The blue state blues

 National Review:

...

Looking beyond Washington . . . sure, lots of people still enjoy living in blue states like California, New York, and Illinois, as long as they can afford it. Even with a small increase in 2024, California’s population is lower than it was before the pandemic; at best, it’s now a slow-growth state. “Comparing census numbers from 2010 to 2024, California’s population has increased by less than 6 percent; in Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Utah, the increases range from 15 percent to nearly 30 percent.” California is losing middle-class families and businesses and gaining illegal immigrants. As I’ve written before, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s popularity outside of his state appears to be based on a completely inaccurate sense of the quality of life in the Golden State:

U.S. News and World Report ranks each state on a wide variety of categories. In the most recent assessment, California ranked dead last in opportunity, dead last in affordability, 47th in employment, 47th in energy infrastructure, 46th in air and water quality, 45th in growth, 42nd in public safety, 42nd in short-term fiscal stability, and 37th in K–12 education. The Tax Foundation ranks California 48th in its most recent State Tax Competitiveness Index. For five straight years, California has ranked highest in people moving out of the state, according to U-Haul’s data. BankRate found California was the 47th-best state for retirement. California ranks fifth-worst in roads and third-worst in drivers, second-highest in accident rate, and second-worst in drunk driving.

Can anyone point to California’s high-speed rail project — $15 billion spent so far over 16 years, with not a single stretch of track laid down — and conclude, “Yes, this is good government?”

Doesn’t it trouble Illinois Governor JB Pritzker that on his watch, Boeing, Caterpillar, and the hedge fund giant Citadel all chose to move their headquarters to other states, lamenting the state’s business environment and Chicago’s inability to get crime under control?

Doesn’t it bother Governor Tim Walz that the Minnesota state government keeps getting robbed blind, for billions of dollars’ worth of fraud, in every major state spending project?

We on the right often point out the deep and worsening problems in America’s biggest cities — rising crime rates, seemingly exploding homeless populations, people using drugs out in the open, businesses fleeing downtowns, a general sense of growing lawlessness and menace. Now, in most of America’s big cities, the local Republican Party can hold their membership meetings at a table at Shake Shack. You can’t blame the GOP for the policies enacted in these cities.

Karen Bass apparently thought being mayor of Los Angeles was a form of semi-retirement. The county government is no better; we’re almost at the end of July, and Los Angeles County has issued 137 rebuilding permits for the 12,048 buildings damaged or destroyed by the wildfires.

In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson got what he wanted and now enjoys a job approval rating of 14 percent.

I pointed out earlier this week that since the start of the year, crime in New York City has declined some, not that it’s doing incumbent Mayor Eric Adams much good. The city appears hell-bent on electing Zohran Mamdani, a pro-“globalizing the intifada” communist who thinks prisons have no real purpose and pledged to disband the New York Police Department’s Strategic Response Group.

Our old friend Reihan Salam had a terrific essay in the Wall Street Journal this past weekend, pointing to data confirming that Mamdani is the candidate of “downwardly mobile elites” — young adults who grew up wealthy or well-off, and who now believe there is no way they can live as well as their parents did. These voters are often frustrated, bitter, over-educated and under-employed, and eager to blame society and capitalism for their inability to live the life they dream. (You know, losers.) That’s a terrible demographic to let set your party’s course and priorities!

The Blue City, State, and Nation model is a malfunctioning machine still running on autopilot. For a long time, Democrats could argue they delivered higher taxes but also better government services and a better quality of life. But the counterevidence to that argument has now grown so gargantuan that not even Democrats believe it anymore. Their reflexive defense of their elected leaders is “but Trump!” And Lord knows, Trump has more than his share of flaws. But Trump isn’t putting a gun to the head of any Democratic official and making them sign bad ideas into law.
...

Texas is a big state that has dodged this downward mobility.  It has a conservative governor and legislature and a growing economy.  It is also one of the states benefiting from the California exodus.  What Texas is demonstrating is that dodging the mistakes of California Democrats can lead to increased prosperity.  You have to wonder if Democrats in California are ever going to look in the mirror and see what they are doing wrong.  It looks like the smart people in California are leaving for Arizona and Texas.  That trend is likely to continue until California begins electing conservatives like Reagan again.