Screw the coasts, screw the Northeast. Let them choke on their workers paradise. I don't want to tell them how to live, and only ask the same courtesy from them. I'll take the fly over states and be happy with our unwashed ignorance.
Sigh. You do realize the state with likely the most open gun laws is in the Northeast (Vermont)? Pennsylvania (except Philly and sprawl), New York (except NYC and sprawl), Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine (except Portland and sprawl) are very nice places. Folks aren't insane and generally mind their own business. They are most likely less impressed with workers' paradises than you are.
That said, even in the cities (and I've been to every major one in the Northeast, Jeff), it's not as bad as gentleman with a potential rabies infection in the original post is claiming. There are REALLY bad cities like Baltimore and Camden/Trenton. The big cities like NYC, Boston, Philly, DC have enough redeeming features that they are worth visiting. Boston and Philly for history, NYC for museums and art, DC for the Fedland monuments. I hate Philly as much as the next Pennsylvanian, but at the end of the day it still has the Mutter and Rodin Museums in addition to Independence Hall.
You can pry La Porte de l'Enfer from my cold dead hands, bro.
The problem is that the really whacked out folks are supported by a larger number of semi-moderate folks. The semi-moderate folks don't have the cash or ideological fervor to spend every second of the day on politics. So a mere handful of the truly obsessed wield a disproportionate amount of power. They sympathize with fragments of their ideology over the other ideology. This is both parties, mind you.
Jeff, I'd be willing to guess that you'd support roughly 1 in a 100 laws your party puts forth. If you had the time to read them, which not even the politicians do. The party you drastically seem to oppose, I'd be willing to bet you'd support .8 in a 100 laws they pass. If you did more resource, you'd notice at the end of the day, both parties have very different spoken ideology but the ideology of their laws are only different by a fraction of a percentage. Often, not even that. You have one huge wedge bill like Obamacare for every TEN THOUSAND bills that get passed without a peep from anyone.
Ahhh . . . Country bumpkins hating on NYC?
Envy much ??
I've been to NYC more than a few times. I've also been to dozens of other major cities. It has its nice features, including the grub I will concede. I've really enjoyed the galleries and museums. I love hanging out in Chinatown. But... you're just another big city. And not nearly as exotic as Savannah, San Fran, Vegas or Portland. Population density by itself does not impress me.
Then again, there's reasons why I live in Lancaster instead of NYC. First is, I have an Uzi in my safe, literally within stone's throw I can go buy produce from a farmer's stand that was grown right behind the stand, there's a half dozen vineyards within 20m drive, and I haven't taken longer than 60 seconds to find a parking spot in front of a store in probably six months. No NYC'er can say the same.
Some folks really dig the concrete jungle. More power to them. There's nothing wrong with that. I've been to those concrete jungles more than a few times on safari. I prefer being near grass, trees and mountains. It's been painful to turn down six fig jobs in order to keep the grass, trees, Uzi's and mountains, but at the end of the day, I believe it is worth it for myself.
