California, “the U.S. state most synonymous with all varieties of growth — vegetal, technological, and human — is at the precipice of its first-ever population decline,” writes Derek Thompson of The Atlantic. And folks in other states like Texas and Idaho are none too happy.
You see, the Californians fleeing are finding new homes elsewhere. Especially in Texas and Idaho.
Oddly, Mr. Thompson breezes by the biggest source of anxiety: ideology. “Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a warning on Twitter to Californians moving to his state: ‘Remember those high taxes, burdensome regulations, & socialistic agenda advanced in CA? We don’t believe in that.’ The sentiment was echoed in various warnings in Dallas newspapers about the awful ‘California-ing’ of North Texas.” Thompson quickly moves on to interrogate how real the general exodus from the Golden State is.
Which is interesting — but much more important is the main worry about all immigration: will these new citizens vote to overturn the order that attracted them in the first place?
There is certainly anecdotal evidence that this can be a real problem.
Also not mentioned in the The Atlantic squib is just how messed up California now is.
What can be done? The idea humorously floated by an Idaho politician — a “$26 billion wall to keep out people moving from the Golden State” — is just a joke.
And secession/expulsion of the 23rd state in the union is not realistic, either.
What is realistic is for non-California politicians to float in the U.S. Congress a willingness to break up the state into separate pieces, creating at least two new states. At least then, Jefferson State citizens could put up with West California émigrés.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
N.B. There are very serious political problems of representation in California that breaking up could help fix, by increasing the number of legislators and minimizing the ratio between representatives and the people they serve.
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2 replies on “Ex-Californians”
We are those ex-californians of which you are speaking.There are in fact8 more members of our family that have made Idaho our home. All strong Conservative Christians. Slowly more will be heading to Idaho. We love the fact that it is still staunchly Conservative and our North Idaho location is considered a strong Bible belt, which suits us just fine. The Church we attend, Candlelight Christian Fellowship numbers close to 1000+, probably 60%-70% former residents of “south of Boise”. Which is home to a large majority of those lefties.
I just want to THANK YOU for mentioning the State of Jefferson. I have the flag, the t-shirt, the hat and the hope that someday just maybe Jefferson could come to fruition, slim hope but it would be great. Our family left in california are all big backers
Watch out Texas. We’ve already been californicated. Colorado is rapidly descending into blue. You can’t believe the amount of crap passing now that the Californians have taken over. They are even threatening our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.