Leftists Are Colonizing Red Towns Like Mine, And Local Republicans Are Clueless
Complacency is a problem for east Tennesseans. They are so used to Republicans winning elections that they falsely assume victory is automatic. It is not.
By Mark Pulliam
January 13, 2021
As 2020 wound to a close, pundits noted the growing toll of leftist policies on residents of blue states, prompting migration from California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois to Republican-run states such as Texas and Florida, which offer lower taxes and a better business climate. In addition to losing Oracle, Charles Schwab, Hewlett Packard, and Elon Musk, for the first time in its history California is expected to lose a congressional seat in the upcoming decennial census allocation, due to stagnating population. Texas is expected to gain three seats, and Florida is expected to pick up two.
Blue states tend to be dominated by urban voters, large numbers of unionized government employees, and—in California—a technology-based economy that relies on large numbers of young, college-educated (and in many cases foreign-born) employees. Even historically red states such as Texas exhibit symptoms of dysfunctional leftist governance in their burgeoning urban areas. Austin is rapidly becoming a clone of San Francisco and Portland.
We have come to expect blue states to be “woke,†displaying fealty to the latest academic fads, such as critical race theory and other forms of identity politics. Rural America, the “flyover country†populated by Donald Trump-voting deplorables, is supposed to be immune from this trend.
As a resident of a small town in east Tennessee, I regret to report that wokeness is everywhere, even in the brightest-red areas of Republican-majority states. My town is home to a small, 200-year-old, Presbyterian-affiliated liberal arts college that appears to be an island of sanity in higher education. But it’s not, and neither is the rest of the town.
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https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/13/leftists-are-colonizing-red-towns-like-mine-and-local-republicans-are-clueless/
