. Moving is expensive, and a lot of blue states cost a lot more than red, so it's extremely difficult to not only put money aside to move, but also enough to cover the higher cost of living.
And then what if you can't find a job right away? A lot of folks in the south couldn't afford an education, so we get stuck as unkilled labor which makes it harder to find a living wage.
Meanwhile you have well off people who've never really struggled in the same way aaying it's their fault for not moving sooner, or in a lot of cases accuse them of "refusing help" somehow.
It's tiring and extremely frustrating.
Florida Republicans are working reeaally hard to kill their state's entire economy right now. Attacking Disney (the state's biggest employer) and undocumented immigrants (the backbone of the state's agricultural industry and a key part of the labor force for various others such as construction and hospitality), driving away teachers by taking away their right to actually teach, etc.
This is part of the GOP strategy.
Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri has openly acknowledged that the GOP strategy is to make it so miserable for Democrats in red and purple states that they will move to blue states. That would, in turn, cement Republican power in the White House, Senate and thereby the Supreme Court.
redacted
Yeah, but the strategy’s multi-pronged, so even if you stay and suffer for your suffrage, they can find new reasons to prevent you from voting/discount your ballot. And then you’ve put your life and happiness in jeopardy for nothing. Not a great recruitment pitch for the Stay Put Brigade.
This is only a viable strategy as long as the electoral college exists.
Ok. I think people’s actual lives are more important than a 250-year-old document that can’t differentiate between a flint-lock pistol and a machine gun. Don’t you?
It's not going away.
This argument needs to die. The EC is never going away, so stop pinning various strategies and hopes on it somehow magically disappearing. If people spent 1/2 as much time on actually voting and campaigning for center and left candidates as they do complaining about the EC, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in today.
It would be cool if democrats focused more on working class people, rather than just saying they do. That's literally all they need to do to win back millions of voters.
I totally get your sentiment here, but don't they do this by (at minimum at least) the legislation that they try to put in place? Student Loan forgiveness. Expanding educational opportunities. Access to healthcare. Providing more sustainable and green energy sources. Better pay and protections for working Americans. These initiatives constantly get shot down by the other side, and then people blame Democrats for not forcing it through. As long as we have one side actively torpedoing the other's efforts, we can't put the blame on the people trying to do something. Just my two cents though. Plus you have the uneducated people that align with conservatives that think they are the recipients of their platform's initiatives, when it really goes to the top 1%. So they stay in power to continue the grift.
These initiatives constantly get shot down by the other side, and then people blame Democrats for not forcing it through.
I blame the Democrats for consistently finding just enough no votes when we give them a majority.
You don't need a college degree to work in the trades. This is a point of contention because I've heard people say many times they don't want their tax dollars going towards someone's liberal arts degree. I'm a wastewater operator. I have a degree but allot of the people I work with don't.
I wish democrats would make moving to places like Montana, the Dakotas and Wyoming a priority
Why would we want to live in a shithole state like that?
The cost of living in my "red state" is much lower than most places in "blue states" so I'll be staying here and enjoying my financial well-being even though I'm not a Trumptard. While I don't enjoy seeing rednecks everywhere showing off their dumb opinions, I still enjoy having money more than I don't like that other stuff.
If you bring enough people with you, it wouldn't be a shithole state.
The idea is to move there in enough numbers to overwhelm the GOP majority and make the state not be a shithole anymore.
Who's going to give up their entire quality of life to be a small snowflake hoping to make an avalanche? For the politics, it's a very small contribution. But for the family, it's huge. You'd be losing job prospects, friends and family, activity availability, local politics, healthcare quality and access, and most importantly: being treated like a person if you aren't a right-wing cishet white male of means.
Almost no one's going to take that trade and they shouldn't.
I think more Democrats moving to swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina would be higher priority if people are free to move wherever purely based on political reasons.
That's a very alarming sign. Polarization of that caliber means we're on a hard Stage 6 on the Ten Stages of Genocide, and everything that follows it is... bad. Very, very bad. You do not want to see what happens at Stage 7 and beyond.
I mean, I feel like we're already seeing attempts at Stage 7. I live in California but damn it's fucking scary being a trans person in America right now.
Blue states don't give an egg.
Red states "where you from, and why are you here? Don't take my water".
At least that was last time I visited the Midwest in my own vehicle (but they can't spot rentals very well, treated me like their kin when I didn't have California plates and hid my accent as much as possible)
What Midwestern state was that? A lot of folks don't realize that, outside of big cities and their respective suburbs, most of the Midwest is indistinguishable from the deep south.
It makes me sad that leftists are leaving Florida. They are turning a purple state into a red one. Every sane person that leaves Florida means the ratio gets tilted more and more into the looneys.
People need to stay in red states. Voting blue in Colorado isn't going to do anything
I agree with you in a macro sense, but individually it takes a lot of courage and sacrifice and I’m not sure I’d expect that of anyone. Something systematic has to change.
If I move it will be because my town was 110F in the shade Monday, not because my neighbors are morons.
Then we get to watch 100% Red states shoot, disease, and work themselves to death. Then we move back in and get their stuff.
???
profit!
This is the level of stupid we are fighting against... Religion absolutely destroys people's brains.
Yeah so many have been moving to Texas its ridiculous. We can't even build infrastructure quick enough. We're beyond full at this point.
Well, this is no better than /r/politics. Enjoy your echo chamber, commies.
You expect unpopular policies to be popular here?
Conservatives are going to make it legal to outright murder progressives, so there's definitely safety in living in a blue state
Yikes
Lmao wut?
You are legally protected from driving over protestors in Oklahoma. You can pull up the law and argue that it requires the “reasonable belief” that your life was in danger. But all it takes is a jury of conservative Oklahomans to agree that it was okay to flatten a group of BLM protesters. It’s the level of freedom from prosecution that police enjoy.
Should I use words with fewer syllables?
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