Is there a new blue Confederacy?

Victor Davis Hanson writes,

People are fleeing the bright lights and supposed cultural dynamism of old New York and Chicago and “enlightened” newer cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Fairly or not, America’s 19th- and early 20th-century reputation for greater freedom of thought and equal opportunity were mostly identified with large bustling cities like Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and their western clones such as Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.

But ask yourself—which cities today are most likely associated with lawless district attorneys who, as tribal bosses, ignore statutes and who indict or exempt criminals on personal and ideological whims? Where are crime rates most spiraling? Where is the greatest racial unrest? And where are the most homeless?

The best example of the great reversal is the stark contrast between the Bay Area of California and Austin or Dallas. A near-majority of Bay Area residents expresses a desire to leave the state.

Silicon Valley emulates the power of old King Cotton—a monopoly that owns state government, one that destroys competition, censors, and smears its critics, and pours its money into elections not just to choose obsequious candidates, but to alter the very systems of balloting to ensure proper results. Like the “good ol’ boy” Old South, California is a one-party, boss-man state. Democrats, in Southern fashion, control all statewide offices, supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, and 75 percent of the congressional delegation.

In reaction, those from the blue state model who flee eastward and southward feel liberated that they can finally buy a house, sustain a viable middle-class existence, speak freely without a scold over their shoulder, and be rid of institutional dogmas that suffocate their schools and government.

We think the Old South lost the Civil War—but did it in the end?

In any case, in the 21st century, Tennessee and Florida are far less racially obsessed, freer, and more affordable, more transparent, more tolerant, and more law-abiding states than are the racially-fixated, stratified, manorial, and dogmatic surveillance states of California, Illinois, and New York.

Read more here: https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/21/the-new-blue-confederacy/