Posted on 06/27/2004 1:44:50 AM PDT by conservative in nyc
Boomers putting up barriers of entry in the housing and job markets to prevent the younger professional from getting jobs and starting families. Boomers suck up everything, the most selfish generation.
If you look at the real statistics, they've actually become more conservative. The people leaving California aren't the liberals, but the conservatives.
While most of the mountain West is Republican now, people forget that a couple decades ago that was a (conservative) Democratic Party territory. The shift to the GOP has been the result of all the conservatives leaving places like California and flocking to the mountain states. Also, the Democrats have politically shifted to something almost unsupportable in the mountain West. The basic underlying culture has a strong "live and let live" libertarian bent, which makes them fans of neither party, but the penchant of the Democrats for meddling in the affairs of the West through land grabs and environmental BS has made them few friends in that region.
The idea that the mountain West was Republican conservative has never really been true until the last election cycle or so. It is formerly Democrat country with "small-l" libertarian politics. While the Republicans aren't hugely popular because they are a bit too socialist for a lot of political districts in the mountain West, they are currently more appealing than the Democrats, which is reinforced by all the Republicans flooding in from California.
You've got that right, Nachoman. It doesn't take long for immigrants from California to assimilate themselves as naturalized Texans.
Whether it's the better schools, friendlier people, lower taxes, they quickly see that, by and large, their future prospects are better in the Lone Star State.
If they have kids in school, they quickly learn that their children lag behind their fellow students. A standard rule of thumb, confirmed by my conversations with many teachers, is that California HS freshman are two years behind their Texas counterparts.
My sister, who lives in Oakland, would not dispute that. Her son was educated in the school system that wanted to teach ebonics! When he was in sixth grade, his classrooms were without desks for 3 months. Try that crap here, and the principal's office would immediately become ground zero for hundreds of outraged parents!
Her attitude about my nephew's education changed 180 degrees after visiting us 7 years ago. She saw the school my kids were going to: the facilities, the library, the classrooms, and talked to a few of our great teachers. I could see the look in her eyes as she saw what her son was missing.
*sigh*...and We can't shoot them, either. :)
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