People forget that VT WAS a very conservative state until all the hippies moved up there in the 1960s and 1970s.
It is full of NYC transplants. Talk to any bed and breakfast owner in VT and you will discover that the once worked on Wall Street, made a bunch of money and now the make pancakes.
The only conservative part left in VT is the NW Kingdom up on the Quebec border. With the exception of Jay Peak it does not get a lot of tourists like the middle and southern part of the state. It is full of dairy farms. Up until recently there were more cows in VT than people. Many of the dairy farms have signs on them that say TAKE BACK VERMONT. However, they are out voted by the liberals in the cities/college towns.
My wife and I drove up to St. Johnsbury a couple of years ago, and we like to take the rural roads...I saw an old barn, gray with age, somewhat falling down, with the faded, painted words “TAKE BACK VERMONT” and it filled me with sadness.
I love old barns, even ones that appear to be collapsing, and for much the same reason I love an old person who is in a bit of disrepair but still full of opinions...they have lived a full life, seen a lot...but...that barn was like a silenced voice to me.
LOL, I know a Freeper up in the Northeast Kingdom I am to visit one of these days, but about 20 miles from that conservative, is my sister who is pretty far left...
Your points are all true, and it is one of the reasons people who care support the electoral college...it is a direct impediment to the tyranny of a focused majority (those in the large population centers, which are almost always leftist)
Where is there a very conservative state anymore? North Dakota, I guess, with governorship, both senators and the congressman with R's after their names, also both branches of the state legislature, and the attorney general...
It never would have stayed so conservative without the oil boom in the west.
I see that Idaho also has Republicans in Washington, the governor's mansion and completely controls the state house.
Large parts of Idaho are still great places to live.