Pay non-swing state voters to move to swing states
Pay people from non-swing states to move to swing states to alleviate political polarisation and revitalise middle America.
Votes in solid blue and solid red states generally have greater leverage in swing states, regardless of whom they vote for. Moving from the former to the latter may increase the competitiveness of all of states. This can help lessen political polarisation not just by promoting competitive elections and compromise but by encouraging greater interaction across what would otherwise be isolated political bubbles and echo chambers. This could also help alleviate rising rents in the largest cities as residents from San Francisco and New York City get paid to move to Texas and Arizona.
Comments
While I love this idea-- I moved from California to Colorado and stayed there partially because of it being closer to purple and partially because my vote counts so much more population-to-senator-wise-- from my experience the locals very much do not appreciate it. Bringing money into it to help it happen even faster would not be popular in said middle America, especially because it brings higher traffic and housing costs.
Still, I have been very tempted to move to West Virginia...
This is a good, unbiased article about Tom Rogers idea in that vein:
https://www.newsweek.com/make-our-politics-work-remote-work-may-work-opinion-1617042
Tom Rogers is into that idea:
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kyle-drennen/2021/05/19/msnbc-founders-scheme-swamp-swing-states-dem-voters
This is a fun idea to think about. Thanks for sharing.
A few thoughts:
What if both sides did this? Which party has the lower opportunity cost of moving?
Would it be valuable to look at this from a local perspective? Where you vote in local elections can be highly impactful on the local level. The cost of living is likely lower in more conservative locations. This could be a response to gerrymandering.
Would there be any negative externalities from any media coverage?