You are absolutely right. Except, that the blue coastal areas have the larger population and they outvote you every time. Or, they engage in fraud. I’m a 3rd generation native of the San Joaquin Valley, but I haven’t lived there since 1972. I’ve been going back to deal with my 100 year old mother’s affairs, and I am appalled at how the Valley looks.
Ditches are dry. Reservoirs are almost dry. The rivers are nearly dry.
Yards are dead. Dust is everywhere. And then there are the homeless wandering the streets, panhandling and dumpster diving.
I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. My grandmother used to talk about the Depression and how “good men sold apples on the street”, or the jobless would sometimes come to her back door and ask for a meal which she provided. But, I doubt that even the Depression was as bad as my home town is now. At least then, the people asking for the handouts would offer work in exchange.
Born in San Francisco, raised in Long Beach, my heart goes out to my home state, which I felt compelled to leave in the 70s. Like OR (Portland) and WA (Seattle/Tacoma) the blueness comes from the large cities in the western portions of the states. Move inland and the more sparsely settled interiors are red. But they will suffer and sink with the urbanites and there is little they can do about it.