December 13, 2024 at 5:00:00 PM
Chloe Allis '25
Almost all of us have had a “my home state is the best” argument with our friends: “My state has the best football team in the nation,” “You’ve clearly never tried xyz food,” and for those of us from deep red states, the inevitable “My state grants me abortion rights while yours doesn’t.”
These weaponized, seemingly all-in-good-fun prods against a person's state are deeply hurtful reminders of our fraught politics. In recent years, Americans have become sharply divided. This polarization has generated intense—and often dismissive—stigmas.
Conversations about deep red regions can include critiques about policy decisions and social values, but this oversimplification overlooks the diverse experiences of millions of Americans living in conservative states. These oversimplifications can come very easily in liberal environments, especially at institutions like Mercersburg Academy.
With most people receiving their news through social media, the humanitarian aspect of crises has been lost. When Texas, my home state, experienced the winter-related power crisis in 2021, masses of liberals from deep blue states ran to social media. They posted that Texas residents shouldn’t receive any humanitarian aid over the matter, because us Texans “voted this into office” by electing Republican officials that do not support climate change legislation. Similar messages were posted when Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall in Southeastern states and ravaged numerous communities in the past few months. Liberals on social media bashed the states for being unprepared and admonished them for their poor infrastructure, simply ignoring the fact that the communities most affected by natural disasters are impoverished.
In the recent election, abortion was a top concern for a large portion of America. After Donald Trump won the election, people once again took to social media, expressing their fear and concern for what is to come for reproductive rights in the next four years. The issue, however, is that those posting this type of content are people from deep blue states who have largely refused to express concern for women who live in states like Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee where abortion has been completely banned. They repeatedly patronize and condemn every person in these states, including those who oppose the starkly pro-life legislation. Those who voted with reproductive rights at the forefront of their minds did so because future policies could negatively affect them.
The polarization in America has caused the left and right to acquire an “us versus them” mindset, evident on the internet more than anywhere else. Many fail to fully comprehend that millions of liberals live in deep red states, just as millions of conservatives live in deep blue states. Viewing an individual based on the possibly unrepresentative legislation of their home is downright wrong.
Those who are liberal in blue states tend to believe that if a person likes their home state, they like every part about its laws. This is utterly untrue. I will always be proud of my Southern roots. I can disagree with and lobby to change the laws that I oppose while still feeling adoration for my home. I am not the politics of my Southern state, and stigmas from the Northerners who say so need to be broken.