Political tensions in the U.S. have been on the rise as political identity begins to shape a person’s true identity in society. This has caused tensions within state boundaries to spiral and has been identified as the Big Sort. In a time of such unpredictability, individuals seem to be finding stability by being close to those who have the same views as themselves. Although judging how prevalent this is across state borders is difficult as many families and individuals are moving for traditional reasons, not persuaded by political identity.
Thomas Edsall, New York Times writer, said, “Polarization has become a force that feeds on itself, gaining strength from the hostility it generates, finding sustenance on both the left and the right.” Being in a community in which ideologies are the same has become a priority for many families.
A Facebook group has arisen containing nearly 8,000 members called Conservatives Moving to Texas. The combination of recent COVID-19 restrictions and political ideologies coming into play in almost all social, political and economic spheres, have caused families to escape. This ideology of geographical polarization will continue to heighten as political ideologies and parties congregate. COVID-19 restrictions have increased this polarization as state-wide restrictions have changed consistently.
NPR writer John Burnett says Texas has “fashioned itself into a sort-of breakaway red-meat republic.” This has involved banning books, restricting abortion, and blocking mask mandates. There is an overarching sense of unpredictability, people across the nation have been struggling with what to think, how to think and how to possibly guess what will happen next.
DU junior Kelly O’Connor has seen and felt this geographical polarization intensively.
“I only ever deeply thought about geographical polarization when Trump was elected. I vividly remember election day, talking to my mom as she frantically scrolled through Zillow and other real estate apps looking for a new home in Canada,” O’Connor said.
After hearing about her family’s serious consideration in moving out of the U.S. after the election of Donald Trump she began talking about this idea of geographical polarization in the last few months.
“Recently my friends have been looking into internships, jobs, and other plans after college, although I can guarantee not one of them will accept an opportunity in a state or city that has drastically different political views than their own,” O’Connor said.
The extremism of modern-day political parties is due to a number of factors such as recent presidential elections, rise of extremist groups and the increasing wealth divide. This migration causes political extremism to rise as states will become drastically polarized.
“Groups of like-minded people tend to become more extreme over time in the way that they’re like-minded,” said Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart.
Although Boston Real Estate agent Maureen O’Hara didn’t see this migration to be as prevalent as some may think within her own work.
“I am not sure that I see people “fleeing” to places that match their political views in my work as a Realtor in downtown Boston” she said. This city and state is very liberal and that may or may not be a reason someone might move here but it’s not vocalized. “I personally haven’t heard any buyer/renter/seller say that they were moving to Massachusetts because it was a liberal state. I haven’t had a client say that they were leaving Boston or Massachusetts because they wanted to move to a more conservative area. To be honest it is not prohibitive to discuss politics and what your political party is with a client but most agents try to keep their social media and their political views to themselves,” O’Hara said.
