I’ve lived in both CA and WA. And I agree that CA immigrants have had a major negative impact on the politics of WA.
However, surely you will admit that OR was it’s own special kind of crazy in all the post WWII years.
Not exactly... it is true that the Portland area has been a mess for decades. Heck it was a mess in 1900. But as soon as you get outside of Portland, Oregon is actually a very conservative state for the most part.
IN the early 1990s my wife and I were flying back from visiting relatives in California in our small airplane. My wife started having an urgent need to visit a ground based restroom. So we landed at a small rural airport 40 miles North East from Salem. I purchased some Avgas and my wife used the restroom. She was getting hungry so I asked the proprietor if there was fast food nearby. She said, “Sure there is a McDonalds in town... it's three miles that way.” I must have looked a little disappointed so she continued, “You can use my car. Don't worry about my dog she doesn't bite.”
I immediately assumed that the car would be some type of airport beater and the dog would be a shaggy old mongrel. But the car was actually a nearly new Cadillac and the dog was a pure bred and well groomed show poodle. The people in town were super friendly as well. It was probably the friendliest place we have ever been to. And we have never tasted fast food so delicious since. I told my wife that I thought that it would be a good place to retire. I know that the area has had major development since and the amazing character is probably a distant memory.
But we also took hang gliding lessons over a period of months on the coast South of Tillamook. It was a very nice area also and the people there and on the way there were amazing as well. So I wouldn't necessarily judge Oregon by Portland and the I-5 corridor.