Pennsylvania Getting More Liberal

According to this article, the southeast of Pennsylvania is growing.

The gains in the south and east, despite big population losses in Philadelphia, have increased the influence of the state’s younger, more affluent, more urban residents. Politically, the shift has made the state less conservative, though it remains less liberal than New Jersey and New York.

Even in Chester County, a Republican bastion, Democratic registrations are creeping up and GOP registrations slipping, though Republicans still hold a registration edge of 48 percent to 37 percent.

“I moved here from western New York because of greater economic opportunity,” said Tom Curtin, who lives in Parkesburg and works for Independence Blue Cross in Valley Forge and Philadelphia. “I think, overall, people in the region are becoming less conservative than they were in the past.”

It’s true.  We’ve seen this pattern before in other states.  One of the problems of New Jersey and New York running their populations out with high taxes and corrupt government is that when the people come here, they still follow the same voting patterns that turned their former states into cesspools.  It’s going to get increasingly more difficult to keep Pennsylvania pro-gun under these conditions.  We’ve been under siege by New York, New Jersey, and Maryland — anti-gun states all — and their populations are moving here.

7 thoughts on “Pennsylvania Getting More Liberal”

  1. “I moved here from western New York because of greater economic opportunity,” said Tom Curtin, who lives in Parkesburg and works for Independence Blue Cross in Valley Forge and Philadelphia. “I think, overall, people in the region are becoming less conservative than they were in the past.”

    So, Mr. Curtin leaves NY for the better economic climate of PA and notices that he (and others fleeing NY) are diluting the conservative base. I wonder if he knows that its that conservative base that generates the greater economic opportunity? Probably not.

    Like Elephants, these folks trash their economy and then move on – not realizing its their policies are what ruining the NY economy.

  2. Well, it’s easier to move to a different state than to examine your political philosophy, I guess.

    It reminds me of a bumper sticker that I saw at a gas station: “I’m not rich enough to be a conservative.” The owner felt the need to comment on the conservative sentiments expressed by my Reagan t-shirt. I told him that perhaps he wasn’t rich because he wasn’t conservative, rather than the other way around!

  3. The same has happened here in Colorado. After years of influx from the Peoples Republic of CA, Colorado has swung from Red to Blue. What never ceases to amaze me is that these same people complain and moan about the problems they left; yet continually petition and vote for policies here that will create the same conditions they left.

  4. Well, a lot of pro-RKBA people are leaving MD and heading to PA, so maybe it’s a wash for you guys (and loss for us).

  5. “One of the problems of New Jersey and New York running their populations out with high taxes and corrupt government is that when the people come here, they still follow the same voting patterns that turned their former states into cesspools.”

    I’ll never understand why this is so hard for these people to understand.

  6. Similar phenomenon is happening between Massachusetts and New Hampshire: Massachusetts has alienated a lot of its residents with high taxes and stupid laws, but when these people move across the border to low-tax New Hampshire, they take their voting patterns with them, resulting in the slow death of the “Live Free Or Die” libertarian New Hampshire spirit.

  7. On a smaller scale, this is happening in Philadelphia’s western suburbs. I live in Montgomery County (right outside of Philly) Inside my voting district, my township added about 500 new homes within the past two and a hlaf years. Because I work the polls, I can tell you that a significant number of people who moved here (a) came from Philly and (b) are registered Democrats.

    Philadelphia can boast over a half century of failed Democratic policies and people wonder why the city is crumbling. So they move out into the burbs and vote for the very policies that destroyed the city.

    Just this past week, for the first time in recent memory, Montgomery County’s
    Democratic voter registration outnumbered Republicans by about 10,000 voters. We can attribute some of it to vote switching for the primaries, but not nearly enough.

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