<div id="subtitle">Can left coast transplants afford to make Montana purple?</div><div><p><h1>Purple Mountain Agonies</h1> <p>Can left coast transplants afford to make Montana purple? </p> <p>By Connor C. Walker,  September 29, 2008</p> <p>The western edge of Montana climbs up into the Bitterroot mountains, their jagged majesty framing the country's Big Sky and painting her sunsets in hues of red and purple. With the rugged Bitterroots guarding the West, Yellowstone Park to the South, and Sioux country to the East, Montana's always been a little more remote than the other lower 48. Maybe it's that physical remoteness that makes Montanans (like Alaskans) so detached from the passing cultural fixations that regularly grip the rest of the country. My grandparents and great-grandparents rest in peace watching over the Paradise Valley (Robert Redford’s fishing grounds in A River Runs Through It), where I learned to ride horses as a child. In the time since my grandfather returned from the Pacific Theater to found a clinic in Livingston and raise his four sons, Montana’s Western culture has remained pretty stable — until recently.</p> <p>In recent years, an accelerating rate of immigration from other states has put a little more variety on Montana's cultural menu. Adding to the long-time presence of the super-rich ranch owners (like Ted Turner) and their entourages, the Western half of the state has sustained an influx of Internet commuters, retirees, and small business owners from points South and West.</p> <p>Gallatin County is the epicenter for this New Montana. Reaching down to the border of Wyoming, it encompasses parts of Yellowstone Park and the Gallatin National Forest. Most of the county is uninhabited wilderness. Bozeman, the main town and county seat, is the home of Montana State University and runs in the cultural groove of a typical college town. Bridger Bowl sucks in snowboarders every winter and Montana State spits out engineering grads every spring. In Gallatin, Obama crushed Clinton in the Democratic primaries. There're almost as many Obama bumper stickers on the pick-up trucks as there are Ron Paul signs on the side of the highway.</p> <p>Fleeing the impending Armageddon in California is an understandable move for people who're attracted to this kind of life. Bozeman has a very low crime rate, herds of elk pass through the neighborhoods on their way to greener grass, and the bars spread friendly low-limit poker games in the back (just leave your sidearm in the car, please). The open question for the locals is whether the influx of Californians will repeat the cultural transformation that happened in the Front Range of Colorado and turn Bozeman into another Boulder.</p> <p>So far the most blatant of changes has been economic. In 2007, Montana was one of the few states that saw real estate prices increase. In most parts of Bozeman, house prices are approaching California levels of crazy. Anyone owning a decent-sized spread likely either inherited it from family or bought it by selling their technology startup and leaving San Francisco. Demi Moore, Ted Turner, and a bunch of E-Bay types all own working ranches in the area so they can fly up in the summer and play cowboy. Even Michael Keaton has a penthouse condo downtown. (why someone would move to Big Sky Country to live in an apartment is a question I can't answer).</p> <p>But over in the trailer parks where the working folks live, rent's about the same as it's always been. And locals who've owned a house since before the bull market started don't seem to mind. Their house is worth more, but then they ain't movin' anywheres anyways. The ones who end up paying the most for the coastal influx are the coastals themselves, who jack up the prices for the next wave that comes along.</p> <p>Of course local businesses like the money this new breed of immigrant brings. Jobs in the tipping industries have increased to accommodate them. The locals also benefit from finally being able to get decent sushi and from the bored retirees plunking down live bankrolls at the poker tables. The new neighbors bring a lot of action.</p> <p>With the nice new restaurants and McMansion suburbs going up around town, the infrastructure to take care of the coastal elites is in place, but the development has a strongly superficial feel to it. There are more coffee boutiques on Main Street, but those can easily be converted back into diners and candy stores just like they were before.<br /> </p> <p> </p> <p>And, indeed, it's hard not to feel the sneaking suspicion that they will. Part of the reason is that the local economy just doesn't have the scale that Colorado did during its initial boom. Montana lacks the critical mass of jobs for new immigrants — unless they are willing to do labor. Unless a new arrival works in the oil industry, moving to Montana probably requires getting off the career track, which limits the number and type of people willing to make that change. The economic environment is self-selecting, much in the same (or opposite) way as New York and Washington DC selects for their own ambitious professional types.</p> <p>However, one group of left-coasters is more than willing to forgo the executive lounge and get its hands dirty: Mexican and South Asian immigrants. As Montana is one of the few places left where it's normal and respectable for white people to work in unskilled manual labor jobs, the potential influx of competing labor has contributed to making the border control movement very popular.</p> <p>Montana's role in national politics traditionally has mirrored the self-reliant, socially conservative rural culture of the state, which in practice has put the state's three electoral votes solidly in the Republican column (although Bill Clinton snuck in the back door and took the state's electoral votes in 1992 with a 37 percent plurality). But expecting Montanans to march in lockstep is a sure path to disappointment. Republicans will have to prove their brand of conservatism is consistent with Montana's.</p> <p>On the governance side, Republicans need to emphasize low taxes, less regulatory interference, border control, and local control of cultural and educational issues. A revival of the national culture war would bolster conservatives in Montana. Palin's selection (and the piranha-like feeding frenzy by the MSM) was worth a 10-point bump because her cultural markers are also Montana's. But the DC Republican establishment pushes these naturally conservative voters away by condescending to them with symbolic actions while short-changing them on substance. It's up to the GOP to prove they're better than four-flushers in the Big Sky state.</p> <p>Locals gripe about the influx of Californians, just as they did in Colorado 25 years ago. But the concerns about Californication are as much about simple modernity as anything specific that the new immigrants bring: the damn kids are staying indoors to fish on their Wii instead of walking down to the Yellowstone river to fish for real. Montana's more resistant to change than that. Montana’s ranching culture survived the end of the open range and the introduction of the federal highway system. Mining, drilling, and foresting interests support the hardy, self-reliant mental landscape even as they transform the physical one.</p> <p>Modern information technology has let Montanans stay in touch with the larger national culture while remaining physically separate from it. That technology also allows left-coast immigrants to survive economically while remaining separate from their new country. These telecommuters and frequent flyers float like oil on the pool of Montanan society, but that New Montana layer doesn't mix in. Their work and family connections remain far away. Montana’s like a long-term vacation destination for them. And in the face of any economic hardships, their fragile roots to the state could easily break. Anyways, after nearly a decade of easy winters, the popular view is that the Californians are still just one hard Montana winter away from selling out and moving to Arizona.</p></p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=38603331&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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