Ideological Cleansing in Red-State America
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1kiparsky
A recent article in the Times quotes a woman saying "I can't be a Floridian much longer. I'm engaged, I'm thinking about having kids, and it will not be in Florida."
This is something I've been thinking about lately. It's normal to talk about "red states and blue states", as though these states are homogeneous, people in Florida are "red" and people in Massachusetts are "blue", and that's it. But of course, that's a statistical fact, and like all statistical facts its only explanatory power lies in what it manages to ignore. In this case, it ignores the underlying ideological diversity of a state like Florida or Georgia: yes, there are more "red" people in Florida than "blue" ones, but there have always been plenty of rational people there, much to the annoyance of people like DeSantis, and of Republican presidential candidates who have had to spend resources and time in those states to make sure that they get their "inevitable" win.
And now we see that, across the States of Despair, Republicans have been passing laws seemingly designed to get under the skin of the liberal voter. We generally assume that the story here is a simple one: the Republicans are trying to get points among their base by "owning the libs", and they don't care one way or another about what the liberal voter thinks. I still think that's a reasonable story, and I suspect that it's got a lot of truth to it. But then I wonder: considering together the effects of laws seemingly designed to cause the liberal voter to migrate to sane states and voter suppression laws, are we seeing a developing Republican hegemony in red states for the foreseeable-future?
This is something I've been thinking about lately. It's normal to talk about "red states and blue states", as though these states are homogeneous, people in Florida are "red" and people in Massachusetts are "blue", and that's it. But of course, that's a statistical fact, and like all statistical facts its only explanatory power lies in what it manages to ignore. In this case, it ignores the underlying ideological diversity of a state like Florida or Georgia: yes, there are more "red" people in Florida than "blue" ones, but there have always been plenty of rational people there, much to the annoyance of people like DeSantis, and of Republican presidential candidates who have had to spend resources and time in those states to make sure that they get their "inevitable" win.
And now we see that, across the States of Despair, Republicans have been passing laws seemingly designed to get under the skin of the liberal voter. We generally assume that the story here is a simple one: the Republicans are trying to get points among their base by "owning the libs", and they don't care one way or another about what the liberal voter thinks. I still think that's a reasonable story, and I suspect that it's got a lot of truth to it. But then I wonder: considering together the effects of laws seemingly designed to cause the liberal voter to migrate to sane states and voter suppression laws, are we seeing a developing Republican hegemony in red states for the foreseeable-future?
2lriley
There's also the ongoing imperative about attracting business and laws aimed at schools and universities such as has happened in Florida that drive teachers and college professors and staff into retirement and/or out of state don't necessarily bode well in making the state more attractive to business or investment as also DeSantis's asinine dispute with Disney which turned into a black eye and has pretty much already derailed $billions of investment projects that Disney had previously planned. In the case of Florida as well not giving proper attention to climate and environment seems like in the maybe relatively near future to probably have very damaging effect particularly on the coastline. For some time now Florida has taken over home and business retail insurance because national insurers won't insure anymore. Because of this it's going to get more and more expensive for people to live there. Might add as well Florida's legislating against undocumented migrants who pick their fruits and vegetables has had negative impact too.
They do bring in and cater to lots of retirees and it seems to becoming more and more conservative but it seems also to me that as a state Florida is going in the wrong direction in a lot more ways than just who their voting population votes for.
They do bring in and cater to lots of retirees and it seems to becoming more and more conservative but it seems also to me that as a state Florida is going in the wrong direction in a lot more ways than just who their voting population votes for.
