Escape from Democratic governance

Manhattan may not be the country’s premier maximum-security prison, but New Yorkers sure are fleeing the state like their lives depended on it. According to Census Bureau data released this week, no state lost a greater percentage of its population to domestic migration, or 1.5%, than the Empire State.

In all, 20 states lost population to other states in the 12-month period between July 2020 and July 2021, most of them controlled by Democrats. The three biggest net losers, California (minus 367,299), New York (minus 352,185), and Illinois (minus 122,460) are all completely controlled by the Democratic Party.

And where are all these residents of states run by Democrats escaping to? To states run by Republicans. The big winners from domestic migration gains last year were Florida (plus 220,890), Texas (plus 170,307), and Arizona (plus 93,026), all of which have Republican governors.

People fleeing Democratic governance for Republican leadership is not new, but it has accelerated during COVID-19. All the worst aspects of Democratic leadership have been highlighted during the pandemic.

Democrats are weak on crime. Even before the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, Democrats made it easier for criminals to commit crimes without facing jail time. That was the entire point of California’s Proposition 47, which reclassified felony theft as a misdemeanor. Property crimes have soared in California since this change and have only gotten worse during the pandemic. New York City and Chicago have also taken key law enforcement tools away from police officers, making it harder for them to bring criminals to justice.

Democrats are bad on education. They routinely place the interests of teachers unions above student education, as they did when Democratically run states were far more likely to shut schools down and move to remote learning during the pandemic. For decades, Democratic states have been pouring more money into education bureaucracy salaries and benefits with no improvement on student outcomes. The COVID-19 school shutdowns just made these misplaced priorities obvious.

Democrats are bad for the economy. Democrats love to control people and strangle economic growth with regulation. Again, this has always been the case, as anyone who has tried to start a small business in California or New York can tell you. Again, the pandemic just made these differences more obvious, as Democratic states were far more likely to impose lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates than their Republican counterparts. As a result, 17 of the top 20 states with the highest percentage of job growth since the vaccines were introduced are states led by Republicans.

We are lucky to live in a country where people can vote with their feet and leave states with bad governance. Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress and the White House want to export the same bad policies in their home states to Republican-controlled states. If they succeed, none of us will have any place to escape to.

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