I don’t know Vermont’s history but I can tell you that New England is generally more liberal because of secularizing influences from previous centuries. Vermont is white and rural but much less religious than other white and rural states.
*Vermont is white and rural but much less religious than other white and rural states.*
This actually isn't true. While you do tend to find more secular people in New England, the difference isn't that huge. When you say 'religious' you mean evangelical Christian. We're more religiously diverse than that. I live in one of the two most rural counties in my state (western MA on the VT border) and we have, in addition to the 3 to 4 Protestant churches and 1-2 Catholic churches in each town, 2 synagogues, a mosque, at least 2 Buddhist temples I can think of, 4 Unitarian societies, a Mormon church, 2 JW kingdom halls, and a spiritualist community. And those are just off the top of my head.
In New England you also can't reliably equate Evangelicalism with conservatism. Even our Evangelicals are ultra liberal. It's not uncommon to drive through a New England town and see 4 Protestant churches, 3 of which are flying pride flags (the Catholics would never even though most of them are as far to the left as the Evangelicals). And these are people who are baptized, pray daily, do mission work, will gladly talk to you for hours about how their personal relationship with Jesus Christ saved them from damnation, and are in church all day every Sunday getting filled with the Holy Spirit and the word of God.
White people in New England also for the most part don't vote together. Our whiteness really doesn't matter to us. We could give a shit less about the future of the white race in America. Race and religion just aren't where we draw our tribal lines. Geography, and education are much better predictors of how a New Englander will vote
But are those churches and religious places full and active?
I live on the West Coast and sure there are church buildings of all types but I'm pretty sure the average age that shows up and attends is 82y+
They aren't growing or bringing in new people. Me including.
It's nothing like the Midwest or South where people are reliably at church weekly.
In Catholic churches yeah, you're seeing the average age skew a little grey. Which actually proves my point in about to make, since Catholic priests' hands are tied regarding much of what and how they preach. Protestant denominations do much better with family involvement and youth retention and the pews are full. New Englanders are nothing if not fickle. We don't respond to charismatic leaders very well, so we don't stay loyal to a parish or a preacher. If we don't like you or the vibe of your congregation, we'll leave. We'll find a new one next week and never look back. If a church can't keep its pews full it closes or merges with one that can. Paradoxically, we don't have many megachurches up here, though. We like small personal worship, and on the whole we think they're gauche and ridiculous. You're more likely to see a second, third, fourth congregational church, etc.
I grew up in Vermont. While there are many churches in VT, the vast majority of the people I knew were not religious and many of the churches in my town struggled to stay afloat. The existence of churches doesn’t say much about the prevalence of religion in an area - especially when many of those churches are over 100 years old.
Have you been in WA or Oregon?
It would be easy to forget organized religion exists.
We've got the buildings but they will soon be vacant when the elderly do what elderly people naturally do...
You can't get "young people" because the archetype of hate and fear mongering isn't something we like or subscribe to. And that's all these old folks know. Cast judgement and condem others into doing "the right things" but now according to me and others just like me the right thing is something else.
The next time I'll be sat in a pew is for a family members services and then I'll slice sheet cake and say thank you for coming and that will be that. I can act the part like I'm up for an Oscar but it's not who am I or want to be.
I have. They were both pretty similar to Vermont when I was there, but maybe not quite as discreet. Even the religious people in Vermont usually have little interest in talking about religion. The only people who ever tried to speak to me about religion in Vermont was a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses - and it only took one polite “No thanks” for them to never visit my house again.
I'll come in from CT and agree with you lol. Literally nobody besides Jehovah's witnesses discuss religion to me. It's just not done, and would very likely be considered rude or prying to bring it up.
A month or two ago a cashier at the grocery store said "have a blessed day" to me. I was totally taken aback and didn't know how to respond for a second; I'm 30 and that's the first time in my life someone has said that to me.
It is true, actually. Vermont is one of, if not the least religious states in the country. The US is still very very religious for a first world country, something like 75% of Americans identify as Christian, but only 50-60% of Vermont residents identify as Christian.
Other rural states, which you find mostly in the south and in the northwest, are often upwards of 80 or 90% Christian.
Well broadly I was representing polls that show that *only* 60% of Vermont’s population considers itself religious, which is good for 50th in the nation. Still, I see what you mean and find what you say quite interesting. I take it then that you would consider education to be a more defining factor in New England’s relative liberalism than secularism or irreligion? Obviously one can be secular and religious, so perhaps I’m conflating secularism and irreligion in my comment, but I’d still be interested to know.
Education level perhaps.
Anecdotally, on my last trip to Vermont I saw more confederate flags than I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m from the Deep South. Yikes!! I don’t think Vermont is as blue as people perceive it to be.
What is the genesis of the question? Were you working under an assumption that it is blue despite some socioeconomic factors that you thought should have made it Republican? Or are you just going state-by-state with this question?
It actually had the longest Republican voting streak in the country at one point, but people preferred moderates, not the clown show that is going on now. When you combine that with a substantial amount of people moving here with a certain mentality along with the local environment being fairly secular and live and let, people prefer the Democratic Party.
We do have a GOP governor though, Republicans can win here if they aren’t like the standard hard right Republicans.
Trump’s base are people disillusioned with the establishment, and Vermont republicans are probably doing pretty well already. It’s the same story with Orange County CA, which was solidly red for decades until Trump came along. His brand doesn’t resonate as much with people who already found success on established systems.
Downvote that’s fine you take them by the hand and explain why trickle down economics doesn’t work for the blue collar workers. They don’t, won’t believe you and don’t, won’t ever trust you because they drink the koolaid every time then say oops and vote in someone to put a band aid on previous mistakes then vote for the oops again because they are so sincere and hate people just like they hate .
I think we have to stop acting as if we necessarily know what's better for them while dismissing their concerns. That said, voting a criminal who tried to interfere with the most basic machinery of democracy after losing an election most certainly is a moral issue, and Trump voters have failed that moral test.
Vermont is 92% white. It has a higher median income, budget is balanced every year, very low crime rate. Great place to retire despite some tax issues. 77% of people in Vermont say they feel safe. It is a lot like much of Appalachia except for the income.
Vermont is only solid blue on the national level, mainly because the Republican party seems incapable of finding sensible candidates for Congress. As a right-of-center Vermonter, I disagree with our Congresswoman on many policy points. But I voted for her because she's not trying to gaslight me into believing up is actually down, unlike the MAGA ass-clown who ran against her. I'd prefer someone who aligns a little closer to my politics, but I'll take a rational thinker I may not agree with over someone who just wants to break things.
At the state level, politics are much more mixed, and although the state legislature is still controlled by thr Democrats, Republicans made quite a bit of in-roads. Not by blindly parroting Trump, but by actually addressing many of the concerns of ordinary Vermonters. As others have said, we vote for the person, not the party.
The hippie thing is overplayed, except for maybe trust funders in Burlington who LARP as hippies. Especially if you live in a rural area of this state, where life is not always easy, practicality trumps politics and life philosophies.
It’s not. There aren’t many hippies. It’s lilly white and the rural parts of the state, most people are natives. There are no black people and brown people to hate because they’re getting something for nothing. They vote to support a safety net for their neighbors who are just like them. It’s easy to have democratic socialism when it’s a homogeneous population.
True. For instance Twin Cities politics were much, much kinder when the people down on Lake Street who needed help had names like Bob, Nancy, or Sven. New feelings seem to come out of the woodwork now that many of the people benefitting have names like Vang or Muhammad.
It ranks 4th in the country in college degrees. There's a pretty damn massive education gap between the parties right now. And to be clear I don't mean that in a snarky way (I didn't go to college), it's just undeniable.
If you look at the top 20 states (including DC) with the most college graduates, 19 of them are either safe blue or relatively blue. The lone exception is Utah
This is probably the main thing. Everybody is going on and on about New England broadly, but Maine and New Hampshire are swing states. Vermont being much bluer than both must relate to something, and education seems like the most obvious one
Because they’re good sensible people. The dem party in VT is highly functional and has had many effective state policies, for decades. It works. It’s not perfect! But people are sensible, they can see how it benefits them.
It currently has a republican governor, republic lieutenant governor, and had a republic US senator as recently as 2001 when Sen Jeffords switched parties.
What I think you mean is it votes for democratic presidential candidates but do not mistake this for meaning it does not have a very robust Republican Party. A lot of Vermonters truly vote for the person and not the party. The recent republican candidates for president don’t speak to the needs of Vermonters like our republican statewide politicians do
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