Americans Are Leaving Liberal States for Stronger Community Ties

Conservatives are seeking solidarity in a fragmented society.

For several decades, political and social commentators have noticed a phenomenon, colloquially known as the “Big Sort,” in which individuals and families have reorganized themselves into local communities along political, cultural, and religious lines. This idea first came to prominence with Bill Bishop’s 2008 book, The Big Sort. Since the convulsions of 2020, and especially since the widespread adoption of remote work, this sorting has intensified. Modern life is structurally atomizing and alienating. Most Americans live in suburbs where they have no connection to the place or its people. They pull into their cul-de-sacs, park in their driveways, close their doors, and never once interact with any of their neighbors. Even if someone attempts to be neighborly, everyone else will not reciprocate and will treat that person as an oddball. A person can live several years in a place and not learn a single thing about his neighbors, except by seeing the “In this house we believe…” signs in their yards. This is something I have written about at length in my book The Boniface Option. The genuine communities that our grandparents and great-grandparents once took for granted — where people shared a way of life, cultural attitudes, and ownership of a particular place — have become exceedingly rare. It’s no wonder that many feel like random individuals among millions, numbers on a spreadsheet of economic data, and mercenaries with no connection to anything larger than themselves. Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive our fall 2024 print magazine, which includes this article and others like it. People want to be part of communities where they share core values with their neighbors, including the same religious beliefs and similar views on politics and the common good. The desire to move to such a place is fundamentally American. In fact, America originated from groups who did precisely this. My own hometown in rural southern Minnesota was settled by Germans and Scandin...