Posted on 12/09/2023 7:34:25 PM PST by SeekAndFind
At first, the ads seemed like a pandemic-era curiosity, a niche political pitch playing on the red state, blue state divide.
“Escape liberal hell,” counseled one sales video from a Boise, Idaho, real estate agent. “Here are seven reasons conservatives flock to Idaho.”
“Time is not on your side, flee the city NOW before the coming collapse!” read another ad for 5 acres in Moyie Springs, Idaho, listed for $259,000 by a Sandpoint, Idaho, company called Black Rifle Real Estate. (Motto: “Ready. Aim. Move.”)
The idea that people would pick up and move solely for politics has seemed like a stretch. Moving for a job, schools, space, a rural lifestyle, yes. People relocate for all sorts of reasons — nearly 250,000 moved here from another U.S. state last year, with 258,000 going the other way, the Census Bureau says.
But now, there’s solid evidence that some people really are migrating over partisanship.
This past week, Idaho released a database of voters who have moved into that state, along with where they came from and what political party they signed up for when they got there. In Washington, we don’t register by party — everybody is an independent voter. In Idaho, you generally have to affiliate with a party to vote in the primaries, so party choice is right on the government’s registration form.
The political makeup of who has moved to Idaho is eye-opening. It is, as the Idaho Capital Sun news site called it, a “Republican fever dream.”
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
MORE DATA:
Of about 119,000 voters who relocated to Idaho in recent years, 65% signed up as Republican. That’s significantly higher than the partisan makeup of the state already, which is 58% GOP.
Only 12% of the newcomers registered as Democrats. About 21% picked “unaffiliated” and 2% chose a third party such as Libertarian.
The data explodes the myth that liberals, untethered due to remote work, might be moving to Idaho or other red states from San Francisco and Seattle and potentially turning the interior more purple. The exact opposite is happening — people are segregating into like-minded, polarized, geographical camps.
Sixty-two percent of Washingtonians who moved to Idaho registered as Republicans, the data shows. Only 12% were Democrats. Ours is a 60-40 blue state, roughly, so this means Republicans are preferentially sorting themselves out of Washington state at high rates.
It’s a shame. The most beautiful of the lower 48 states. The state that wifey and I were going to spend every summer after retiring.
I bought 5 acres in rural Oldtown with a well, power and septic in 2016 for $60K. Regabbed an old abandoned single wide enogh to live in while I looked for and found a 1999 super double wide. Got it sited and declared as real property. Total investment, approx $160K. What it’s supposedly worth now is ridiculous.
And eastern Washington is still fighting to become part of Idaho.
I moved to deep flyover country 6 years ago.
Still a great move....
It’s called voting with your feet. It used to be done a lot. Don’t like the taxes, prices, politics of an area? Go somewhere that has people that think like you.
The colonists fled England. The settlers of Appalachia left East as it became oppressive. The real malcontents didn’t stop until they hit the Pacific Ocean.
We in the states being fled to ask that if you come here because you don’t like there, don’t try to make her like there.
Eastern Washington is not that bad (outside of Spokane) and some of the crime infested locales in Central Washington. However, things will take a big turn for the worse after they get the income tax in Olympia.
That is when they will start to lose some of the big corporations that fund the madness.
<< The idea that people would pick up and move solely for politics has seemed like a stretch. >>
Nonsense. Politics determines tax rates, crime, homelessness, quality of schools, etc.
They aren’t moving because of “partisanship.” I didn’t leave Portland for Montana last year for any other reason than it was becoming unlivable because of how the people there vote, not because I am a Republican.
I escaped 18 years ago. Will probably never return even to visit, though the natural beauty there is unmatched. The Puget Sound megalopolis from Olympia to Everett is a true human hell-hole.
It’s breaking down all along the coast. Smart people can see it and will sacrifice whatever it takes to stay ahead of it. The ones left behind will not understand why their urban landscape turned so toxic but it won’t change their politics one bit. This is likely to come to walls, the only question being where they’ll be fixed.
<< The idea that people would pick up and move solely for politics has seemed like a stretch. >>
And all those liberals who promised to move away from the US if Bush got elected, then if Trump got elected, now if Trump gets re-elected.
They didn’t move, so maybe it was a stretch. Of course liberals lie all the time.
The kingdoms of the world are the devil's to offer.
Too bad Idaho is so damn cold in the winter.
Still having trouble getting the wife to consider winters in Arizona.
“The exact opposite is happening — people are segregating into like-minded, polarized, geographical camps.”
That’s great news - it’ll make it easier to cecede.
That's why I moved out of the big city 18 months ago. No regrets!
It's also the reason I won't swim in a swimming pool that might have liberals/leftists in it, and the same reason I will no longer fly unless it is to become an expat.
I fled my home of 46 years, seattle, in 2011.
I love kentucky. 32 acres of woods and lawns and two streams. With a house, a barn, and a beautiful shot building with an awesome man cave. All of it together cost about a third what a three bedroom rambler in the excerpts of Seattle would cost. And the $325 annual property taxes don’t hurt.
Especially when you’re retired living on social security.
Her retirement plan wasn’t to have a lot of money when we retired but to have very low cost of living when we retired. We got it in spades. Life is very inexpensive when you have zero debt.
This would not have been possible if we’d stayed in Washington state, even Eastern washington.
One of our friends gave up on the whole thing in about a year ago bought a house in bahamas. It’s a beautiful place, I got to admit. The trick was to stay away from nassau. For her it’s all about freeport. And it truly is small town living.
According to Forbes, it has nothing to do with political platforms. Former Washington residents are finding refuge from the state’s skyrocketing cost of living in places like Oregon and Idaho. Oregon’s cost of living is 7% cheaper, while Idaho boasts the lowest cost of living among the western states. With the ever-deepening housing crisis and the ability for many to work from home, it’s no wonder the Evergreen State experienced a loss of over 13 thousand families last year.
But leave it to the ultra ultra liberal Seattle Times to twist the situation. They have a difficult time telling the exact truth on most occassions.
wy69
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