Comparing KC Growth (Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield: schools, colleges, living)

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

Missouri is doing the right thing, and more states will be following. I believe this law will bring the right businesses and young professionals to our state.

The young professionals, by and large, don't agree with you.

But what do you mean by "right"? Conservative Judgementalists?

[SPonteKC]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Missouri used to be a moderate swing state. What the hell happened?

Gerrymandering. Missouri’s population is moderate, but it’s elected officials represent extreme minority opinions.

That said, I’m not sure how much state political climate affects city growth. There are quite a few sunbelt cities, Nashville, Atlanta, the Texas cities, Charlotte, Raleigh, etc. that attract young people despite embarrassing state level politics.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by SPonteKC

Gerrymandering. Missouri’s population is moderate, but it’s elected officials represent extreme minority opinions.

That said, I’m not sure how much state political climate affects city growth. There are quite a few sunbelt cities, Nashville, Atlanta, the Texas cities, Charlotte, Raleigh, etc. that attract young people despite embarrassing state level politics.

Colorado is trending the opposite direction politically and has grown about 10-11% faster in population compared to either Missouri or Kansas since 2010.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by SPonteKC

Gerrymandering. Missouri’s population is moderate, but it’s elected officials represent extreme minority opinions.

Interesting. I don't live on the Missouri side anymore, and don't follow the districting closely these days, but I could definitely see it.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by SPonteKC

Gerrymandering. Missouri’s population is moderate, but it’s elected officials represent extreme minority opinions.

That said, I’m not sure how much state political climate affects city growth. There are quite a few sunbelt cities, Nashville, Atlanta, the Texas cities, Charlotte, Raleigh, etc. that attract young people despite embarrassing state level politics.

For the consideration of everyone participating in this thread:

The Upshot: How the Urban-Rural Divide Became America's Political Fault Line | The New York Times

I often map my native and adopted states onto each other, because there are many demographic and socioeconomic parallels between them.

The reason Pennsylvania remains a swing state while Missouri is one no longer may be helpful in understanding why Missouri went the way it has.

Philadelphia's suburbs, like St. Louis', have been trending leftward since the 1970s. Kansas City's differ from Pittsburgh's in that they remain fairly affluent or at least middle-class yet remain strongly conservative. (Since many of KC's Missouri "suburbs" are part of the core city, this difference is reflected in the vote tallies by county: Jackson is blue while Clay, Platte and Cass are red. Allegheny County includes Pittsburgh's better-off suburbs and remains deep blue. The counties surrounding it have yet to find something to replace steel as an economic mainstay; they have entered the Land of the Forgotten and went deep red for Trump - but they remain blue-collar union strongholds receptive to the appeal of Democrats like them (coughJoe Bidencough) who speak their language.)

Pennsylvania also has a slew of small to mid-sized cities in red regions that are themselves more liberal than the counties in which they're located: Lancaster, York, Harrisburg, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. (The Lehigh Valley - Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton - is still bluish despite the loss of steel in Bethlehem too.) Missouri has only one of these, really: the college town of Columbia.

Thus, even with the rightward drift of Pennsylvania's Republicans - which in turn has contributed to the bluing of the Philly 'burbs - the state maintains a centrist political tradition which statewide Republicans ignore at their peril (like the previous Governor, the first to fail to win a second term since Pennsylvania governors were allowed to succeed themselves in 1970). There appears to be no similar centripetal force in Missouri.

Edited to add: Yet gerrymandering may also have something to do with it, though I think geography explains Missouri better for the reasons I just listed above. After all, Pennsylvania's Congressional delegation went from majority-Republican to majority-Democrat after the state Supreme Court ruled the existing district map an un(state)constitutional partisan gerrymander, threw out the districts, and drew a new map with many more geographically compact districts in time for the 2018 midterms.

[lovekcmo]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

The young professionals, by and large, don't agree with you.

But what do you mean by "right"? Conservative Judgementalists?

I mean just what I said, right thinking, smart folks.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

I mean just what I said, right thinking, smart folks.

I'm pretty smart myself. At least that's what I've been told by any number of tests I've taken.

I have this feeling you wouldn't call my thinking "right."

My question remains on the table. The above isn't an answer.

[lovekcmo]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

I'm pretty smart myself. At least that's what I've been told by any number of tests I've taken.

I have this feeling you wouldn't call my thinking "right."

My question remains on the table. The above isn't an answer.

Right thinking, people who can think for themselves, critical thinkers, non sheeple following the herd. Smart, independent folks, nobodies fools.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

Right thinking, people who can think for themselves, critical thinkers, non sheeple following the herd. Smart, independent folks, nobodies fools.

I'd say that I fit that description.

But based on what I've seen from you here, my politics and yours differ.

"Right thinking" shouldn't mean hewing to any party line. Yet doing just that is implied by the very term. I'm sure you have ideas about what constitutes "right" thinking. And I'll wager they don't include many of the ways in which I think.

[Ztonyg]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

Right thinking, people who can think for themselves, critical thinkers, non sheeple following the herd. Smart, independent folks, nobodies fools.

I'm a free thinking person who thinks that Missouri politics are going the wrong direction.