Op-Ed: Blue states have created a red state border crisis

“When it comes to paying taxes, California is Bernie Sanders’ kind of state. About 155,000 taxpayers out of 15.7 million pay half of all the state’s income taxes.” – Jed Kolko

America isn’t afraid of moving. Since the westward expansion into frontier territories, packing one’s belongings and leaving for parts unknown has been part of America’s DNA. Whether it is leaving for college, accepting a new position in a distant state, retiring to a state with a lower cost of living or a better climate, Americans move between cities and states with little regard or loyalty to a state.

This transcontinental migration has become increasingly strong in recent years as people flee in record numbers from the increasing number of blue states that are totally controlled by the new far left progressives. Residents of states like California, Illinois and New York are showing their disgruntlement with increased taxes, higher costs of living and government regulations by moving to red states.

Based on current Census data outward migration figures, the five states experiencing a tsunami of departures are blue. Left Coast progressive haven California leads the blue state exodus, with New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and Michigan close behind. These states lost a total of over four million residents last decade. This is not only due to the high cost of living but because of leftist politics.

The pandemic drastically changed American lives, especially how states responded to it. Blue state governors shut down their economies and refused to reopen them until after the next election to give Democrats the upper hand. When the liberal politicians played their cards and put government and politics before their economies, these massive lockdowns devastated the middle-class workers.

“We do it right in California and hope that other states will realize our success.” – Gavin Newsome

A recent Harris poll indicates over 50% of Americans have become acclimated to working out of their homes and would leave their regions if they could continue working remotely indefinitely. So it’s not only the cost of living that’s forcing people out of metropolitan areas but the newly-found appreciation for working at home in the suburbs, where it is safer than working in crime-filled cities.

Blue states have placed a greater value on social justice than on improving their economies. They are expanding access to healthcare and social programs to illegal aliens, which is supported with higher taxes. This attracts illegal laborers, increases crime, and mostly affects the middle class.

According to Redfin real estate brokerage company’s data, 6.5% more Americans moved to red and swing states from blue states since the last presidential election. Based on the analysis of listings, California residents are mostly eyeing Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, while New Yorkers and New Englanders strongly consider Florida and other Southern red states.

Data from the U.S. truck and trailer rental company U-Haul shows the top states Americans are moving to are Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. These are low tax states that also provide the best bang for the buck for housing and lower cost of living. And they are all red states; although Georgia’s political future is in limbo after the last general election.

In the past decade, Toyota, Nissan, McKesson, Bechtel, Jacobs, Parsons, Sanford Bernstein and Amazon have moved South to Dallas–Fort Worth, Orlando, Nashville, and various red states. And they are being replaced with swap-meet sellers and street cart vendors who don’t pay taxes.

Over the past decade, media and academia have embraced the notion the future of America was driven by high-tax, high-regulation economies on the East and West coasts. One liberal reporter wrote that red states are the land “left-behind.” Now the left-behind are passing their Northern cousins.

Although rooftops mean more tax dollars, that does not mean that red states, especially those in the South, welcome this deluge of blue state Northerners. For example, Georgia was a solid red state with strong Judeo-Christian values. But the 2020 election provided us with an example of how Northern immigration has affected the political and the socioeconomic roadmap in the Peach State.

In 2020, the crime rate in Atlanta was the worst in two decades. There were over 160 homicides, up from 99 in 2019. Columbus Ward, a long time community activist from Peoplestown, said, “We got more gun violence going on than ever before. It’s really scary to go out at night!”

More than 200 police quit in 2020, citing that they lacked department support and felt unsafe.

In Virginia, Democrats have gained about 20 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates since 2015, a former red state. Virginia’s new Democratic majorities are dismantling decades of conservative-approved policy and are advancing Joe Biden’s broad progressive wish list.

“Our voters want stricter gun laws, climate protection and green energy.” – Ralph Northam

Blue state immigration is inflicting political and cultural havoc on the South. Solidly red states such as Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina are purple. The Democratic presence in Texas and Florida has grown and is having a negative impact on local elections. People migrated to these states due to their lower cost of living, lower taxes, safer cities and schools, and their smaller governments.

In 450 BC, Herodotus wrote, “The most dangerous thing is ignorance.” Leftugees are bringing their political baggage with them, which is destroying the once proud cultural and religious South. They are not assimilating the cultural and political values that made America’s Heartland so desirable in the first place. “Leftugees” are cloning the South into prototypes of the blue states they fled from!

“The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.” – Herodotus

Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, and South Carolina remain solid red because of their strong commitment to preserving their Southern cultural and political values. Although Tennessee is attracting tremendous new growth, as the buckle of the Bible belt they are the most conservative Southern state. Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, Kansas, Indiana and South Dakota have remained red simply because they are not destination states for those fleeing the West and Eastern “left coasts.”

Red states are facing a border crisis, and they must stop the damage being done by the leftugees they are courting. These rooftops that generate new revenue also precipitate unwelcome political, cultural and social consequences. The leftugees will eventually annihilate everything that attracted them to the Heartland. When they destroy the Heartland and want to escape liberalism, there’ll be no place to go.

“The greatest changes occur in a country without the people even knowing it. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place until it is too late.” – Alexis de Tocqueville