Northeast Corridor

Moreover -- and in case you're wondering why I'm writing this without remuneration from the state tourist bureau -- New Jersey is a quintessential purple state. Not that I'm revamping my thesis -- Purple America is more about states of mind than states -- but of all the states out there, which (on the whole) better combines cosmopolitan tastes and the spirit of free enterprise? There are strong arguments to be made for places like Florida and Arizona (though the former is polluted by stodgy retirees and the latter by even stodgier Californians) but certainly no state outside the Sun Belt has come closer to embracing globalization while maintaining a sort of live-and-let-live individuality. Maybe New Hampshire -- in the parts easily accessible to Boston -- but I just wouldn't be able to stand the winters there.