We’ve all seen the lists.
You know the ones. They look at the number of registered Libertarians and/or donations to Ron Paul at some point in the not-so-distant past and attempt to make inferences about entire states based on that data. And those lists aren’t a bad thing, by any means.
However…
What they fail to address is that states are (usually) very big, diverse places. And no two states are created equally. Which is one reason we have the concept of federalism and decentralized government to begin with. Some states are more rural in character. Others host major cities that dominate state politics. Still others have vastly different economies. And, of course, there’s the whole issue of federal land ownership, but I’m not ready to open that can of worms just yet. Suffice it to say that it exists and plays a prominent role in state politics west of the Mississippi.
Most of us, when we move, we’re moving to a city. People might say they want to move to Texas. But Texas is a very big state. Even billionaires who own huge swathes of the state can’t live in it all at once. No, when you move, you need a community. A place to work and call home. Somewhere to eat, maybe find friends, and hopefully not pay lots of taxes (if one is a Libertarian, anyway).
And, of course, politics are local.
So, without further ado, here’s a new list. Of the top-10 cities for Libertarians.
Before moving on, I used several data points in compiling this list. First, I looked at local Libertarian elected officials (of which there are 300, surprisingly). Then I excluded essentially rural areas- this is the best cities, after all- and cross-referenced the list of population centers against freedom indexes and reputable lists of “most Libertarian” states. Finally, I then analyzed quality-of-life issues, such as clean air, cost of living, public safety, etc. It may also be worth noting before moving on that this list depends on a perhaps overly simplistic definition of “Libertarian” as literally people who are members of the LP.
Allentown, PA
Given how important police and justice reform are to Libertarians, it should be reassuring that one of the largest metropolitan areas in Pennsylvania happens…
