If you were to move, how important is a red state?

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LisaB

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I’m in a Catholic FB group where people ask for advice if they are thinking about moving, mostly in the US. The majority list a red state as one of their must haves or high priority items. I’m curious why living in a red state is so important to people. So, if this is important to you, can you share why? Is it a matter of principle or is your life personality affected by state politics? If the latter, how is your life affected? Is it the homeschool laws? Lower taxes maybe? Something else?

I get that a conservative state would be nice, but what I don’t understand is why it’s a dealbreaker for so many people.
 
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When choosing where to live there should be one definite, fail-safe advantage. Lower taxes. Ability to do outdoor activities year round. Proximity of family who won’t be moving. Whatever - it just has to be one sure thing, so when other aspects don’t pan out you can say, at least there’s (fill in the blank) here.

A dear cousin of mine can never get settled and requires the area he lives in to lean strongly in his political direction, and it’s just one mistake and move after another. For him the requirement is a Liberal predominance, but the same mistake could be made in the Conservative direction. The thing is, meeting and befriending people is a hope, not a definite. Only choose a new area based on something tangible and definite.
 
If I move, it will be to a red state. I basically don’t trust democrats. I don’t want them as neighbors.
 
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In 1989, I moved from Oklahoma, an extremely red state, to New Jersey,
an extremely blue state. I wanted to be received into the Catholic Church,
but Oklahoma is overwhelmingly fundamentalist.

New Jersey has a large Catholic population. So I started classes as soon
as I moved up. It’s way easier to be Catholic here.

I’m also within a stone’s throw of New York City. So I can go to world class
museums.

However, in some circles, it’s hard to be Catholic. I worked at a newspaper,
and I was ridiculed for my faith. Also, some friends dropped me because
I’m Catholic.

In general, I feel freer up here. Oklahoma was very … how shall I say …
oppressive and rigid. There’s only one thing to think, one thing to be ––
and that’s a fundamentalist Christian.
HomeschoolDad said:
  • Strong Second Amendment-friendly culture. There are many states I simply could not live in, for that reason. My state is about as 2A-positive as you can get. It’s part of the social fabric.
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@HomeschoolDad

New Jersey has ridiculously restrictive gun laws – especially regarding self-defense in the home. You can shoot someone only if you have warned them to leave. Now, imagine if you winged the intruder. He could turn around and claim he wasn’t warned. Pepper spray guns are illegal. Mind you, all you’re doing is putting a regular pepper spray cartridge in plastic gun that enhances accuracy. All the propulsion comes from the compressed gas. It’s just nuts. Absolutely nuts.
 
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Interesting, we picked a blue state for the diversity and the more urban setting. 🤭
 
LisaB said:
I get that a conservative state would be nice, but what I don’t understand is why it’s a dealbreaker for so many people.
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Honestly, making such an important decision based on this factor is bordering on ridiculous. There are many more important factors - climate, taxes, proximity to family, proximity to the things you like (ocean?, big city?, hunting?, whatever). Has America really become so divided that we can’t even stand to be in the same state as someone that sometimes disagrees with us?

Just as important, these things change quite a bit. Before the Bush era, Texas was a blue state, then red for 25 years, now moving back towards purple. Iowa has flipped many times, as has Florida. Arizona just flipped. Are you supposed to keep moving every couple years?
 
I could probably get along with people anywhere in US. If I were going to relocate, I would look closely at the quality of public schools in the state, not for my own children’s sake, since they are aging out soon enough, but because education correlates with quality of life.
 
Red state here. (The color scheme should really be the other way around, but leftists and liberals don’t want to be called “red” for obvious historical reasons. Also, red is hot and irrational, blue is calm and cerebral. One guess why they picked the colors they did.)

Good points:
  • Better cultural fit. They may not share Catholicism jot and tittle, but the basic values are similar. I actually take quite a bit of comfort living in an area where Catholics are in the single digits, because when I speak of things such as the Latin Mass, fish on Fridays, the Rosary, and the Scapular, I don’t have more “modern” Catholics running interference, saying “that guy’s a fanatic, don’t listen to him, hasn’t he ever heard of Vatican II before?”. (Baptists and AME don’t even know what “Vatican II” is.)
  • Strong Second Amendment-friendly culture. There are many states I simply could not live in, for that reason. My state is about as 2A-positive as you can get. It’s part of the social fabric.
  • As noted above, lower taxes and, generally, lower cost of living.
  • In the Southern “red” states, mild climate. I wore shorts today, middle of November.
  • Generally less urban.
  • How shall I put this?.. maybe “the people, taken as a whole, aren’t so educated that they think they know more than God”? Relative lack of pretense too.
  • In the Southern states, the races live closely enough together, and are forced to interact with one another, that they actually get along well. I am a patrimony-conscious European-American, yet when I travel to areas that are overwhelmingly white, I actually feel a little uncomfortable that there’s not the racial diversity I’m used to. “Black love” exists and it is definitely a “thing”. Hard to describe.
 
I wouldn’t care to live in an area that was either super liberal or super conservative. I enjoy moderation and diversity of thought.
 
I have already thought about this. I am not in a red state now but rather in the large red portion of a blue state.

If I were to move I would choose a red state definitely considering the political atmosphere of the area since politics over recent years has become also a moral issue.
njlisa said:
However, in some circles, it’s hard to be Catholic. I worked at a newspaper,
and I was ridiculed for my faith. Also, some friends dropped me because
I’m Catholic.
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I have had that also. The only people I have ever met in all my life that were happy that I am Catholic or appreciated my Catholic faith, were other Catholics. It’s just how it is in this world.
 
Formon said:
If I move, it will be to a red state. I basically don’t trust democrats. I don’t want them as neighbo
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Just wonderin’, how do you know you don’t have any now? Or you do, but you just don’t like them?
 
Everyone needs to take a look at two electoral maps: 1896 and 2000. With one (1!) exception, all the states flipped. The states that voted Republican in 1896 voted Democratic in 2000, and vice versa. This is over the course of 104 years, but it’s worth noting.

I’d be a lot more concerned about natural disasters: hurricanes, volcanoes, floods, wild fires, drought, earthquakes… Do you really want to live in the woods in Oregon? Or live next to the San Andreas fault? Or live on the Gulf Coast? Or Oklahoma or Kansas?
 
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felsguy said:
Just wonderin’, how do you know you don’t have any now? Or you do, but you just don’t like them?
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Imagine being so wrapped in political tribalism you couldn’t be polite and neighborly with someone because they belonged to one of the two mainstream parties in a country of 300 million.
 
The last place I’d like to live is where everyone is just like me. I love diversity…of color, ethnicity, religion and politics. I just like being challenged in my thinking, not living where everyone always says, yes, me too.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve always been a minority. First, I was Jewish, then agnostic. While I’m white, I’ve always lived amongst people of color…blacks in Ohio and Mexicans and Native Americans in Wyoming and now Colorado. I like various cuisines and hearing other languages. I have no desire to live in an echo chamber.
 
To me, living near family is way more important than politics. I grew up in the bluest county of a blue state (so blue it makes the rest of the predominantly red state quite solidly blue). And I moved to a purple county in a purple state. Now I’m back in a light blue county of the first state.

Sure, I’m not happy about some of the political decisions being made, but I’d rather live near my family and in a good Catholic community.

Interestingly enough, my blue state has pretty much zero regulation for homeschooling. That wasn’t the case where I used to live. Go figure.
 
Formon said:
If I move, it will be to a red state. I basically don’t trust democrats. I don’t want them as neighbors.
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It’s one thing to want to live in a state governed by conservative fiscal and social policies. But to not want neighbors with whom you disagree? Just how do you expect a “red state” to police who you might live near? Have a realtor police the political opinions in a neighborhood you’re considering? That’s not the world we live in.
 
I live in Colorado which was a red State and now is a blue state. I prefer a state with less government intervention and good fiscal policy, however I think our democratic governor has done an excellent job, and I’ve noticed that our state legislature tries to work together across party lines. It’s a beautiful state, with very friendly people, no hurricanes, no earthquakes, no roaches. I love it here.

They wouldn’t be advantages for me personally, but a couple of advantages for other people choosing to live in a red state, one would be second amendment protection. The other would be that the state is in good financial shape in case a democratic administration tried to impose their will by threatening to withhold Federal funding they could do without Federal funding if they had to. However very few states could do that. Maybe North Dakota and Montana
 
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Things I would like if I move to another state:

Daily Latin Mass
Low taxes
Cold climate with snow
Mountains
Strong 2nd amendment support

If anyone knows of such a location please tell me.
 
njlisa said:
New Jersey has ridiculously restrictive gun laws – especially regarding self-defense in the home. You can shoot someone only if you have warned them to leave. Now, imagine if you winged the intruder. He could turn around and claim he wasn’t warned
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Is it in line with Catholic teaching to shoot someone for being inside your house?
 
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