Interesting place, way patriotic, but as many of the older ones were Downwinders and people are still dying from the radiation (including an ex-governor of Utah in 1990) , they tend to have have little faith in what the government tells them.
If you don't know about the Downwinders, I just did a blog post on them. It's one of the more despicable moments in federal government history, and that takes some doing.
I think trying to define Tea Partiers is like trying to define the Left. There's way too many factions for that, including some who loathe each other.
If you're wondering why we left Socal, California, IMO is a train wreck and it's getting worse. Plus, my wife is a CPA and they were laying off CPAs during tax season in Socal, something that has never happened before. Things here are better, and she may join a practice with a friend here. Plus the cost of living is absurdly less, the scenery spectacular, there's no traffic, lots of stores within 5 minutes, and genuinely friendly people.
And since everyone asks, the Mormon thing is a non-issue. There's actually a lot of ex-Californians here now.
On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Michael Smith <mjs at smithbowen.net> wrote:
>
> There's been a lot of head-scratching on the left about the teabagger
> folks. I'm curious: does anybody on this list actually *know* anyone who's
> involved in this fad?
>
> Is it just the old John Birch/Joe Pyne thing, or is there anything new
> about it?
>