We left the UK for Portland expecting a liberal dream. That wasn’t the reality

Everything about this article so Portland. Starting with getting duped by the West Coast’s fraudulent “laid back” reputation. Or that they saw some cultural jest and assumed that something as big and complicated a city could be the twee character it’s exaggerated into for effect. Going in not knowing that the local terrain is constantly trying to kill you and wildfires are just one of the many tools it will use. Thinking social unrest should still be kid friendly. The list goes on, all the way to writing a disappointed immigrant exposé in a paper like The Guardian. Classic.

And ironically all of this adds up to the fact they’ve assimilated into a typical type of Portland resident.

Why would anyone move to the usa expecting a liberal paradise?

The usa has a lot of things going for it, "liberal paradise" isn't one of them

I think this article brings up an important problem wrt how people interpretation what “liberal” means.

Liberal != Left

> It's confusing because we tend to use them interchangeably in the US. But as far as the true meaning of the terms:

Classical Liberalism: the early form of liberalism popularized in the 1700s. strongly rooted in individual liberty in both social and economic matters. Opposes the idea of a strong activist government and believes in the free market economy and and believes strongly in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc. U.S. Libertarians are often a good example of a "classical liberal".

social liberalism: A more modern form of liberalism. They generally believe in many of the same values: (market capitalism, individual liberty) but differ in the fact that they believe the government has more of a role in ensuring the market allocates resources fairly and making market corrections were the free market fails (social welfare, environmental regulation, etc.) they also tend to see more of a role for government in protecting people's liberty (lgbt protections etc.) Many mainstream Democrats are social liberals.

Leftist: Generally have adopted the term Progressive in the US. They mainly differ from social liberals in that they believe the free market system is inherently flawed to favor the rich and powerful and believe that the government should either work within the framework of the market system but heavily regulate it and pay for more social services and welfare through higher taxation on the rich and corporations (social democracy) or abandon the free market all together in favor of socialism. There are not really in mainstream figures in the US that are true socialist, but "progressive" figures in the US such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders (even though he calls himself a democratic socialist) tend to favor some form of social democracy.[1]

[1] Taken from Reddit, but you can confirm it on wiki. https://www.reddit.com/r/Ask_Politics/comments/6xlxpa/commen...

I don't know where to start.

The US has many good things to offer. I think the idea of a liberal utopia doesn't exist. I wish the author would give 'normal' American life a fair chance.

‘The Dream of the 90's is alive in Portland’

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TZt-pOc3moc

Though the article brought out some interesting facts about Portland, I don't know why they didn't consider going 500km north. Sure, it's a little colder, and outside major cities not always well integrated, but it has all the attributes they were looking for, while being a lot less bonkers.

> Living in Portland was also the first time I felt noticed for being in a mixed-race marriage.

Somehow, I can help but invariably notice the lack of mixed-races relationships in US movies et tv series, even to this day where diversity representation (slowly) improves in these mediums.

Used to work in Portland. Have opinions.

What made Oregon "liberal" is they had to figure stuff out on their own. Typical Pacific Northwest DIY mentality (see Olympia, Bellingham).

After the resource extraction industries died, Oregon really struggled to transition to mfg, education, tech. Think Spokane and other inland empire metros.

Oregon has the largest hunger problem. Basically a rolling crisis. They've had to take extreme steps to try to mitigate it. Pretty much on their own. So their safety net efforts are driven by necessity. Ditto health insurance.

In the 90s and 2000s, Portland city proper tried some proper good governance reforms. Public financing of campaigns. Some kind of runoff voting. Mass public transportation. I was very proud of them and hope they continued.

Portland's reputation as "liberal" is what attracts the whackadoodles. Proud Boys and the other hard right lunatics explicitly target Portland. Journalist David Neiwert's has covered these movements since the 90s and some excellent (depressing) books on same. In case anyone's interested.

It cracks me up that Seattle and Portland are considered "liberal" by outsiders.

The term "Skid Row" comes from Seattle. Think about it. A place to stuff all the undesirables.

How could any economies based on resource extraction be "liberal". Fortunes were made the Klondike Gold Rush and other grifts. Those grifters are local saints.

People have confused our independent minded conservatives, socially liberal, with left leaning. Nope. Prior to the Bible thumpers, we Nordics mostly merely tolerated other groups. But the core of PNW identity is manifest destiny and capitalism. Think Alaska with less suicide.

Business leaders in Seattle and Spokane smashed the labor unions. The trogs jailed the Japanese immigrants and stole their land. While early white settlers had mostly good relations with natives, the trajectory was what you'd expect.

The neocons were birthed in the PNW.

We're home to the Discovery Institute.

The National Prayer Breakfast was birthed in Seattle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast

"Liberal" Seattle and Portland is only in contrast to other cities.

The only truly "liberal" thing Oregon has done, IMHO, was proactively protect their rural, farm, and wild places. HUGE controversy when WA State tried to do the same (Growth Management Act). Driving around Oregon feels qualitatively different. And the mostly protected coast is a gem.

"during the fires, armed vigilantes set up “checkpoints” in small towns"

That's quite a claim given that the reference link doesn't even exist.