Kind of funny and sad. A few years back, I had a job at a DOD defense contractor. Position I was in was eliminated so I had to find a different position. Upper management called me in and told me I had to move to the Northeast - NJ/NY/CT. Part of this was having to sell my house - no choice in keeping it. I would have planned to return at a later time when the market turned around, but mgt said no, move or be fired.
I have no desire to live in the Northeast and besides anyplace you go to, you have to dress up including on weekends. I won’t dress up except for a funeral. That is it.
Sad how the northeast went from where they wanted to be free to being enslaved like with work, high taxes and massive regulations. In fact the manager I had who was awful, he even required you to get permission to even use the bathroom and I don’t ask !
The demand for big gov is driven by population density. Once an area reaches 1,000 people per square mile, big gov lovers take control. The reason for this is it requires more government for people to get along in closer quarters. American style freedom doesn't work in a big city. The average population density of the USA is 84 people per square mile, so the vast majority of the country is in conservative hands. The northeast has been at it longer so the population density has reached European levels.
People that live in high rise big cities are actually living a communist lifestyle. They own little personally, share most everything, and have few freedoms that don't upset their million close neighbors. Most political conflict comes from city communists trying to impose their big gov lifestyle on rural areas, and conservatives trying to impose their morals on Sodom and Gomorrah. If we had two independent governments, one for cities and one for Americans, everyone would be happier.