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In my Seattle voting precinct, there have been precisely zero votes forged for former President Donald Trump within the 2020 election. There would have been two votes for the man within the White Home if a pair of my informal buddies simply over the hill had not moved to Montana a 12 months earlier than as a result of they had been weary of dwelling in political isolation.
In that feeling, the conservative couple usually are not distinctive amongst of us who lean to the best on this metropolis and this state. My colleague, Danny Westneat, lately took a look at Idaho migration statistics and located Republicans far outnumber Democrats amongst latest transplants from Washington. This imbalance is so dramatic that it’s onerous to clarify another approach than to acknowledge politics as a driver behind lots of of relocations. The truth is, Westneat discovered there are actual property corporations in Idaho that particularly market to conservatives, urging them to flee Washington’s liberal “hell gap” and transfer to a spot that celebrates God, weapons and small authorities.
This phenomenon isn’t distinctive to Washington and Idaho. All over the country, there are individuals pulling up stakes and getting out of Dodge as a result of they don’t like dwelling in a spot the place their neighbors don’t share their political beliefs. And it isn’t simply conservatives abandoning blue states — there may be additionally proof of liberals fleeing from purple states to search out extra congenial, progressive communities.
This sorting has been happening at some stage ever since our political life began to turn out to be so nasty, illiberal and polarized. It appears that evidently, now, the bodily separation is accelerating. Cities and close by suburbs are more and more liberal, whereas exurbs and small cities are extra right-wing than ever. And People are forgetting the best way to discuss to 1 one other except everybody within the room — or the neighborhood or the faculty campus — sees issues precisely the identical approach.
There was once an outdated, conservative gentleman who lived simply across the block from me. He would drive by my home from time to time in his large pickup truck and, if I occurred to be exterior, he would harangue me about my political cartoons. The man had a humorousness about it, although, and, when I didn’t reply with anger, however with fun and a smile, we all the time parted amicably. We weren’t precisely buddies, however we bought alongside, and we had been actually not enemies.
The outdated man died a few years in the past and I sort of miss him — identical to I miss the times when American politics was a debate amongst buddies, not Armageddon.
See extra of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View different syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
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