It's not just that it is an overwhelmingly white area. The Pacific Northwest is the most secular parts of the country with the lowest levels of church attendance. But not necessarily the least religious. I'd argue that Progressivism fills the space that the absence of traditional religions left. Progressivism posits this spiritual force called "History" that is slowly moving all of humanity toward a future world of peace, justice, and equality. Yet there are dark forces that are fighting against history, trying to take us back. Some people--dare we call them "the elect"--possess the true faith in History. They are struggling to "bend the arc." They have their creed: "Women's Rights are Human Rights" "Love is love," "Science is real" "Transwomen are women". Heretics and disbelievers must be avoided at all costs. Progressives have their saints which they venerate: Saint Fauci and the most ever-blessed Saint Barack and his Heavenly Consort. And they have their demons like Putin and the arch-Satanic Trump. There are sacred rituals like land acknowledgements. They have sacred objects like face masks and sacred places like Planned Parenthood Clinics.
This is not satire. I live in Ashland and this is the way most of my neighbors think.
A contributing factor may also be that a lot of conservatives have left the state in the last four years. I know at least two dozen families that have moved.
Here we are, wedged between two much more entrepreneurial states that tend to act as magnets for the would-be Musks. Oregon is small (half is empty) and has a long history of corruption and ingrown political dynasties and machines. The press is low-IQ and dying; Substack won't take up the slack.
Many people immigrate to get away from somewhere else--the myth that this is where the young come to retire isn't far off the mark. Ditto gay/lesbian/trans...tiny minorities but vocal and organized.
Average middle-of-the-road whites know they're defeated, so why bother to wade through the 100-page pamphlet and, in Portland, an absurd 30-choice rank-em ballot? (In the latter case, designed to scare off moderate voters, as the results showed.)
While (I believe, from reading somewhere) Oregon's recently had a bit of net out-migration, there's still plenty of newcomers, principally from California craziness coming to a place that's just marginally less crazy. This is from a Bend realtor friend.
Here in fairly empty Crook County, Trump, at 74.3% was up 1.3% over his 2020 numbers, and Harris was down 1.1% from Biden's 2020 numbers. Not big changes, but I'm gonna gloat about them anyhow, which gloating is tempered by Lake County's numbers, 81.5% for Trump. We've got a ways to go!
Yep. I certainly don’t plan to stay in Portland long term. I hope there are enough trans gender, LGBTQ+, racial justice warriors, woke nonprofit administrators and White Saviors escaping from Trumpland to buy my house. 😂
interesting... my wife, and lifelong democrat, who grew up in Oregon, got a doctorate, and is quite skookum, couldn't untangle the mess RCV brought to Portland, and decided it was a major boondoggle.
One other thing that might factor in is the longstanding Brown family influence (excepting maybe Inslee) over the politics of the left coast for many years. Almost like a Progressive inbreeding. Even gruesome Newsome is related somehow.
Most of Washington voted RED. I live in Spokane, and we voted red. If you look at the counties, most voted red. But western Washington is BLUE! So is Whitman County, where liberal students from west side go to college and liberal professors from out of state live. Many of us believe our elections have been manipulated for decades. Our newly elected ( by manipulation) governor has been accused of malfeasance, but no court will hear case. I would love to have our state line moved so we on the common sense east side could join Idaho. When the swamp is drained, there will be a big splash and gurgle in our state.
After 50 years of living in Lake Oswego, Oregon, I escaped from this once conservative Republican stronghold three years ago. Today it’s Californicated to a deep blue, underpinned by that passive-aggressive kumbaya spirit the elite use when tolerating their inferiors – the real people who make America work. Oregonians in the liberal metropolitan areas west of the Cascade Mountains continue to vote against their best interests. East of the Cascades, 13 more conservative of the state’s 36 counties have voted to secede from the State of Oregon and join neighboring Idaho. Will Oregon’s liberal voters heed these warnings from Eastern Oregon counties and California where over-taxed, over-regulated residents and businesses are fleeing to seek relief in red states with lower taxes, fewer draconian regulations and tyrannical mandates that make life intolerably expensive for Joe Six-Pack and his family? It’s doubtful Oregon’s political future will change despite the landslide national reckoning that burst the Democrat’s bubble on November 5.
Every problem in Oregon has been created or exacerbated by progressives. This really isn’t disputable since no one to the right of Kate Brown has had any power since Dennis Richardson. Yet the people who have destroyed this state are entrusted to clean up the mess. It’s maddening. And I’m a lifelong Democrat. Well I was.
I am so over living in Oregon. Lest we all forget that Oregon has the dirtiest voter rolls and Tom Fitton sued them for it just recently. FORMER Governor Kate Brown fired the Elections supervisor for pointing out the flawed system should be investigated. That was in 2020. Fired him. I don't think Oregon's problem is with the popular vote. I think the electors are all in north west Oregon and the state voted red predominately. You will see if you check it out. Most of the blue is on a very thin line. Most all counties won red. I am sick of the corruption. The leaders are liars and going back to Brown she was sleeping with the CCP and took money from Soros. She also got caught on a couple of outings without masking during Covid. Just like Washington and California. Newsome got caught and his aunt, Nancy Pelosi maintained, " Rules for thee but not for me." Corrupt elitists who will remain unless someone gets them out! I am of the opinion mail in voting plus them still using the Dominion or like voting tabulators are at hand. 2020 election was stolen. According to Tom Fitton, head of Judicial Watch, Oregon has the dirtiest voter roles in the nation.
I spent my teens and twenties in California (1960s and70s). Looking back, I remember how many of the fringe wackos I knew during those two decades packed up and went north. Most were seasoned druggies, Deadheads, UFO freaks, astrologists, and vegans who told me that cattle and pigs were their "brothers", hence their disdain for meat-eaters. I suppose the northwest attracted loonies on a greater scale than the Golden state.
Portland voters doubled down on far left candidates. 5 of the 12 new city council members were endorsed by the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). It seems only far left progressives (and the homeless) are moving to Portland. As America unfortunately balkanizes the extremism of both the left and the right will be amplified.
Really? Was Shannon Singleton more known than Vadim Morzysky? It seems voters followed far left union (SEIU, PAT), left leaning PAC and nonprofit endorsements . Even the Willamette Week endorsements were generally ignored. I also think more moderate voters didn’t even bother to vote locally.
It appeared to me that many of the unions endorsed these far-left leaning candidates. I'm guessing if you were in one of the unions you were given a pamphlet of who they endorsed and who to vote for. I really think Will Lathrop should have been endorsed by the Police Union but instead they endorsed Dan Rayfield who had a hand in creating Measure 110 which was to decriminalize all drugs. WTH..😫
Oregonians, at least west of the mountains, don't care about the things that count: defense of the country, incompetent bureaucrats, and union power. Lotus Blossom doesn't care about those things, either. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/12/matt-davies-cartoon-election-recriminations-democrats/. pretty much says it all. we are still left with a possibly terminally vindictive president. With Donny we can only hope.
I would question if Trump actually loss in 2020. Have you seen the movie 2,000 Mules? There were more eyes on this election than any other time in history. The people who vote are the rich, white liberals in cities like Portland, Salem, Eugene & Bend. The smaller communities of conservatives live outside of these cities and have little voice. Hence the request for "Greater Idaho". The liberal voters have some nerve to elected ALL Democrats to represent ALL Oregonians is a joke! Until conservatives are able to increase their voices nothing in Oregon is going to change for the better. 😫
I wonder if Oregon stays blue because we don't have any thing of importance here. When major forest products companies were headquartered in PDX that was something to respect and those people had influence. Yes, we have Nike and Columbia but they are more Chinese or Asian than American. Here in Bend the biggest employers are the hospital and medical services followed by schools and non-profits. Medical facilities are used not because you want to but because you have to. The others earn no respect because they operate on public funds and produce nothing of value.
It's not just that it is an overwhelmingly white area. The Pacific Northwest is the most secular parts of the country with the lowest levels of church attendance. But not necessarily the least religious. I'd argue that Progressivism fills the space that the absence of traditional religions left. Progressivism posits this spiritual force called "History" that is slowly moving all of humanity toward a future world of peace, justice, and equality. Yet there are dark forces that are fighting against history, trying to take us back. Some people--dare we call them "the elect"--possess the true faith in History. They are struggling to "bend the arc." They have their creed: "Women's Rights are Human Rights" "Love is love," "Science is real" "Transwomen are women". Heretics and disbelievers must be avoided at all costs. Progressives have their saints which they venerate: Saint Fauci and the most ever-blessed Saint Barack and his Heavenly Consort. And they have their demons like Putin and the arch-Satanic Trump. There are sacred rituals like land acknowledgements. They have sacred objects like face masks and sacred places like Planned Parenthood Clinics.
This is not satire. I live in Ashland and this is the way most of my neighbors think.
Spot on! Same in Portland.
A contributing factor may also be that a lot of conservatives have left the state in the last four years. I know at least two dozen families that have moved.
Yes, and, regrettably, Oregon is a magnet for migrating left-wingers and the children they indoctrinate. It’s just going to get worse.
Here we are, wedged between two much more entrepreneurial states that tend to act as magnets for the would-be Musks. Oregon is small (half is empty) and has a long history of corruption and ingrown political dynasties and machines. The press is low-IQ and dying; Substack won't take up the slack.
Many people immigrate to get away from somewhere else--the myth that this is where the young come to retire isn't far off the mark. Ditto gay/lesbian/trans...tiny minorities but vocal and organized.
Average middle-of-the-road whites know they're defeated, so why bother to wade through the 100-page pamphlet and, in Portland, an absurd 30-choice rank-em ballot? (In the latter case, designed to scare off moderate voters, as the results showed.)
While (I believe, from reading somewhere) Oregon's recently had a bit of net out-migration, there's still plenty of newcomers, principally from California craziness coming to a place that's just marginally less crazy. This is from a Bend realtor friend.
Here in fairly empty Crook County, Trump, at 74.3% was up 1.3% over his 2020 numbers, and Harris was down 1.1% from Biden's 2020 numbers. Not big changes, but I'm gonna gloat about them anyhow, which gloating is tempered by Lake County's numbers, 81.5% for Trump. We've got a ways to go!
Yep. I certainly don’t plan to stay in Portland long term. I hope there are enough trans gender, LGBTQ+, racial justice warriors, woke nonprofit administrators and White Saviors escaping from Trumpland to buy my house. 😂
Alaska is barely passing their initiative by a gnats whisker to dump the awful RCV scheme.
interesting... my wife, and lifelong democrat, who grew up in Oregon, got a doctorate, and is quite skookum, couldn't untangle the mess RCV brought to Portland, and decided it was a major boondoggle.
It's the legal drugs. Everyone is on drugs.
One other thing that might factor in is the longstanding Brown family influence (excepting maybe Inslee) over the politics of the left coast for many years. Almost like a Progressive inbreeding. Even gruesome Newsome is related somehow.
Most of Washington voted RED. I live in Spokane, and we voted red. If you look at the counties, most voted red. But western Washington is BLUE! So is Whitman County, where liberal students from west side go to college and liberal professors from out of state live. Many of us believe our elections have been manipulated for decades. Our newly elected ( by manipulation) governor has been accused of malfeasance, but no court will hear case. I would love to have our state line moved so we on the common sense east side could join Idaho. When the swamp is drained, there will be a big splash and gurgle in our state.
After 50 years of living in Lake Oswego, Oregon, I escaped from this once conservative Republican stronghold three years ago. Today it’s Californicated to a deep blue, underpinned by that passive-aggressive kumbaya spirit the elite use when tolerating their inferiors – the real people who make America work. Oregonians in the liberal metropolitan areas west of the Cascade Mountains continue to vote against their best interests. East of the Cascades, 13 more conservative of the state’s 36 counties have voted to secede from the State of Oregon and join neighboring Idaho. Will Oregon’s liberal voters heed these warnings from Eastern Oregon counties and California where over-taxed, over-regulated residents and businesses are fleeing to seek relief in red states with lower taxes, fewer draconian regulations and tyrannical mandates that make life intolerably expensive for Joe Six-Pack and his family? It’s doubtful Oregon’s political future will change despite the landslide national reckoning that burst the Democrat’s bubble on November 5.
Every problem in Oregon has been created or exacerbated by progressives. This really isn’t disputable since no one to the right of Kate Brown has had any power since Dennis Richardson. Yet the people who have destroyed this state are entrusted to clean up the mess. It’s maddening. And I’m a lifelong Democrat. Well I was.
I am so over living in Oregon. Lest we all forget that Oregon has the dirtiest voter rolls and Tom Fitton sued them for it just recently. FORMER Governor Kate Brown fired the Elections supervisor for pointing out the flawed system should be investigated. That was in 2020. Fired him. I don't think Oregon's problem is with the popular vote. I think the electors are all in north west Oregon and the state voted red predominately. You will see if you check it out. Most of the blue is on a very thin line. Most all counties won red. I am sick of the corruption. The leaders are liars and going back to Brown she was sleeping with the CCP and took money from Soros. She also got caught on a couple of outings without masking during Covid. Just like Washington and California. Newsome got caught and his aunt, Nancy Pelosi maintained, " Rules for thee but not for me." Corrupt elitists who will remain unless someone gets them out! I am of the opinion mail in voting plus them still using the Dominion or like voting tabulators are at hand. 2020 election was stolen. According to Tom Fitton, head of Judicial Watch, Oregon has the dirtiest voter roles in the nation.
I spent my teens and twenties in California (1960s and70s). Looking back, I remember how many of the fringe wackos I knew during those two decades packed up and went north. Most were seasoned druggies, Deadheads, UFO freaks, astrologists, and vegans who told me that cattle and pigs were their "brothers", hence their disdain for meat-eaters. I suppose the northwest attracted loonies on a greater scale than the Golden state.
Portland voters doubled down on far left candidates. 5 of the 12 new city council members were endorsed by the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). It seems only far left progressives (and the homeless) are moving to Portland. As America unfortunately balkanizes the extremism of both the left and the right will be amplified.
Sadly, the far left candidates had the most familliar names and so many voters just vote for familiar names.
Really? Was Shannon Singleton more known than Vadim Morzysky? It seems voters followed far left union (SEIU, PAT), left leaning PAC and nonprofit endorsements . Even the Willamette Week endorsements were generally ignored. I also think more moderate voters didn’t even bother to vote locally.
It appeared to me that many of the unions endorsed these far-left leaning candidates. I'm guessing if you were in one of the unions you were given a pamphlet of who they endorsed and who to vote for. I really think Will Lathrop should have been endorsed by the Police Union but instead they endorsed Dan Rayfield who had a hand in creating Measure 110 which was to decriminalize all drugs. WTH..😫
Oregonians, at least west of the mountains, don't care about the things that count: defense of the country, incompetent bureaucrats, and union power. Lotus Blossom doesn't care about those things, either. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/12/matt-davies-cartoon-election-recriminations-democrats/. pretty much says it all. we are still left with a possibly terminally vindictive president. With Donny we can only hope.
I would question if Trump actually loss in 2020. Have you seen the movie 2,000 Mules? There were more eyes on this election than any other time in history. The people who vote are the rich, white liberals in cities like Portland, Salem, Eugene & Bend. The smaller communities of conservatives live outside of these cities and have little voice. Hence the request for "Greater Idaho". The liberal voters have some nerve to elected ALL Democrats to represent ALL Oregonians is a joke! Until conservatives are able to increase their voices nothing in Oregon is going to change for the better. 😫
I wonder if Oregon stays blue because we don't have any thing of importance here. When major forest products companies were headquartered in PDX that was something to respect and those people had influence. Yes, we have Nike and Columbia but they are more Chinese or Asian than American. Here in Bend the biggest employers are the hospital and medical services followed by schools and non-profits. Medical facilities are used not because you want to but because you have to. The others earn no respect because they operate on public funds and produce nothing of value.