Why is Portland so liberal?

From Kropotkin to Antifa, Portland

This will be the first in a series of articles covering the Pacific NW, particularly Portland, and an anarchy origin story

            The emergence of far left violent actors appears to many to have come from nowhere. Sure, there was a riot when the WTO met in Seattle in 1999. But, between then and now, the anarchists were mostly quiet. Why then have they suddenly emerged out of the Doug Fir trees in this part of the Contiguous United States?

From the Western Territory, Canada south to San Francisco, California stretching East to the borders of Wyoming and looping back north through Montana stretches some of the last real wilderness in the United States. Home of the Bigfoot. This sparsely populated landscape is where people could get lost and do (oh boy do they) all manner of things. A great place to have ideas way beyond any Overton window in any age.

Emma Goldman, her paramore Jacob Kirshner, both observed the following:

“the American movement is yet in its infancy, not older than five or six years . . . Only since the first issue of the Firebrand, in Oregon, seized by authorities, and now published under the name of Free Society, in San Francisco, have we begun to make headway among the American people.”