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Whenever I read these "Where Should I Move?" threads, there's always the criteria of "I don't want to live somewhere where there are lots of conservatives."
Now, mind you, I voted Democratic in 4 out of the past six elections. And I'm almost certainly doing the same thing again. But don't you people think, in your quest for ideological purity, you're being a little...how do I put this...stupid?
I, a Chicago transplant via San Diego, Maryland, and Cleveland, live in a Southern town that's fairly conservative. No, check that. Really conservative. I actually have neighbors who haven't scraped the W stickers off their windshields. People here go to church quite a bit, too.
That being said, people are people. And, quite frankly, I've found my Republican neighbors are really good neighbors. They brought us food when we moved in. We get invited to dinner parties. They know how to have a really good time (Actually that seems part of the genetic code for almost all Southerners, conservative or not). Nobody's ever tried to jam their religious beliefs down my throat. And, when the subject of politics come up, we all have a civilized exchange of views and then move on to more pleasant topics.
When I lived in Maryland and Cleveland, I thought some of my neighbors had some pretty wacky, far-left opinions as well. Yet I got along with them as well. Still correspond and call one another.
So what is this weird reverse bigotry about conservatives? While there are a few mossbacks out there (Just like there are a few ultra liberals with strange hygienic practices), I've found most of them to be reflective individuals whose opinions are formed by personal experience.
Could it be that, by refusing to live in a more conservative community, that you are the closed-minded one. And not them?
Most Republicans these days are anything but Conservative. They support bigger in your face government, not a smaller government that until the last decade or so, had been the Republican mantra since the party's inception. W is a big spending socialist. Thanks to he and his followers we now have a 9 trillion dollar debt that will never be paid off, wars in too many countries and we are well on the way to a total economic collapse of our country that ultimately will bring down most of the rest of the global economies.
There are plenty of left leaning people that go to church. My family has a number of them. God has no political affiliation.
That being said I think you can still find a few true conservative communities in northern New England especially New Hampshire and Maine. Probably still a few in central and western PA too.
Most Republicans these days are anything but Conservative. They support bigger in your face government, not a smaller government that until the last decade or so, had been the Republican mantra since the party's inception. W is a big spending socialist. Thanks to he and his followers we now have a 9 trillion dollar debt that will never be paid off, wars in too many countries and we are well on the way to a total economic collapse of our country that ultimately will bring down most of the rest of the global economies.
There are plenty of left leaning people that go to church. My family has a number of them. God has no political affiliation.
That being said I think you can still find a few true conservative communities in northern New England especially New Hampshire and Maine. Probably still a few in central and western PA too.
I'm sorry. Did you actually read my post?
The point of this thread has to do with people refusing to live in a community because of its dominant political philosophy.
Could it be that, by refusing to live in a more conservative community, that you are the closed-minded one. And not them?
Your point is not lost on me. I grew up in a very conservative area in the South and now I live in Chicago. (Chicago proper. Not the 'burbs. My precinct goes 80%+ Democrat in just about every election.)
However, I don't think it's the hospitality of conservative areas that turns some people off. People want to live in a place where they are comfortable. That goes for both sides. Yes, people in conservative areas can be extremely warm, but I've heard, first-hand, what is sometimes said about people of different races or religions or sexualities. A gay black Hindu man may find great warmth in these areas on a one to one basis but A) he'd generally be expected to act accordingly and never do anything to "flaunt" any part of that and B) he'd likely have a ton of crap said behind his back.
Granted, those things maybe shouldn't bother this hypothetical person, and none of that may occur everywhere. Still, it's a concern.
I don't think that liberals who prefer liberal areas are close-minded for preferring those places. I don't think conservatives who prefer conservative areas are wrong for that, either. It's preference.
I think people these days are labeling a select group of people in the country as "republicans" and "conservatives" because of the current political sitaution.
Bush seems to be much more "in your face" Christian than most presidents, and obviously much more than a president should be...
He's really pulled out the religious folks in the Republican party, and it's kinda been his shield for the past 8 years. Things are going horrible in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, he doesn't know anything about the economy or the average Joe in our country, and he's run by big business, so we start seeing these gay marriage, faith based initiatives, etc. etc. "issues" coming up as a cover for the huge mess we've gotten ourselves into.
There aren't a ton of the loud hard core religious people we keep hearing from over and over, but they have a power and an outlet in Bush. I think the average American is getting really sick of all this banter, and is grouping it as a "republican" and "conservative" crowd. It's just the label we've put on a group who seems to be loudly screaming at all 300 million of us in the country, and telling us exactly how we should be living our lives under a Christian God. I'm just counting down the days till election time, and hopefully we can start getting our country back from the brink of destruction.
I actually didn't intend that to sound so anti-religious, it's just what comes to my mind personally when I think about what's going on. Bush is taking religion, and pulling out a group of people who are doing a HORRIBLE job of representing the Christian base. It comes off as such a high-and-mighty, hateful, my way or the highway banter. Such a turn off...
That's not what religion represents, and I think people are getting more and more blinded as to what "faith" is suppose to mean. It's not suppose to be where you spend 60% of your time freaking out about what everyone else is doing, and telling people how they're going to hell if they don't act like you.
Yes, I did see that and understand it. Just woke up and I'm still crunchy. :-) However, I am also making a point that W is NOT a Conservative and just because someone calls his or herself a Republican does not mean he or she is a Conservative. You do imply that followers of W and Republicans are Conservatives.
My response is relevant to your question because we need to establish that just because a community is dominated by Republicans does not make it a Conservative community. Most Republicans in the Northeastern states are as Liberal as the Democrats. And this includes the supporters of W in the Northeast region.
Liberals want to be in Liberal areas so that their voice is "heard" during election times. One Liberal in a community of Conservatives isn't going to feel "heard". But then again, I think it is more close-minded to assume Conservatives are always Republicans and that Liberals are always Democrats.
In my honest opinion, both Liberals and Conservatives are equally as bad. America needs Moderation, not extremism.
Whenever I read these "Where Should I Move?" threads, there's always the criteria of "I don't want to live somewhere where there are lots of conservatives."
Now, mind you, I voted Democratic in 4 out of the past six elections. And I'm almost certainly doing the same thing again. But don't you people think, in your quest for ideological purity, you're being a little...how do I put this...stupid?
I, a Chicago transplant via San Diego, Maryland, and Cleveland, live in a Southern town that's fairly conservative. No, check that. Really conservative. I actually have neighbors who haven't scraped the W stickers off their windshields. People here go to church quite a bit, too.
That being said, people are people. And, quite frankly, I've found my Republican neighbors are really good neighbors. They brought us food when we moved in. We get invited to dinner parties. They know how to have a really good time (Actually that seems part of the genetic code for almost all Southerners, conservative or not). Nobody's ever tried to jam their religious beliefs down my throat. And, when the subject of politics come up, we all have a civilized exchange of views and then move on to more pleasant topics.
When I lived in Maryland and Cleveland, I thought some of my neighbors had some pretty wacky, far-left opinions as well. Yet I got along with them as well. Still correspond and call one another.
So what is this weird reverse bigotry about conservatives? While there are a few mossbacks out there (Just like there are a few ultra liberals with strange hygienic practices), I've found most of them to be reflective individuals whose opinions are formed by personal experience.
Could it be that, by refusing to live in a more conservative community, that you are the closed-minded one. And not them?
I guess it depends on where in the USA one lives in one of these conservative areas. I did once just after 9/11 when I had to find work quickly after being laid off from the airlines. I can honestly say it was a miserable experience living in a very very conservative area, and I stress the very. It is the only place where I have lived or been employed since the Military,that if it was thought you might be a gay person you were outed and snubbed publically even at work. It was a community in the deep south and I will never forget the fact that I had to live in a place like that to make a living when the world changed so fast, and I did until I could get out. Im sure there are conservative areas where that experience might not have been so, lets say educating, but I don't want the experience again in my life.
I think for most people it doesn't matter how conservative or liberal an area is. The only people who it probably matters most to are people who are really far left or right to begin with and have really strong opinions and preferences and tend not to be very open minded at all. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and I can't stand how people will move there to be around "more like minded and liberal types" b/c it totally just kills real diversity when it comes to thoughts, values, ect... Personally I think it is stupid to try to surround yourself with only people that think like you do b/c you get some false sense that you are right and everyone else is wrong, but I can see why some people want to do it. People tend to be hypocrites and never take a look in the mirror and see it.
Whenever I read these "Where Should I Move?" threads, there's always the criteria of "I don't want to live somewhere where there are lots of conservatives."
Now, mind you, I voted Democratic in 4 out of the past six elections. And I'm almost certainly doing the same thing again. But don't you people think, in your quest for ideological purity, you're being a little...how do I put this...stupid?
I, a Chicago transplant via San Diego, Maryland, and Cleveland, live in a Southern town that's fairly conservative. No, check that. Really conservative. I actually have neighbors who haven't scraped the W stickers off their windshields. People here go to church quite a bit, too.
That being said, people are people. And, quite frankly, I've found my Republican neighbors are really good neighbors. They brought us food when we moved in. We get invited to dinner parties. They know how to have a really good time (Actually that seems part of the genetic code for almost all Southerners, conservative or not). Nobody's ever tried to jam their religious beliefs down my throat. And, when the subject of politics come up, we all have a civilized exchange of views and then move on to more pleasant topics.
When I lived in Maryland and Cleveland, I thought some of my neighbors had some pretty wacky, far-left opinions as well. Yet I got along with them as well. Still correspond and call one another.
So what is this weird reverse bigotry about conservatives? While there are a few mossbacks out there (Just like there are a few ultra liberals with strange hygienic practices), I've found most of them to be reflective individuals whose opinions are formed by personal experience.
Could it be that, by refusing to live in a more conservative community, that you are the closed-minded one. And not them?
1. I moved to a fairly conservative state because I want my taxes to stay low. But the liberal hordes are coming for the cheap. You see, they are attracted to low cost of living but liberals love big government programs and lots of regulations. Big government programs and lots of regulations mean big taxes. They don't put two and two together that they are the reason why it was so expensive to live where they lived. So, liberals move to small conservative towns in these master planned communities and suck the life out of the town. Because of their numbers, they're able to change the whole town, by demanding services. And you know what that means -- their numbers allow them to vote out local laws and traditions and they demand services and regulations (so taxes go up). Pretty soon, the people that lived there all of their lives can't afford to live there anymore and who would want to?
2. I like traditional things and traditional celebrations at holiday time. My town has a Christmas parade that includes churches, boy scouts, schools and the US Army, in addition to businesses and charitable organizations. Our community band plays Christmas carols, religious and non-religious. The whole town is full of flags on Memorial Day and Independence Day. We have an Easter Egg Hunt. Our annual town festival commemorates the town's historical significance. There are a tremendous number of town charities here.
I looked at another town in another southern state before I moved to where I did. It was full of northeastern liberal retiree transplants from major cities and snow birds (who have zero sense of community since they really live nowhere for a full year). There are no traditions celebrated there. It's all "do your own thing" that is encouraged. People are encouraged to volunteer to make themselves feel good, you know, "look at me, I'm helping people/the environment" kind of volunteering. You're hard pressed to find a southern accent there. It was once in the Top 10 for places to retire. Now it's not even in the Top 100, the artsy-fartsy town is overcrowded (former city people don't notice) and the cost of homes has become outrageous.
So yeah, it does make a difference to me whether I live in a liberal or conservative town ---but Democrat/Republican...not so much.
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