[dragonwriter]

> Personal politics, IMO, is not a good reason to avoid living in certain areas.

Policy climate can br a very good reason to avoid living in certain areas.

Failure to recognize this in time can be a very bad way to avoid living entirely.

> I'm a liberal-leaning moderate but many of my favorite people (friends and family) are conservative, and many of my hobbies tend to be populated mainly by the conservative demographic.

I have had friends all over the political spectrum, but “ability to make friends” is not the reason people avoid particular political climates. If you are privileged enough not to need to ubderstand that, congratulations.

> No area is thriving right now thanks to the recession

What recession?

[dllthomas]

> > Personal politics, IMO, is not a good reason to avoid living in certain areas.

> Policy climate can br a very good reason to avoid living in certain areas.

While there's clearly substantial overlap, I think there can be an important difference between choosing not to live somewhere because your personal politics disagree with the norm there, and choosing not to live somewhere because of the actual impact of the policies that are or may be implemented there.