I think a new report about the national economy may finally give us some hints as to why the MAGA support for Trump is so angry, so determined and so committed to make America ‘great’ again.
What they really mean by ‘great,’ of course, is white. And the problem with skin color is that it’s not only a human characteristic which is easy to spot, but it often tells you what and how that person actually thinks.
Anyway, the report comes out of the Bureau of Economic Analysis covering the GDP of each state for the 3rd Quarter of 2023. The report covers four key metrics: job growth, personal income growth, gross domestic product growth and prices at the pump for gasoline.
Now here’s the interesting point going back to what I said above: Four of the five states which delivered higher-than-average economic numbers in 2023 went for Trump in 2020: Idaho, Texas, South Carolina, and Utah. The fifth overperforming state – Wisconsin – went for Joe.
Why did these four red states have the strongest economies last year? Because since 2020, all four states have experienced significant population growth, and most of this increase reflects younger, more educated people moving into urban locations attracted by better jobs.
Guess what? These new red-state residents are mostly former residents of blue states like my state – Massachusetts – where high housing costs, crummy winter weather and state income taxes result in a continued population drain.
And while every year a bunch of the oldsters in my state get into their cars, drive down to Florida and don’t come back, which is why Florida has become a red state, the youngsters who leave are looking for cheaper housing and better job opportunities which they find in the urban centers of red states.
Maybe these trends won’t change things, politically-speaking, in certain red states for another decade or more. But when demographers talk about the national population becoming increasingly non-white, what you don’t get is where this racial shift is actually occurring, and it may be happening more frequently in certain red states.
And if what I just said is true, or is becoming true, the younger, more educated people moving into these cities in red states aren’t moving into the trailer parks the way their retired parents are now living in Florida and other retirement spots.
This is exactly what happened in the Virginia suburbs around Washington, D.C., which turned the birthplace and residence of Robert E. Lee into a blue state. And when Oliver North tried in 1994 to run for a Senate seat in Virginia, he got all the redneck votes from the rural parts of the state, but he got swamped on the Virginia side of the Potomac River which is why he lost the race.
Now, I’m not saying that the exact, same thing will happen in states like Texas and Idaho over the next half-dozen or dozen years. But isn’t the fact that Ted Cruz is now in a dead heat to retain his seat in the U.S. Senate perhaps a hint at how things are already changing in the Lone Star state?
Trying to prevent human beings from bettering their lives by moving from one location to another location has about as much chance as happening within the United States as it has to happening on the Southern border, all that new razor wire or not.
I used to think that New York City was called the Big Apple because it was so hip and cool. Maybe San Antonio will become known as the Big Enchilada.
What would Donald Trump think about that?
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