Politics don't exist to be a conversation topic. Local policy has real and massive impact on real people's lives. You can tune out ambient conservatism up until the moment you fall on the wrong side of a majority opinion that has the force of law, and then you can't.

The sufficiently privileged (pretty much by definition) don't have to worry about this much, but say the bubble pops. Are you sure your savings account will last long enough for it to re-inflate? Because if it doesn't, it suddenly matters a great deal where the people who wrote your state laws stand on the question of personal responsibility.