My former colleagues and friends over at the Issues and Insights commentary site had an interesting and revealing post the other day.
I'm always intrigued by stories about the quieter changes going on in our society, the changes that don't get the dramatic, explosive headlines because they're not about open conflict. Media loves those black-and-white stories because they're so easy to cover.
The quieter ones, however, are often far more important in the long run. These are often bunched about a year after each decennial national Census.
This new one was about a detailed study of population movements across the nation. Americans are probably generally aware of the historic 19th Century population shift captured by Horace Greeley: "Go West, Young Man." Perhaps less familiar with the rest of that newspaper publisher's quotation: "And grow up with the country."
Later, came another major tidal movement of humanity, the epic black migration from South to North in the post-World War II 20th Century. That set the scene for the growth of unmanageable big cities, typically controlled by Democrat political machines, where social issues festered for generations. See Chicago today.
And that, in turn, set off the population migration to the suburbs, which then became their own new form of sprawling big cities.
This new movement involves millions of Americans exiting, abandoning, fleeing (pick your verb) the typically-troubled Democrat blue states and moving to the more welcoming, economically hospitable climes of states, especially those nine that somehow manage without a state income tax.
Oh, look! Those are mostly red.
That's the subject of this week's audio commentary. Listen here now:
This week's Sunday column analyzed the problems of the floundering Democrat Party — its inability to analyze and get over its devastating loss to Donald Trump last November, and its stubborn grip on the fantasy reasons why.
Ironic that these ongoing troubles were caused by the party's one-time major donor, Donald Trump, a political rookie and adopted Republican who launched his historic and unlikely political career exactly 10 years ago this week.
Back then, few would imagine that a Fifth Avenue billionaire would be the one to grasp and tap into widespread voter frustration and anger at the aged establishments of both parties. And then do the unthinkable, actually keep his campaign promises.
Absent Any New Leaders or Ideas, Flailing Democrats Grasp at a Familiar Theme
The most recent audio commentary was widely not listened to. Here it is.
