The best place to live is either a liberal town in a conservative state, or a conservative town in a liberal state. You get the best of both worlds in terms of policy, and the feeling of being an outcast gives you plenty of material for your Tumblr account (if you’re a liberal) or your gun range target (if you’re a conservative). On that note, the New York Times has a new feature on young people who are attempting to change the long-engrained mindset of their state. It focuses on Missoula, an up-and-coming, liberally-minded city located in the middle of Montana, a very conservative state. The article shows how active and engaged young people can be, despite the baby boomers’ attempts to paint millenials as entitled and apathetic.
“Young people absolutely believe that there’s a role for government,” said Matt Singer, a founder of Forward Montana, a left-leaning though officially nonpartisan group that seeks to engage young people in politics. “At the same time, this is not a generation of socialists. They are highly entrepreneurial, and know that some of what it takes to create an environment where they can do their own exciting, creative things is having basic systems that work.”
A wise man once told me that you should stop getting wrapped up in national politics, and get more invested in local and state politics, because that’s where you as an individual can truly make a difference. Alright, so this wasn’t just some man, it was my buddy Ray. And I wouldn’t exactly call him wise. He told me this at a Pearl Jam concert in Camden right after funneling a couple of Miller Lites. Either way, it was a good call. He also called that Pearl Jam would play “Present Tense,” a song they rarely play live, and wouldn’t you know, he was right about that one too. And later I saw him pound like 6 shots of Goldschlager, grab the microphone from a live radio broadcast and scream to 50,000 listeners in the Philadelphia area that he wanted to have Eddie Vedder’s baby. All in all it was a very impressive showing.
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