A pronounced demographic trend in the years leading up to
the Great Recession is back with a vengeance: Americans are moving to the South
and the West. Florida alone gained roughly 200,000 net new movers (this number
does not include immigrants from abroad, only Americans who’ve moved between
states) between 2014 and 2015. Other states with big gains in the numbers of
new net movers were Texas (170,000), Colorado (54,000) and Arizona and South
Carolina (more than 45,000 each). That’s over half a million people in just one year who chose to relocate to these
five states alone.
What
states did they come from and why did they leave them, you ask? The states
experiencing the biggest losses to domestic migration were New York, Illinois
(105,000 people chose to leave the stomping grounds of Barack Obama and Rahm
Emanuel), New Jersey, California, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and
Maryland…in that order. Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire were
among other states that lost population in this manner.
There
are some long-term trends at work here, such as the prevalence of
air-conditioning and interstate highways in recent decades, especially as
regards the South. The loss of industrial jobs in many areas of the Midwest and
Northeast has also led some to abandon these areas. In much of the South and
West housing was- and often still is- cheaper than in the Midwest and
Northeast.
Despite
the hysteria over global warming, many folks get sick of the cold weather in
the northern climes, especially as they get older. Anyone who has had to drive
on icy roads or been stranded in a blizzard can sympathize, I’m sure. (As I
write this, the northern-tier states are in the grip of dangerously cold
weather).
There
is more to it than all of this, however. Notice that the vast majority of the
states people are leaving are bastions of liberalism while the states they are
fleeing to tend to be more conservative. The major cities in the Rust Belt
states have been nearly- or actually- bankrupted financially…and morally.
Violent crime is high- and getting higher- in areas where firearm laws are
strict and conceal-carry laws are non-existent. Many people want to be free to
exercise their inherent, natural, Constitutional right to protect themselves
and their loved ones if necessary… and
don’t want to be condescended to for so desiring.
In some
states, like New York, immigration from abroad has offset losses from domestic
migration, but most areas in the Rust Belt will see more empty houses, vacant
lots and shrinking cities, leaving only dependency and despair to fill the
void.
There
is another reason, too, for this Great Migration. It’s not just smaller states
these folks are leaving behind, but smaller minds. (And higher taxes). The
states and cities that have been run (into the ground) by progressives for
years on end are also the most politically correct. Light up a smoke in your
own vehicle or wear a Sombrero to a Halloween party and you may be held up for
public shame and ridicule. And the South, in particular, still has a reputation
for being more refined and polite in dealing with strangers.
The
allure of better manners, bigger skies and open land (and minds) is a powerful
one, indeed. Perhaps the hope that many of these people couldn’t find in Obama can be found in Odessa.
Texas,
that is.
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