Blue State Lessons

What a Red State native learned from a year of living in the D.C. Metro

Red State natives like myself have a lot of ideas about those bastions of East Coast liberalism that are spread up and down the I-95 corridor. Often they are informed by conservative news outlets that regularly trumpet headlines designed to generate clicks, ad dollars, and increase the “us versus them” mindset that has become so common across the United States. With all these ideas swirling through my mind, it was not without a bit of apprehension that my family moved to the Washington D.C. Metro.

Imagine my surprise when I got there and discovered that there was actually a lot that I really loved. In fact, there were things that made living there superior to my experiences living in large Red State metros like Dallas-Fort Worth. I quickly discovered that instead of focusing on the differences between Red State America and Blue State America, to focus on those positive aspects of calling the Washington D.C. area home.

Here are a few of the lessons I learned from a year of living in a major city in a Blue State:

1. Public transportation is not the work of Satan. For 12 glorious months I hardly had to drive my car. I put two tanks of gas in the car because I was able to use the Metro to where I needed. A short walk across the street got me to the nearest Metro station…