Red State-Blue State

Red State -Blue State..The Migration

A former Oregonian, interviewed by the New York Times, sent me an article that has me thinking.

I’d post it but you can’t read it, without a guest pass that I was given, unless you subscribe.

The author basically interviews a family from Oregon (blue state) that moved to Missouri (red state) and a family that did the opposite.

No one knows how many of us are out here but from the article it appears to be a trend in America right now.

Many of the Blue to Red state movers are leaving over crime, drug, homelessness and school choice issues. The Red to Blue state movers are more focused on abortion, trans friendly and issues of gay rights.

For Kathy and me our move was sparked by the pandemic. The tyrannical reign of Governor Kate Brown and how easily Oregonians went along, was the final straw.

We watched as people we knew shunned us for our political beliefs.

We saw the homelessness and lawlessness that came with it, destroying our state and nothing was being done.

We watched while government told us to lockdown but allowed protests to go on.

It seemed to them, COVID immunity came if you protested the right causes.

The hypocrisy of it all drove us to leave my home state for a place that leaned more red.

And now, four years later, those half-baked ideas in Oregon are being turned around because they didn’t work.

I was never fearful living in Oregon but discussed by the lack of fairness when it came to political ideas. We felt stifled and gagged. Our more liberal friends said they were open and tolerant but when they found out what we really believed their words turned hollow and it got ugly.

We love Montana. It’s not perfect, not even close. It reminds me of Oregon 30 years ago when left, right and the middle got along better. Oh, don’t get me wrong that radicale far left ideology is finding its way here too. Feel good politics are attractive to people who want to feel good and virtue signal with the popular crowd.

But my new friends don’t ask about politics and certainly don’t beat me up for disagreeing.

Montanans respect hard work and if you litter they’ll shoot you. LOL. Last time we visited Oregon we were shocked, shocked by the amount of litter along the highways, in the cities and even out in the country while riding rural roads on our bikes.

You wonder where this ends. Will we end up with giant chunks of our country living in Red or Blue states? That does concern me but then again I’m guilty of doing it too. You can only live in a place where you feel oppressed, ignored and voiceless for so long.

I think the pandemic ripped a festering scab off a system infected and diseased to the point of no return.

We looked at Oregon and thought, our home state is so messed up it will take far longer than we have on this earth to turn it around, if that’s even possible.

So, like thousands of others, we went to a place we dreamed of living someday and found our voice again.

I honestly don’t care if it’s red or blue because being heard is neither color.

It’s the state of fairness I’m looking for…and for now seem to have found it.