Q: I was born and raised in West Texas but have lived in the Northeast now for close to forty years. Over that time, my politics have shifted from right of center to left of center. I consider West Texas my home and enjoy occasional trips back for high school reunions and such, but due to the political winds blowing in such a different direction from where I live now, I’ve had second thoughts about returning. I am concerned that some of my friends, especially when lubricated with libations, might want to talk politics and I’d rather not. How can I most skillfully enjoy a visit with childhood and school friends without engaging on the subject?
Name Withheld, Boston, Massachusetts
A: Time was, you likely recall, when Texas was a very different place than it is today, politically speaking. The Democratic Party once dominated here, but the last time more Texans voted for a Democratic presidential candidate than a Republican one was in 1976, when the Texanist was a ten-year-old and you were about to depart for northeastern climes. In the most recent presidential election, Texas voted Republican over Democrat by a near-double-digit margin. Only 27 out of a possible 254 counties voted for Hillary Clinton. West Texas, your old home—not counting the anomalous Trans-Pecos region—is known to be particularly Republican. Roberts County, way up at the tip-top of the Panhandle, is even said to be the most pro–Donald Trump county in the country. More than 95 percent of Roberts County supported him in 2016. Clinton got a mere twenty votes there. And the last time a Democrat won a statewide office was in 1994, before the Texanist had a gray hair on his head, constituting a lengthier shutout than that possessed by any state in the Union. The political winds in Texas are indeed blowing quite red these days.
The winds in your current home blow solidly blue. Massachusetts went with Clinton over Trump 60 percent to 33 percent. Every county on the Baked Bean State map, all fourteen of them, voted Democrat. (Wait, Massachusetts only has fourteen counties? The…
