Posted on 12/07/2014 5:44:59 AM PST by Kaslin
Occasionally an analysis so turns your head that you have to do your own investigation to determine whether that analysis makes any sense. When it comes from the New York Times (the daily bible of the Left), one needs to take an extra hard look. Before the mid-term election two Times reporters asserted that blue-state voters are moving to red states and making them purple.
Robert Gebeloff and David Leonhardt of the Times took a look at the people flooding out of blue states and moving to red states. They assert that this population flow has been going on for a few decades. They also write that it has played an important role in electing a Democrat as president in four of the last six elections. They believe this movement has changed the voting in states like Colorado, Florida and Virginia. They also contend it gave Democrats better chances in the past election in states like North Carolina and Georgia. They cite that the red states now have 11.5 million transplants which are 12% of the red state population.
To be accurate the authors did make this statement, “Of course, not all blue-state migrants are liberal. And people’s political views can change over time.” To be fair some of the conclusions in the column are accurate, but for the most part I found the column to be wishful thinking of the kind that often happens with left-wing members of the press. Also, to be accurate none of their conclusions or my conclusions are drawn from scientific surveys of the transplants.
First, you cannot draw any denouement from transplants from the Northeast or Midwest to Florida. That has been happening for at least 50 years as people of retirement age move to Florida for the warmer environment. That does not define all of the transplants, but it does define a large portion and they tend to vote Republican these days. Second, the people moving to the Washington suburbs of Virginia are significantly different than other people relocating. The suburbs of Virginia have been built for and on the massive increase in the federal government. The people living there are either government employees or people drinking from the government trough. The fact that this area has recently offset the more conservative areas of the remainder of the state is no surprise. These people, generally speaking, are of two mind-sets -- 1) I am voting for the hand that feeds me and 2) I am part of the new ruling class in America who knows better how you should live your life and what you need.
My first thought focuses on the big picture which the authors never addressed – why the people are moving in the first place. These people are moving from high-tax states with significant regulations. These states are not producing jobs at the same level as red states because of the burdens placed on them by government. The blue states often have long-term obligations for unionized employees that have gargantuan underfunded liabilities for health care and pensions – promises made by negligent political leaders.
The question then is why for heaven’s sake would they move to a state which does not have these same burdens and vote for similar political leaders who will enact policies that would destroy their new home states? Certainly, these transplants may retain certain lassiez-faire attitudes toward social issues, but they can barely be expected to do such on fiscal issues. They want to get away from expensive government that is invasive in their lives and their bank accounts. When they get a job in a state like Florida and see no state taxes taken out of their paycheck, almost to a person I can guarantee you a broad smile crosses their faces.
The authors did state that people change their attitudes over a period of time. But that does not go far enough. These people are relocating to new environments. They are interacting with a completely new group of people that have certain customs. It is hard to believe that they go to these blue states and change the nature of the states. For the most part the people and the culture change them. Having experienced that myself (I lived in Reno, Nevada, for 39 months in my late twenties), I can tell you my Los Angeles friends often asked why I was talking so slowly. The cultural environment changes you and your attitudes toward life.
In this recent election certainly their hypothesis did not match the results. Georgia -- which has had a high rate of blue-state movement -- went for the Republicans. Florida returned their Republican governor to office over their former Republican governor turned Democrat. North Carolina elected a Republican over an incumbent U.S. Senator. Colorado did the same. And Nevada, which has been inundated with Californians, went totally Republican.
Moreover, what you are seeing is that the Blue States are beginning to see they have to either compete or die. Every Midwest state has a Republican Governor – even the formerly liberal ones. Many have Republican legislatures. People are seeing that other states are operating without massive high-tax regulatory governments and saying we want that too.
Now all we have to do is save the Left Coast from itself.
[ That’s the liberal disease.. destroy one area with their twisted logic and make it uninhabitable and then move to another. ]
Liberals “Sh!t where they Eat” and then wonder why their food now tastes like Sh!t so they pull up stakes and find a new food supply only to find out later that it tastes like sh!t after they have been there for a while, never know WHY their food spoils...
Now all we have to do is save the Left Coast from itself.
Right, find the fault lines and then plant explosives,
maybe it’ll slide into the ocean.
Liberals are moving to Red states for the jobs and low taxes and vote for more taxes and job destroying policies - since and repeat
since=rinse
Oregon relected a totally corrupt governor for a fourth term, both US Senators won re-election ( well one will be relected in 2016)and the state house and senate have super majorities. They are chomping at the bit to outlaw guns anyway they can. The Governor says it is the first priority come January.
Of course, having a candidate with open contempt for the tea party helps a lot!
“We need to find a way to help them understand the corrosive, destructive consequences of liberal policies.”
Convincing someone presupposes a logical facility that is completely absent in Americanus Liberalus. You already admitted that the appeal to emotion-what Aristotle rightly called pathetic rhetoric-is the lifeblood of the left. The only way leftists are converted is by mugging and even then, they are more likely to just move than change their minds. It’s never the fault of policy, just a societal failure.
Maybe, in their new location, they will finally able to move from good intention to implementation. It is not only their right, but their obligation. After all, it’s hard work imposing a Utopia on people.
We were born and raised here in Virginia; my family is pretty much gone, but my husband's big family is here, so we won't be going anywhere. I wouldn't know where to go, anyway, unless it would be the deeper South, and I have no interest in the heat nor the bugs.
But what you say is absolute truth. Here in rural central Virginia, we're one of the last conservative holdouts in the state, but not for long. Yankees think this part of the state is oh, so quaint and charming, so they're coming in droves.
Also, we're becoming increasingly overrun with Muslims.
What you say may be true, sarcasm noted.
But it is a pipe dream to think they can be stopped by searching their cars at the border. The thought that it can be done that way is rather infantile and un-conservative. And it is that thought process I take issue with.
Also, note who I refer to. It is not the hard eyed liberals (Obama, Hilary, Alinsky, et al) and it is not the starry-eyed, spittle-lipped liberals such as Al Franken, Cynthia McKinney, the mass of Hollywood, entertainment and media, and nearly all liberals at all levels in government.
It is the people you live and work with who say something in one sentence that sounds socialist, and in another sentence, something conservative.
Those are the people we can aim at.
I agree. After all, I am from California, but would be considered pretty conservative anywhere. In my opinion, the real issue is that we are seeking a political solution to a moral problem. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that our government requires a moral populace to work.
Sure, north Arlington is still mostly nice, ‘course that’s where most of the money lives so it gets lots of police protection. But try taking an evening stroll thru south Arlington, or Crystal City away from the hotels, and you better have a carry permit.
Republican leaders prefer to bury their heads in the sand regarding the obvious importation of future Democrats via mass immigration.
Just like Cancer Cells.
No, I think that the author does have a point-especially about the culture affecting people, their attitudes and in some cases their politics as well.
Here in NC (as I assume you’re from as well), I especially see Northern Migration in my corner (Wilmington, New Hanover County), however a good many of these people are conservative republicans (at least fiscally, if not socially too-many are Conservative Catholics).
I do think that culture affects people and when they interact with their neighbors, friends and family in life, our slower pace of life, southern (friendly) and Christian culture ~can~ change mindsets and lives.
So I welcome people, and can get along with just about anyone. It’s those who come here and complain and don’t like it (because we don’t do things like they did back in NE or the North Atlantic; they hold ELITIST Attitudes) that I say “bless you, now you can go home”!!
Bingo and double-bingo on that.
They flee liberal shiteholes and take their rat voting habits with them, not cognizant of fact that voting rat is what destroyed their original home.
If people leave liberal States because of intolerable laws and political attitudes to more conservative States, doesn't that mean that the migrating conservatives are Republicanizing and conservatizing their receiving States?
The author cites demographers who assume that out-migration from 'Rat States carries the 'Rat Plague with it. I'd challenge that. I'd prefer to think that the migrants are conservatives who've been thoroughly inoculated by experience against the Deep Pink Plague. Case in point: Ayn Rand, who got a bellyful of Bolshevism before fleeing her native Russia.
Your damn right, but it is not what they are taught, so it never comes to mind - and if someone brings it up, they consider it BS.
But it has to be true nevertheless. Blue states have now given Red States a HUGE ADVANTAGE when it comes to drawing in new people (even non-gun people). To put it another way, if you live in New York, and (of course) don’t own guns, and a really good job offer comes from Texas, the last thought on your mind would be all the guns in Texas and how risky that would be for you. On the other hand if you live in Texas and own guns (of course) and you get a really good job offer in New York (as if that happens anymore, but regardless), you will think VERY HARD before moving there, as you’ll very possibly have to give up your guns.
The problem is this: while I don’t disagree with what you and the author say about the culture, there are so many yankees moving into NC so quickly, that the reflex to vote Democrat is often more rapid than the cultural impact.
The northern migration is absolutely why NC is now a kinda purplish red state....instead of solid red.
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