Nothing is quite as amusing as watching liberals fall victim to their own policies, and nothing proves progressive politics are failing as much as the recent trend of fleeing blue states for greener pastures.
The results of the latest census were released in December, and it confirms a troubling reality for blue states: rapid and significant population growth in prominent Republican states and falling populations in Democratic strongholds throughout the nation.
Crime-riddled cities such as Chicago are seeing a massive exodus as residents opt for a safer environment.
Likewise, taxes are driving residents of New York and California to seek new locations such as Texas and Florida, which don’t have state income taxes. New York and California have some of the highest, most unsustainable tax burdens in the country.
“The top 10 metro areas for unaffordability are a sort of who’s who of Democratic cities: Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim tops the list, with New York–Newark–Jersey City rolling into the sixth spot as the first non-California metro,” Atlantic Staff Writer Jerusalem Demsas explains, going on to add, “The rise of remote work in the pandemic has also meant that one of New York’s main superpowers—its gravitational pull on workers.”
In a puzzling trend, Democratic-led cities are losing minorities at an alarming rate because, despite all promises, progressive policies aren’t helping them at all. A report analyzing Chicago Metro‘s population trends, released by the MacArthur Foundation, revealed that a lack of affordable loan opportunities and a disparity of economic and racial equity are driving vulnerable minorities to friendlier states such as Texas and Florida.
Iván Arenas of UIC’s Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy noted, “A lot of these decisions to move aren’t being made willfully. Chicago is losing a lot of the working class and blue-collar jobs.” Arenas went on to explain, “The rent burden of the Black community is, for example, very high. They are paying a lot more than 30% of their income on rent.”
In early 2023, New York City lost 1% of its population and remains on track to meet its two-year trend of a 3% decline.
Meanwhile, on the west coast, people can’t flee San Jose and San Francisco fast enough. Both cities saw a 1% decrease in population, with San Jose losing nearly 4% in the past two years. San Francisco is hot on its heels, however, trending over 3% population loss throughout 2020-2022.
“The Census data and these industry studies cannot tell us exactly why each person moved, but there is no denying a very strong correlation between low-tax, low-cost states, and population growth,” Janelle Fritts, a policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, noted. “With many states responding to robust revenues and heightened state competition by cutting taxes, these trends may only get larger.”
According to the Census Bureau, millennials are flocking to states with more liberal strongholds, such as North Carolina, Texas, and Georgia. Older adults crave warmth and flock to states like Arizona and Florida. In fact, in 2022, 319k Americans relocated to Florida, a population increase of 2%.
And Republicans aren’t the only ones heading for the hills. Democrats, sick of their own policies, are flowing into the more liberal areas of red states and taking advantage of the benefits of conservative leadership.
So, what does that mean for reliably red states? The obvious concern, of course, is that an influx of a more liberal demographic may negatively impact policies and electoral vote outcomes in previously red cities. In fact, some experts think this migration may have played a role in President Joe Biden’s “wins” in reliably red states and swing states during the 2020 election.
But it’s not all bad news for conservatives. If the great migration continues, states such as New York and California may find themselves on the brink of losing power. The decreases in population may cost them more than tax dollars. It may also cost electoral college votes and seats in the White House.
Following a 2020 census, three seats were taken from blue states and shifted to red. Three seats may not seem like a lot, but considering the tiny majority Democrats currently hold in the White House, it’s a concerning issue for the left. While the next reapportionment isn’t until after the 2030 census, Republicans may win even more seats if the mass migration continues to red states.
It’s this possibility that drives the left’s desire to eliminate the electoral college and take over state elections.
The mass exodus from blue states also impacts independent voters and swing states, who understand that the shift is happening due to failing Democrat policies. The more these failures are highlighted through mass migration to greener pastures, the harder it is for independent voters and those in swing states to ignore the failures that caused the migration.
For Biden’s administration, the failure of national policy is an extension of the failure of liberal policies in blue states. People can still find sanity and success in red states, but if liberals have their way, there will be no more red states and nowhere else to run.
If voters needed even more motivation to turn out in 2024 than Biden’s failures, a future like the United States of San Francisco or Chicago should push them to the voting booth.
