Where to now?

I'm currently living in Va and despite our current Governor's reputation, if you don't live in the DC beltway it has been basically like Florida since about July of 2020.

I'm concerned about the upcoming governor's race, and I'm planning on making a move to the Tennessee if that doesn't go well or if things get worse here. Tennessee is better than Va on all those priorities except 5 and 6, and it seems to have a stronger political base of resistance (Nashville is nowhere near as powerful in TN politics as DC has become for Va's).

But, if Va moves more to the anti-covid-craziness direction with this election, it has several advantages. Cannibis is nominally legal at state level (though there are no dispensaries yet), and there are some "open-minded" rural enclaves -- especially in the areas south of big the university towns (e.g. Floyd co. south of Virginia Tech, Nelson Co. south of UVa). I don't know where/if Tennessee has such places.

Taxes are higher in Va, and you have the bugman nexus of DC always seemingly growing like an unstoppable tumor and accumulating more and more power. So those are the most apparent relative downsides.

jakeyd wrote:
Fellow Higher-Side Chatters,

We are getting the SQUEEZE and it won't be long before we can no longer remain gainfully employed (nor send our kids to school) in the Empire State. Turns out that our un-elected replacement governor is actually worse than her former boss. At least in terms of individual liberties. I'm sure she'll make a fantastic tyrant.

We are very seriously considering emigrating to a freer land, not unlike our ancestors before us. Given that we're leaving the highest-taxed and least-free state in the nation I can't help feeling that anywhere is better than here. But in the hopes of only having to do this once, can I ask for some assistance in figuring out which states are better options?

If I had to order our priorities they'd go something like this:

1. Medical freedom/lack of mandates
2. Ability to homestead (i.e. affordable, arable land with limited restrictions on how you can use it)
3. Climate (sorry Alaska, although you're looking better and better all the time)
4. Low taxes, especially state income tax and property taxes
5. Cannabis freedom
6. Open minded population (old-school liberal ideals)
7. Gun-friendly laws
8. Good hunting and fishing

Tennessee, Florida, Texas, South Dakota, Arizona all have their positives and negatives. Are some more ready to cave than others? Is New Hampshire as free as they say it is?

Any first-hand knowledge would be great, but all comments welcome. Anyone in the same boat?

Thanks in advance,

Although I certainly don't agree with him on all counts, Joel Skousen puts out his Strategic Relocation books every few years (latest is in 2020 and touches upon all of the covid craziness). Like us, he didn't drink the kool-aid either.

He hits all of the topics you list above (including cannabis freedom and liberalism as "bad" qualities, as he is a devout Mormon) as criteria, good or bad, and quantifies it for each state - rating them from one star to 5. He rates them from a prepper POV as well, since his business is in developing retreats and hideouts for rich people.

He has New York at one star (bad). California has zero stars, but that is also colored by his conservative views. The highest rating east of the Mississippi is Tennessee at 3.5 stars.

It's going to be a bit difficult to find a "liberal" area that has not gone to the Borg at this point; but from what I hear from back home in Chicago, Wisconsin may not be so bad? Madison (home of the Onion) is a liberal-hippie vortex. And the entire culture of northern Wisconsin is based around fishing (and the Packers - so be warned!) 🙂

orchid20 wrote:
It's going to be a bit difficult to find a "liberal" area that has not gone to the Borg at this point; but from what I hear from back home in Chicago, Wisconsin may not be so bad? Madison (home of the Onion) is a liberal-hippie vortex. And the entire culture of northern Wisconsin is based around fishing (and the Packers - so be warned!) 🙂

I think Wisconsin's state supreme court struck down a lot of the abilities of the government there to go full crazy back in May 2020. PA has also been relatively sane if you stay out of Pittsburgh/Philly (I believe I read that Penn State even didn't have a vax mandate for students/faculty--though of course they make it miserable for those who don't, it's better than straight up mandates, imo.)

Thanks for the intel on VA and TN. Sounds like VA is similar to NY in terms of the political will of the state being dominated by a geographically small-yet ever expanding portion (I love the tumor analogy). I've always felt that NYC should be it's own district so that the rest of the state can govern itself. Downstate's population is something like 7/8 of the state as a whole last I cared to check, so of course all of the money and political will is bent that way -- yet the two "regions" can't be more different.

Geographically, Virginia seems perfect in so many ways from it's central location on the East coast, to its beaches and mountains with great farm country in between. I also saw a lot of affordable land options in the south and southwestern parts of the state, but the DC thing had me wary even before your comments. I appreciate the incite and do hope the election swings to the side of liberty for your sake.

Tennessee is definitely high on my list. I've only ever been there on business (Nashville) so have less experience with the state than a tourist, but I think it warrants more research and a trip.

jakeyd wrote:
Geographically, Virginia seems perfect in so many ways from it's central location on the East coast, to its beaches and mountains with great farm country in between. I also saw a lot of affordable land options in the south and southwestern parts of the state, but the DC thing had me wary even before your comments.

It really is an awesome state, in fact 8 years ago (when I actually knocked on doors for the same Gov candidate I'm really hoping loses this time) it was at a great balance-- you had unique, cool, low-key urban places like Richmond, if you really wanted airport style big city homogeneity you could go to Nova/DC burbs. Lots of cool weird rural enclaves (aforementioned Floyd, Yogaville, the Monroe Center) and college towns and small cities in between. The politics seemed to have a relatively sane balance where most of it was just about gas taxes and could be easily ignored. But its definitely accelerated into the borg nexus since Trump. I just hope it isn't too far gone to recover.

orchid20 wrote:
Although I certainly don't agree with him on all counts, Joel Skousen puts out his Strategic Relocation books every few years (latest is in 2020 and touches upon all of the covid craziness). Like us, he didn't drink the kool-aid either.

He hits all of the topics you list above (including cannabis freedom and liberalism as "bad" qualities, as he is a devout Mormon) as criteria, good or bad, and quantifies it for each state - rating them from one star to 5. He rates them from a prepper POV as well, since his business is in developing retreats and hideouts for rich people.

He has New York at one star (bad). California has zero stars, but that is also colored by his conservative views. The highest rating east of the Mississippi is Tennessee at 3.5 stars.

It's going to be a bit difficult to find a "liberal" area that has not gone to the Borg at this point; but from what I hear from back home in Chicago, Wisconsin may not be so bad? Madison (home of the Onion) is a liberal-hippie vortex. And the entire culture of northern Wisconsin is based around fishing (and the Packers - so be warned!) 🙂

That "gone Borg" reference is spot on. Maybe my friends and I were all Borg and I just broke free somewhere along the way (I blame LCD haha). Why can't I just be normallllll!

In terms of cannabis I would actually prefer a place that just ignores it. NY is in a state of limbo where they're looking the other way just long enough to integrate all aspects from seed to stoned into their complicated control grid, tax the hell out of it, and drastically punish those who don't conform to their new market -- at least if they implement it as written. Cuomo actually wanted to keep home-grow illegal under Adult Use but then he got a bit sidetracked and caved in the nick of time. But I digress.

That book sounds like just the research I need. Not sure 2020 would directly cover the poke mandate but if he incorporates the lockdown and masking insanity from back then it should be a good gauge.

Another tally for TN from the sounds of it, especially for those staying east. Wisconsin was not on my radar, but I'm going to look into it a bit. Never had a problem with cheese heads and if they're as obnoxious as Bills fans then I'd feel right at home. Thanks for the reply!