The number of respondents who agreed that “To be meaningful, the Constitutional right to freedom of association must also encompass freedom from association” increased from 55.2% to 65.1% over the course of a short poll.
Almost equal numbers of respondents agree and disagree that people should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of race.
4.2% of Republicans recently moved in part for less diversity while 5.9% of Independents and 4.6% of Republicans may move in the near future for less diversity.
By David Zsutty
Return to the Land is an intentional community which has recently challenged the assumption that whites no longer have freedom of, or from, association. Because intentional communities are one of several alternatives to multiculturalism, we decided to conduct a poll exploring the topic.
We polled 713 respondents who are politically and demographically representative of white, non-Hispanic American registered voters from November 8 through December 8, 2025, and our margin of error was plus or minus 3%.
- Politics and Moving
We began by repeating several questions about moving and politics from our December, 2023 poll.
| Q.1 If you moved within the past five years, how much influence did politics have on your decision to move? | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| I have not moved within the last five years | 64.5% | 68.4% | 58.4% | 68.0% |
| A strong influence | 2.5% | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2.3% |
| A slight influence | 4.3% | 3.3% | 5.4% | 4.2% |
| No Influence | 28.6% | 25.6% | 33.5% | 25.5% |
| Q.2 If you plan on moving with the next five years how much of an influence do you think politics will have on your decision to move? | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| I do not plan on moving within the next five years | 42.4% | 43.7% | 36.7% | 45.6% |
| A strong influence | 12.3% | 16.7% | 12.2% | 9.3% |
| A slight influence | 18.9% | 18.6% | 18.1% | 19.7% |
| No Influence | 22.4% | 16.7% | 28.1% | 22.8% |
| I don’t know | 3.9% | 4.2% | 5.0% | 2.7% |
The number of respondents who reported that politics had a strong or slight influence on their decision to move dropped from 11.3% in late 2023 to 6.8%. This drop might be explained in part by a temporary uptick relocation due to the Covid pandemic.
The number of respondents who said that politics would strongly or slightly influence their decision to move in the future was 31.2%, which was very close to the previous number of 32.2%. As in the previous poll, slightly more Democrats than Republicans claimed they might move due to politics. There was a minor shift in more Republicans saying that politics would have a slight rather than a strong influence on a future move. However, speculating about something and actually doing it are two separate things.
The number of people who moved at least in part for political reasons has dropped since two years ago, possibly due to the Covid pandemic sliding into the past.
The number of people who actually follow through with moving due in part to politics is much lower than the number who speculate about it.
As in the 2023 poll, we next asked about specific factors:
| Q.3 If you moved within the past five years, which of the following factors substantially influenced your decision to move? | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| %All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| I have not moved in the last five years | 67.5% | 67.9% | 62.0% | 73.4% |
| Lower taxes | 3.2% | 1.9% | 3.6% | 3.5% |
| Lower cost of living | 10.1% | 10.7% | 11.8% | 8.5% |
| Less traffic | 3.5% | 3.3% | 3.6% | 3.9% |
| Less commuting | 5.5% | 6.5% | 6.3% | 3.5% |
| More gun control | 0.7% | 1.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% |
| Less gun control | 1.1% | 0.5% | 0.9% | 1.9% |
| More abortion rights | 1.8% | 3.7% | 1.8% | 0.4% |
| More abortion restrictions | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.0% |
| Less crime | 4.3% | 1.9% | 6.3% | 4.6% |
| More diversity | 2.2% | 3.3% | 2.7% | 1.2% |
| Less diversity | 2.0% | 0.9% | 0.0% | 4.2% |
| Better K-12 schools | 2.4% | 2.3% | 2.7% | 2.3% |
| Better colleges/universities | 1.4% | 1.4% | 2.7% | 0.4% |
| To feel more comfortable around people in my community | 4.6% | 2.8% | 6.3% | 4.2% |
| To relocate for a job | 5.5% | 4.2% | 6.8% | 5.0% |
| To be closer to family | 10.9% | 10.2% | 14.5% | 8.5% |
| Retirement | 2.5% | 2.3% | 3.2% | 2.3% |
| Q.4 If you plan on likely moving with the next five years, which of the following factors do you think will substantially influence your decision to move? | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| I do not plan on moving in the next five years | 51.8% | 49.3% | 49.3% | 55.6% |
| Lower taxes | 13.2% | 4.2% | 17.2% | 17.0% |
| Lower cost of living | 26.4% | 24.2% | 31.2% | 24.7% |
| Less traffic | 9.5% | 7.0% | 10.4% | 11.2% |
| Less commuting | 5.9% | 4.7% | 8.1% | 5.0% |
| More gun control | 4.1% | 9.8% | 2.7% | 0.8% |
| Less gun control | 4.5% | 0.9% | 5.4% | 6.6% |
| More abortion rights | 4.6% | 11.6% | 3.6% | 0.0% |
| More abortion restrictions | 1.5% | 0.0% | 1.4% | 3.1% |
| Less crime | 13.6% | 8.4% | 12.7% | 18.1% |
| More diversity | 6.5% | 12.1% | 6.8% | 1.9% |
| Less diversity | 3.8% | 0.5% | 5.9% | 4.6% |
| Better K-12 schools | 4.5% | 5.1% | 5.4% | 3.1% |
| Better colleges/universities | 2.8% | 7.4% | 1.4% | 0.4% |
| To feel more comfortable around people in my community | 16.3% | 19.5% | 18.6% | 11.2% |
| To relocate for a job | 10.0% | 11.6% | 13.1% | 5.8% |
| To be closer to family | 11.6% | 11.6% | 12.2% | 11.6% |
| Retirement | 6.7% | 4.7% | 6.8% | 8.5% |
Similar to the previous poll, a slim but still substantial number of Independents at 5.9% and Republicans at 4.6% reported that they may move in part for less diversity, and 4.2% of Republicans had recently moved in part for less diversity.
This shows that a small but not electorally insignificant number of people are willing to candidly address the root demographic causes for why they are moving, as opposed to the secondary effects of diversity, such as crime and long commutes, which are more acceptable in public discourse.
- Intentional Communities
As Christopher Caldwell explains in The Age of Entitlement, Civil Rights era law and caselaw effectively rewrote the Constitution by inventing new rights which infringed upon old rights. Chief of these was destroying freedom of association by all but abolishing freedom from association. Thus, we asked respondents whether they thought freedom of association must include freedom from association:
| Q.5 Which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “To be meaningful, the Constitutional right to freedom of association must also encompass freedom from association.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 28.1% | 27.4% | 29.9% | 26.6% |
| Slightly agree | 27.1% | 25.6% | 22.2% | 32.8% |
| Neutral | 25.0% | 26.0% | 23.5% | 24.7% |
| Slightly disagree | 4.2% | 7.0% | 2.7% | 3.5% |
| Strongly disagree | 2.4% | 2.3% | 3.2% | 1.9% |
| I don’t know | 13.3% | 11.6% | 18.6% | 10.4% |
55.2% of respondents were in some form of agreement with only 6.6% in some form of disagreement with little difference across party lines. Many respondents were neutral or answered “I don’t know.”
After briefly defining intentional communities, we asked respondents their opinion on several reasons for forming intentional communities such as age, shared interests, values, religion, race, and politics:
| Q.6 An intentional community is a planned residential group where members share common values, goals, or resources, and actively collaborate on daily life, work, or social structures, often emphasizing cooperation over individual autonomy. | ||||
| Which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “People should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of age, such as 65 plus senior communities.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 51.1% | 49.3% | 49.8% | 53.7% |
| Slightly agree | 32.4% | 36.3% | 28.1% | 32.8% |
| Neutral | 10.2% | 8.8% | 13.1% | 8.9% |
| Slightly disagree | 4.1% | 4.2% | 5.9% | 2.7% |
| Strongly disagree | 1.5% | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1.9% |
| I don’t know | 0.7% | 0.5% | 1.8% | 0.0% |
| Q.7 Which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “People should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of shared hobbies and interests such as gardening, cars, sports, etc.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 51.8% | 53.5% | 48.0% | 52.5% |
| Slightly agree | 27.6% | 31.6% | 29.4% | 23.6% |
| Neutral | 12.5% | 9.3% | 12.2% | 15.4% |
| Slightly disagree | 4.2% | 3.3% | 5.0% | 4.6% |
| Strongly disagree | 3.1% | 1.9% | 3.2% | 3.9% |
| I don’t know | 0.8% | 0.5% | 2.3% | 0.0% |
| Q.8 Which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “People should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of shared morals, values, and ideals.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 46.0% | 37.7% | 47.1% | 51.4% |
| Slightly agree | 31.6% | 39.5% | 27.6% | 28.6% |
| Neutral | 11.8% | 11.2% | 13.6% | 10.8% |
| Slightly disagree | 4.5% | 6.0% | 4.1% | 3.9% |
| Strongly disagree | 5.2% | 4.2% | 5.9% | 5.4% |
| I don’t know | 1.0% | 1.4% | 1.8% | 0.0% |
| Q.9 Which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “People should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of religion.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 40.8% | 34.0% | 41.2% | 45.2% |
| Slightly agree | 28.2% | 33.0% | 27.1% | 26.3% |
| Neutral | 14.3% | 14.9% | 14.9% | 13.1% |
| Slightly disagree | 6.7% | 7.4% | 6.8% | 6.2% |
| Strongly disagree | 9.1% | 9.8% | 8.1% | 9.3% |
| I don’t know | 0.8% | 0.9% | 1.8% | 0.0% |
| Q.10 Which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “People should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of race.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 24.1% | 16.3% | 26.7% | 27.4% |
| Slightly agree | 15.8% | 18.1% | 13.6% | 16.2% |
| Neutral | 17.8% | 19.5% | 17.6% | 16.2% |
| Slightly disagree | 11.8% | 13.0% | 10.9% | 11.6% |
| Strongly disagree | 28.2% | 30.7% | 28.1% | 27.4% |
| I don’t know | 2.2% | 2.3% | 3.2% | 1.2% |
| Q.11 Which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “People should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of political ideology or party identification.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 31.1% | 24.7% | 33.5% | 34.0% |
| Slightly agree | 22.6% | 24.7% | 17.6% | 24.7% |
| Neutral | 17.1% | 18.1% | 17.2% | 16.2% |
| Slightly disagree | 13.2% | 16.7% | 13.6% | 10.4% |
| Strongly disagree | 14.6% | 14.4% | 15.8% | 13.9% |
| I don’t know | 1.4% | 1.4% | 2.3% | 0.8% |
Except for on race and politics, a vast majority were in some form of agreement that people should be able to form intentional communities on the bases we asked about. Even among Democrats, more agreed than disagreed that people should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of politics.
39.9% agreed that people should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of race while 40% disagreed, with more Republicans and Independents strongly agreeing with the idea than Democrats.
When we asked about whether allowing people to choose their neighbors would increase social harmony and decrease conflict, more respondents agreed than disagreed with Republicans being more likely to agree and Democrats more likely to disagree:
| Q.12 Which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “Allowing people to choose their neighbors will increase social harmony and decrease conflict.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 16.3% | 7.4% | 16.7% | 23.9% |
| Slightly agree | 29.6% | 23.7% | 27.6% | 35.9% |
| Neutral | 19.1% | 24.2% | 20.4% | 12.7% |
| Slightly disagree | 15.8% | 20.9% | 13.1% | 14.3% |
| Strongly disagree | 16.3% | 20.0% | 18.6% | 11.2% |
| I don’t know | 2.9% | 3.7% | 3.6% | 1.9% |
Next, we gave respondents an example of a nonwhite intentional community and a white intentional community and asked whether “If some intentional communities can legally exclude whites in whole or in part, then other intentional communities should be allowed to legally exclude non-whites in whole or in part.”
| Q.13 Soul Fire Farm is an intentional community whose website states “Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm and training center dedicated to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system.” | ||||
| Return to the Land is an intentional community whose website states “Return to the Land is a private membership association (PMA) for individuals and families with traditional views and common continental ancestry. We hold events and conferences, and we help groups of our members form European heritage communities.” | ||||
| Which of the following best describes your opinion on the following statement: “If some intentional communities can legally exclude whites in whole or in part, then other intentional communities should be allowed to legally exclude non-whites in whole or in part.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 38.4% | 12.6% | 40.3% | 57.9% |
| Slightly agree | 20.1% | 26.0% | 17.2% | 17.0% |
| Neutral | 13.2% | 19.1% | 14.5% | 7.3% |
| Slightly disagree | 7.6% | 10.7% | 6.8% | 5.8% |
| Strongly disagree | 16.5% | 25.1% | 15.8% | 10.4% |
| I don’t know | 4.2% | 6.5% | 5.4% | 1.5% |
58.5% of all respondents agreed while only 24.1% disagreed. Republicans were more likely to agree and Democrats more likely to disagree. This shows that giving concrete examples of nonwhites forming intentional communities is a highly effective way to justify white intentional communities.
This was backed up by the fact that the number of respondents who agreed that “To be meaningful, the Constitutional right to freedom of association must also encompass freedom from association” increased from 55.2% to 65.1% over the course of a short poll:
| Q.14 After taking this poll, which of the following best describes your opinion of this statement? | ||||
| “To be meaningful, the Constitutional right to freedom of association must also encompass freedom from association.” | ||||
| Results by Party | ||||
| % All | Democrats | Independents | Republicans | |
| Strongly agree | 30.9% | 24.7% | 31.7% | 35.5% |
| Slightly agree | 34.2% | 36.3% | 29.9% | 36.7% |
| Neutral | 16.8% | 15.8% | 18.1% | 15.4% |
| Slightly disagree | 6.0% | 8.4% | 5.9% | 4.6% |
| Strongly disagree | 5.3% | 7.9% | 4.5% | 3.9% |
| I don’t know | 6.7% | 7.0% | 10.0% | 3.9% |
3. Key Takeaways
- A strong majority of respondents believe people should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of age, shared interests, values, and religion. Support was lower on the basis of politics.
- Respondents are equally split on whether people should be able to form intentional communities on the basis of race, with about 40% on both sides. Republicans and Independents were more likely to strongly agree with the idea than Democrats.
- The number of respondents who agreed that “To be meaningful, the Constitutional right to freedom of association must also encompass freedom from association” increased from 55.2% to 65.1% over the course of a short poll.
- 2% of Republicans recently moved in part for less diversity while 5.9% of Independents and 4.6% of Republicans may move in the near future for less diversity.
- More respondents agreed than disagreed that allowing people to choose their neighbors would increase social harmony and decrease conflict
- Giving concrete examples of nonwhites forming intentional communities is a highly effective way to justify white intentional communities.
- That the number of respondents who agreed that “To be meaningful, the Constitutional right to freedom of association must also encompass freedom from association” increased from 55.2% to 65.1% over the course of a short poll shows that intentional communities are politically viable.