Political Migration: A New Business of Moving Out to Fit In

USA: #BigSort. Political Migration: A New Business of Moving Out to Fit In. @emilymbadger @UpshotNYT

The Upshot: “… In the language of political science, they were sorting. The Chabots left a part of the country where they believed they no longer fit in as conservatives for a new community where they felt sure they would. “I see it even more boldly — as escaping,” Mr. Chabot said from McKinney, Tex., where the family settled this year.

Their migration is precisely the kind Bill Bishop described in his 2008 book “The Big Sort,” which posited that Americans have been self-selecting since the 1970s into like-minded communities that are less likely to hold competitive elections. San Bernardino County, which the Chabots left behind, leaned Democratic in the last three presidential elections. Collin County, Tex., where they landed, has gone Republican the last 13. …

Conservatives have written in that they feel “stifled,” “oppressed,” “trapped,” not “tolerated” and “belittled” in California, a set of terms that might equally describe liberals outnumbered in conservative places. “It caused me over time to be less vocal about my politics,” said Kevin D. Korenthal, referring to California’s increasingly liberal embrace of immigration, legal marijuana, cap-and-trade and what he calls multiculturalism in schools. … .”