“ME was part of MA until 1821. It has a spillover from popular MA liberals moving “north” or “down east” as they say. People there like Hillary Clinton and the “It Takes a Village” concept.”
Yes, Maine was split for MA, but that was a very long time ago. Maine was a backwoods place and mainly rural. Those types tend to be conservative. If they have gone liberal, it had to have occurred in the later part of the 20th Century. What caused them to change? Are the Republicans in Maine just the remnants of Lincoln? Are they the post Theodore R. Republicans? There has to be a better explaination as to why these, primary rural people vote for such liberal Republicans.
Can someone speak better on this, I’m really curious?
Theory: Like the Minnesocoldans, Maine is made of small Northern European populations (Brits and Scots and Irish) without much ethnic or social diversity (just like Swedes and Norwegians and Poles in MN). These, while possessed of a strong work ethic, are susceptible to socialist ideas especially in those harsher environments where much is done together, for “the community.” I daresay a culture of unionism may be also prevalent, as would be expected of British descendants. It is misplaced collectivism (my phrase, I claim it), and after having been immersed in it since childhood, it becomes a norm and habit of thought that is hard to defeat. It takes a conscious effort to shake off the bonds of this form of intellectual laziness and notice that helping a neighbor raise a barn is not at all the same thing as passing the collections hat back to Washington full of your hard-earned so people you will never meet nor likely care about will benefit when the funds are not being largely squandered entropically.
I’m from NH and my impression it that they are fairly libertarian, but because of some deep pockets of rural poverty they get themselves in trouble with, for example, a somewhat socialistic and disastrously designed healthcare program.