Have you ever lived anywhere else besides where you live now?

[Whateverist]

So this morning on NPR there was some talk about how people who never move away from where they grew up tend to be more politically conservative .. even more likely to have supported Trump.  (I personally don't think old school conservatives would want anything to do with him.  Hard to tell what motivates today's republicans though.)

I'm kind of curious if that is true here.  For Khem's sake I should probably make a poll.  He loves those things.  Usually I like to make them public but since some conservatives seem to feel oppressed here, I won't this time.  So if you'd like to let everyone know where you stand, you'll probably have to leave a comment.

The question will be in two parts so there'll be a variety of responses available.  Of course if none of them fit please feel free to describe your own situation in a post.  Also, just one answer choice per customer this time and if you're looking for "fuck all polls" you'll have to write that yourself in a post too.  

Question:  Have you always or nearly always lived in the same place you grew up and, if so, do you identify as politically conservative?

Off the rack response choices:

1 - Yes but I'm pretty liberal/progressive politically.

2 - Yes but I'm more centrist or unallied politically.

3 - Yes and I do lean toward conservative politically.

4 - No but I do identify as conservative politically.

5 - No but I'm more centrist or unallied politically.

6 - No and I am pretty liberal/progressive politically.

---

So I chose the last option. I've moved a lot, though I don't know if being a navy brat is typically the kind of moving likely to result in being liberal/progressive. But I am.

The radio program also mentioned that going to college and moving in order to pursue a career would tend to correlate with being liberal/progressive. I did attend college but I didn't actually move anywhere as a result; being an educator is something you can do anywhere.

Also, I live in a liberal/progressive bastion.

[Fireball]

I voted "No but I'm more centrist or unallied politically." I don't care who knows it. I'm registered Republican, but haven't voted that way in a dog's age. It used to be that the Dems pretty much had the kooks (at least in my eyes, when I was young), but the Reps pretty much have that market cornered, now, especially with the religious component.

[vorlon13]

yes, I have lived in a few different states

[Jackalope]

I was born in California, moved to Oregon, lived in Alabama and Kentucky for a time in the military, resettled back in Oregon, and then moved to Washingon state for the last 14 years. The area I live in now is largely run by conservatives, despite it's close proximity to liberal Portland.

My politics range from moderately liberal / progressive to centrist depending on the issue. I used to be right leaning centrist up until 9 or so years ago.

It was precisely being exposed to a broad range of people - particularly across the economic spectrum - that led to the change. That, and I came to the conclusion that the GOP is completely full of shit.

[The Grand Nudger]

5 states, 4 countries, countless cities.  

I was much more conservative before leaving the swamp..but that put me in the libertarian phase of youth....mostly because neo-conservatives aren't really conservatives at all, a fact not lost on actual conservatives..who never tire of reminding us that both modern american progressivism and neo-conservativism arose out of american liberalism not but a generation or two back....and have very little in the way of root ideological difference beyond -social- issues.  

Neo cons aren't fiscal conservatives.  They're big spending welfare statists.  They're not american preservationists either, they gleefully mold laws to fit their political reality rather than any "framers intent".  Gun control?  Let a bunch of dark people buy some guns and see how they feel about that.  Their corporatism, like the liberals corporatism..is -also- not born out of anything in our history or system that they are conserving.  Used to be we let the bad performers just die.  

That travel, in my opinion, did help to knock some of my then libertarian leanings off the shelf.  In that I saw what a "free market" looked like in war torn shitholes, for example.  With people kicking children in the face for a piece of an MRE.  I saw people who I never would have been exposed to in my little bubble being actively dicked by policies that seemed  ideologically sound.  I noticed that the quality of life for people in other places, with other regulations that might seem "un-american" was as good as or even better than the quality of life than I was used to in their socioeconomic contemporaries back home.  

Ultimately, I've come to feel that a -massive- con had been pulled on we the people, and I'd fallen for plenty of it hook line and sinker. Still couldn't be a dem, though..so here I am, deep in the red on the american map..not always disagreeing, but almost always wishing we'd gone another way with whatever it was.

[Aroura]

I lived in one place from ages 2 to 18. Then I moved to Portland for college. I have not even been back for a visit in ages, as my whole family eventually moved out all over the place. I lived all over Portland and its suburbs, and a few places in southern to central Wahington, then the coast, then here in this crappy town in Oregon.

I did go to college, Associates degree only.

I consider myself very socially and moderately fiscally liberal. Small goverment is pointless, people fail to regulate themselves for the wellbeing of all.

That all being said, my mom, though Catholic, is very liberal/progressive. Then again, she also left home at 18, moved to California and got an associates degree and working in finance law for a while with private banks, and then for the rail road, before getting married and having kids at age 30. So partly I think she passed her liberalism on to her kids. We grew up in a fairly conservative area, though it has become more liberal with the passing of time. I well remember the day my 2nd grade teacher passed out buttons for Ronald Reagan to the kids. My mom practically stormed the principals office! She was in a rare temper over that.

Anyway, I agree that it seems conservatives, socially at any rate, tend to be more sheltered. Looking at the kids I grew up with who I am still in contact with, the ones who stayed in and around Bend are the social conservatives, the ones who moved away and/or attended collage are all socially liberal. Exposure to things makes for less fear of those things. There is quite a lot of evidence to support this notion. I didn't hear this particular NPR show today, but I read about this theory recently.

[mlmooney89]

I moved three times before I was 7 and another time by 9 but I've been in Texas for so long I identify as a Texan. That being said I do NOT hold a lot of the same beliefs most Texans do politically. I put that I'm center but I'm thinking about it and I who am I kidding I'm liberal. I will say that most of my liberal ways have been in the last few years and I've been in Austin (the only blue spot in a sea of red that makes up Texas) since 2013 so that actually might have something to do with it. Also my husband is pretty laid back and we've been living together since 2013 as well so it could be either him or Austin.

[Alex K]

Landau, Ger
Midland, TX
Würzburg, Ger
Setauket, NY
Freiburg, Ger
Heidelberg, Ger
Aachen, Ger
Heidelberg, Ger

That must be the reason why I'm a liberal.

[Whateverist]

Looks like we pretty much validate what was claimed. Choices 3 and 6 was pretty much their prediction and so far six of eight of us chose those. The other two choices were of the centrist/unallied variety, not the choices (1 & 4) most diametrically opposed to the prediction that was made. Well, it is pretty much what I would expect, and maybe it doesn't matter what accounts for the travel (second-hand military in my case).

Funny but now I have little desire to travel and none whatsoever to ever move again. Give me roots. Hell, never mind, I'll grow my own.

[Jesster]

I was born in California, grew up in Oregon, served in the Air Force in Washington after training in Texas, and I've since lived in New Mexico. My political leanings have shifted drastically as I've moved. I started out taking after my parents in a heavily-sheltered right wing Christian home. I thought like they did because I that's just what I was expected to do. As I moved further out, my parents weren't able to shelter me from the world so much anymore. I was very centrist for a while as I started to recognize my own views of people in other cities. It was only recently that I've started to shift just left of center after facing more hard truths about life far from "home" that I never had to consider before.