Why are Idaho and Wyoming so overwhelmingly Republican?

[dolstein]

Ok, I can understand why Utah, with its large Mormon population, is overwhelmingly Republican. And I can understand why states like Missippi and Alamaba, where the electorate is racially polarized, are also overwhelmingly Republican. But how did Idaho and Wyoming become one-party states (at least at the national level)? Bush won nearly 70% of the votes in these states. Is it guns? Abortion?

[JohnKleeb]

1. shrug I think you could be right

I heard though before the mines there closed they were more democratic.

[Creideiki]

2. Taxes

Very much a civil libertarian type bent, but tend to go with anti-taxation over civil liberties.

[pw]

3. Of course it's taxes

Most of the people in those states wouldn't even have places to live without federal subsidies (much less water and electricity) so it's natural for them to respond by not wanting to pay taxes...

[flamingyouth]

4. As for Wyoming

It's ironic, to say the least. Some of my mother's family lives in the Big Horn Mountains, so my parents subscribe to one of their local papers.

You would not BELIEVE how many people there are on some form of government aid, yet still vote Repuke and profess to wanting "government out of their lives." (Apparently, unless the checks bounce.)

[liberalhistorian]

5. You pretty much nailed it with those two words,

guns and abortion. And the fact that they tended to be settled, as were a lot of other western states, with independent, isolationist anti-government types who believed they didn't need the interference of the federal government and could take care of everything themselves. And the environmental issues as well, many make their living from ranching, farming, etc., and deeply resent and hate any type of environmental regulation that interferes with that.

[Brian Sweat]

6. I think that a lot of Republicans have moved to these small states

over the last thirty years.

[jiacinto]

24. White flight from California

I think that part of the reason that these sites have become more conservative is due to the influx of whites feeling places like San Diego and Orange Counties.

[paulk]

28. to a degree - but I lived in Wyoming before the white flight

and it was pretty conservative then.

Colorado definately has been affected by the SoCal phenom. We used to have 200k more registered Dems here fifteen years ago - now there's more than twice that many registered Rep. And they're not Libertarian conservatives, their hard right loony tunes.

[jiacinto]

29. Yeah

That was another state that I was going to mention.

[kwolf68]

7. Culture

Idaho is Republican because that is where LA police officers go when they've been fired for viotating some minorities civil rights.

In addition to the racists out there and the milita types, you have some who are generally psychotic.

[bluestateguy]

8. Lots of conservative white people!

[oasis]

12. Randy Weaver so adored the view from his home in Ruby Ridge.

;-)

[oasis]

9. Mark Furman, a disgraced former L.A. police Dept. detective

felt comfortable enough to settle down in Idaho, "retiring" there right after his O.J. trial testimony.

[Loyal]

10. I don't know.

LBJ carried both states in 1964, so something must have happened between now and then. Maybe a large influx of Republicans?

[pw]

11. They bought the myth of independence

None of those ranches would exist without federal development money and cheap grazing fees.

[eileen_d]

13. Yes indeed

I was just going to post something similar. I'm in that neck of the woods myself, and it is all about *independence* -- but the irony is how much of the independence is federally subsidized.

[Brian Sweat]

16. but they are not on the public dole

like *them* people.

[salin]

17. bet they will be happy when W and Dick give energy corps

the right through eminent domain (note - not govt but the corp itself) to take their land for pipelines, energy transmission lines, etc. Its all right there in the energy bill - all a gift from WandDick to the energy companies. Property rights? Get Real.

[dolstein]

14. Well, LBJ carried a lot of Republican states that year

He won every state outside of the Deep South except for Goldwater's home state of Arizona.

[jiacinto]

22. Well another thing to remember

Between 1932 and 1948 most of the modern "red states" voted Democratic. The Rocky Mountains, the Southwest, and the South supported FDR and Truman.

It wasn't until the 1950s that these states abandoned the national Democratic Party for the Republicans. A good book to read would be "The Emerging Republican Majority", written by Kevin Phillips following the 1968 election. He wrote the book as the New Deal Coalition started by FDR was coming apart in the aftermath of Vietnam, the Civil Rights era, and social unrest.

The post World War II migration also changed the partisan balance of many today's "red states" from the Democrats to the Republicans. They brought their conservative political loyalities with them.

[Snow]

15. Idaho actually a larger proportion of Mormons than Utah

so that explains part of it. So why are Mormons repug? Are they, or are we assuming too much. Were I a Mormon, I might be more inclined towaards libertarianism.

[Brian Sweat]

19. Do you live in an area controlled by Mormons.

Sure, it makes since that Mormons, being in the minority, would be for the seperation of Church and state and stuff, but in Utah and Idaho they have a lot of power and don't feel threatened.

[AntiCoup2K4]

18. South Idaho : Mormon North Idaho: Nazi

and Wyoming is Cheney country.

[Clete]

34. Northern Idaho Nazi?

Excuse me but the majority of the population of Northern Idaho haven't much use for the White Supremists and most of those misfits have moved on to Washington or Montana. The reason that these places are conservative is because most of the north is rural with a lot of wilderness.

People live there because they don't like much interference from government and Republicans preserve the fantasy for them. North Idaho is a beautiful place that is systematically being spoiled by Republican officials who pander to the mining and lumber industries at the expense of the wilderness and the people who live there.

Things are achanging though. A lot of liberal environmentalists are moving in. I lived there for five years in the last decade.

[jiacinto]

20. Wyoming turned against the Democrats starting in the 1950s

Basically the voters there are pro-gun and they were not supportive of the Great Society. That's probably the most simple answer I can get. The liberalism of the Democratic Party that emerged, post-1968, did not sit well with these voters. That explains Wyoming.

Idaho was not as Republican as people think. As recently as the early 1990s Democrats were able to win the Governorship and the state's House Seats. Cecil Andrus (D) was very popular in the state and was able to win the Governorship several times. Larry Larrocco and Richard Stallings were both able to win the state's House seats.

Stallings lost a bid in 1992 for the US Senate to now-Govenror Dirk Kempthorne. In 1994 LaRoccoo lost to the infamous Helen Chenoweth, who barely held onto her seat in 1996 and in 1998. Larry EcoHawk (D), the then-Dem AG, lost the race for Governor to Phill Batt in 1994.

The theories that I can suggest vis a vis Idaho come down to guns, white flight, and land issues. Clinton's EPA's policies angered many Idahoans. Also the adminsitration's anti-gun agenda alienated these voters further. Lastly, with the decline of the aerospace industry and the rising Hispanic population, many whites from places in Orange and San Diego Counties fled Southern California to the Rocky Mountains. And they brought their GOP loyalities with them.

In this case what has helped California's Democrats become dominant in their state has hurt their brethren in places like Idaho. And as for Utah it is quite ironic--the state was Democratic up until the 1950s. From the 1932 to 1948 it voted for FDR and Truman. Even as late as the 1970s it sent Frank Moss (D) to the US Senate.

[RummyTheDummy]

21. Guns guns guns guns guns guns and more guns

NT

[Jacobin]

23. Ever been there?

Check it out. All rural, no urban areas to speak of. All wild west, frontier justice, leave us alone, govmint can't do nothin' right, bomb 'em if they look at you funny, cowboys.

With apologies to the thirty percent of the population of those states whom this does not describe

[TheReligiousLeft]

30. apology accepted

That's why I moved to Eugene Oregon from Cheyenne Wyoming.

[SoCalDem]

25. Taxes..guns.. free grazing on public land..libertarianism, militia-types

:(

[West Coast Democrat]

26. Mormons

eom

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

27. Read up on The Heartland Institute

The AEI has dumped huge sums of money into think tanks that fill the papers with prop business propaganda. In the central and mountain states, the Heartland Institute fills the bill..these orgs also funnel money down to community based single issue orgs.

The effect think tanks have on local community issues cannot be overstated.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. Eastern Oregon is also solidly Republican

It's a lot of ranchers and loggers who hate environmentalists. The loggers in particular blame environmental laws for taking away their jobs, when in fact, the situation is far more complex. The ranchers are seduced by the "wise use movement," which seems to hold that any land not being exploited is "wasted."

If you haven't been to Eastern Oregon, Idaho, or Wyoming, it's hard for you to imagine how vast and underpopulated those places are. It's easy to believe that "every man is an island," and that Nature is endlessly renewable. "Oregon will never run out of trees," was a common saying.

In Eastern Oregon, the conservatism has a heavily libertarian streak. That's why the state easily passed initiatives allowing medical marijuana and assisted suicide, but is also a sucker for tax-cutting or government-hobbling measures.

[jiacinto]

32. Ok

Interesintg.

[Lefty48197]

33. The KKK beachhead in Idaho

probably has something to do with it.