The job market is lousy and it is barely a red state. We call Missoula, Moscow in the Rockies.
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Add to that:
The scenery, wildlife, and topography are just plain boring—Montana makes Indiana seem like Disney on steroids (no offense to Hoosiers); the water is terrible—if you can find it; the air is thick enough at sunup to float a crowbar and by sundown it has turned so solid that the buzzards and other carrion eaters just walk on it from one dead tree to the next; the people are just downright mean—probably due to the unchecked overcrowding; it gets so cold in the winter that you have to bring the antifreeze inside to keep it from freezing, and it gets so hot in the summer that the mud on your shoes turns to glass; you can always spot a 4th+ generation native Montanan: one leg is 4” shorter than the other; this is a genetic trait that evolves after three generations of leaning constantly at a 45-degree angle while walking into the nonstop Cat 4 hurricane-force wind . . . that’d be a “calm” day.
+1 “Moscow in the Rockies.” I couldn't find a pair of boots anywhere within 100 miles of Missoula, but I was able to get a great deal on a pair of Birkenstocks and a hemp beret at the “One World” shop, the one tucked between the main Starbuck’s (there's at least one on every corner) and Whole Foods. Lately, the place has been overrun with folks from Massachusetts and California: there are rumors circulating that they have introduced legislation to have the State's name changed to either Califusetts or Massafornia. As I recall, a then future POTUS staged quite the rally there not long ago. Lots of support. VERY LIBERAL state. Not a place for non-democrats. Nosireebobcattail.
Most people who move to Montana from out East simply dry up and are blown away like tumbleweeds. Some folks claim it's because they become dessicated from crying tears of despair.
NO. You certainly DO NOT want to move to Montana!
(/sarc)