but rather due to finding opportunities elsewhere to be more attractive than those of my original home (though 30), Michigan.

..actively seeking employment/a law school education in a Blue State.

I have flung myself in their path )

Upstate New York is red state, New York City is blue state. San Francisco is blue state, San Diego is red state, Dallas is red state, Austin is blue state, you get the drill. The real breakdown is by couny. If you get a chance to look at a blue county/red couny map, you’ll be amazed by the pattern.

I grew up in NJ and now I live in Reston, VA. Seeing what NJ is now, I’m so glad I never went back. Hey, I can even pump my own gas now! I left after college to intern in the US Senate and find a staff job. Working for NJ’s pair was out of the question so I ended up with Mack and then Gramm. All but one of my high school friends (and their full families, too) also left the state as did my 2 brothers, 1 sister, and two parents. It’s not the politics, but it is the politics that do lead to the real reasons why people leave the northeast- taxes, cost of living, quality of life, poor schools, job opportunities (shocker apparently a state being pro-employer means more employees)

When choosing where to live in the capital area, MD and DC were immediatly out of the question. Virginia was a natural choice- and a good one for many years. Now it, too, is turning blue. I have a child now and the secular hostility of Reston is appalling. DC area is not a good place to raise children unless you live in Great Falls, VA or Potomac, MD and go to pricey private schools. Property taxes keep escalating. Now we are looking to leave- just waiting for the housing market and economy to recover. Then I’ll be a refugee for a second time. I don’t mind because where we end up will be better always be better. No going back. No going north.

Anecdotal, I tend to see more U-Hauls on southbound I-95 than northbound and I know a lot of former Pennsylvanians- real brain drain going on there.

I’ll end on this note. Blue state refugees are real. Proof? Look at population shifts. NE has hemoraged population. SW and South have grown. No news there. Sadly, states like CO, FL, NC, NV, and VA are turning blue because the locusts from now sagging blue states are moving in and bringing their destructive liberalism with them. I think R’s will do well in next reapportionment, (not be confused with redistricting). Our states will gain more EVs and thier states (NJ, NY, MA, MI, PA) all lose EVs.

Formerly
RestonCon