The Big Sort

[ggeezz]

I just heard about this book; have not read it. In 2004 half of Americans lived in counties with a 20%+ margin between Bush/Kerry. 40 years ago it was only 1/5 of Americans. The show where I heard about this book was talking about how media has become similarly segregated. Apparently people want to be around and listen to like-minded people.

The tag-line for the book says this phenomena is tearing us apart. And I agree, but only because we have moved so much policy to the federal level.

If we moved the bulk of policy decisions to the county level, not only could live among the like-minded, you could live in the type of government you want. There'd be no reason to fight.

[nathan]

Could it be that people are being influenced by their neighbors more than they are moving for ideological reasons?

[ggeezz]

Could it be that people are being influenced by their neighbors more than they are moving for ideological reasons?

Dude, this is the 21st century. People don't talk to their neighbors.

[AGS]

But they follow friends on twitter, and those friends generally stay in a general vicinity.. also e-mail sent to friends...

[stupid]

I think it probably more of an economic issue than moving for ideology or friends.

I dont think I've ever heard of someone moving for ideology. Granted, it probably happens, but I would suspect its probably a very small number.

I would also expect that moving to be close to friends and family would have had the same, if not greater effect 40 years ago.

One thing that has changed dramatically over 40 years is differentiation in housing prices. People will usually buy a house they can afford (well, maybe not. Thanks Goldman.)

I guess what I'm thinking is that its probably the old "poor people vote Democrat" showing itself in a different way.

[ggeezz]

I think it probably more of an economic issue than moving for ideology or friends.

I dont think I've ever heard of someone moving for ideology. Granted, it probably happens, but I would suspect its probably a very small number.

I don't think many people make a conscious choice to move for ideology. I think, for example, that people move to south Austin because there are a lot of young, tech-loving, liberal people.

There are a lot of other places with similar house prices to south Austin. But there's only one south Austin "scene."

[changa]

Interesting, I've never heard of south Austin -- who knew there was a hippie scene in Texas!

I personally did move at least partly for ideological reason:
Coming home from work on a nice day, windows down. Came up to a stop sign, Oaxacan woman crossing the road with a baby on her back. Red-neck in the next car leaned his stupid ass all the way out the window and yelled, "go back to Mexico!" That was the straw that broke the camel's back, as it were. I found a job in Northern California within two months, and I haven't looked back. This is an economically depressed area so we have a lot less money than that jerk in his expensive gas-hog truck, but man, the human decency and respect and general lack of vitriol is wonderful. Just small-town small-l liberals.

I thought I was unusual in that, but I no longer think so. People don't often uproot blindly, but they do look for work where there are decent human beings. Where the definition of decent is whatever you want. This is why I'm still in the same state, but a very different county.