When hometowns get politically uncomfortable

Ideology drives some people to seek more of their own kind as neighbors

Politics is making some people un-neighborly, but is taking flight the only option?

Say you’ve been away from your hometown for a while — or, if you’ve stuck around, maybe you haven’t really looked at things closely. So check it out. You might be shocked by how it has changed. There are apartments where there used to be a department store downtown. A church is now a microbrewery. A block that used to have a mix of thriving retail stores now is anchored by a tattoo parlor, a haircutter and a shop selling an unclassifiable clutter of odds and ends. And your old house? It looks pretty battered.

So it all feels a bit less like home. Change can be unsettling if it doesn’t align with our own trajectories.

That’s what has happened to the politics of a lot of places, too — and as they’ve become less recognizable, they seem less comfortable to us. Which is why it’s not surprising to hear reports that the politics of places are prompting a lot of folks to pack up and leave. They’re voting with the…