Independence Day 2023
We are moving rapidly toward two Americas
GEORGE NOGA
JUL 2, 2023
On this, my eightieth Independence Day, I am privileged to have lived at the best time to be an American – a view widely shared by those of my generation and of all political persuasions. However, my joy is tinctured with despair because, along with my contemporaries, I believe the future will be worse and our children and grandchildren will inhabit a multi-polar, dystopian world of wokism, climate madness, existential debt crisis, lost generation, geopolitical threats and a rapidly approaching decade horribilis. To cap it off, our beloved republic is splitting in two.
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Twilight of liberty
On Independence Day 2023 America hauntingly resembles Yeats’ Second Coming, his apocalyptic poem about a nation coming apart and foretelling an impending crisis.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
In years past my regular July 4th posting, mimicking the theme of the movie Independence Day, was my readers’ all-time favorite. The theme was that migration from blue to red states was analogous to the aliens in the movie who, having laid waste to their home planet, plunder Earth and move on to despoil other worlds. Within the past few years, that migration pattern has changed 180 degrees. Now we are seeing moderates and conservatives fleeing blue states for red states. This presents an entirely different set of equally troubling problems for America.
Blue states are where safety, civility, culture and liberty go to die
Blue states suffer from over a half century of toxic progressive governance marked by identity politics, Kafkaesque regulation, sky-high taxes and living costs, forced unionization, crumbling infrastructure and vastly underfunded pensions. They are rife with graft and corruption. Their failed union-run schools are petri dishes for every possible social dysfunction and pathology. Crime is rampant and gun control is uber-strict. There is massive public debt, unfunded liabilities and tanking credit ratings. During the pandemic they locked down businesses, mandated vaccinations, shuttered schools and closed churches, but kept liquor stores open.
Blue states tolerate homelessness, open drug use and human filth and install vending machines with free crack pipes. They release dangerous felons and decriminalize shoplifting, looting and arson while defunding police and eliminating cash bail. They pit people against one another based on race, income, age ethnicity and gender identity. Their stagnating economies are hemorrhaging businesses and tax base along with their most productive citizens. They teach CRT, the 1619 project and encourage young children to question their gender while disrespecting parents. Housing is scarce, dilapidated and costly with rent control and eviction bans. Environmentalism runs amok and climate change wackiness doubles the cost of energy.
Slouching toward red and blue Americas
The point of no return in the blue to red migration may have been crossed in Chicago’s recent mayoral election. I had thought it impossible Chicago could have a worse mayor than Lightfoot, but Brandon Johnson’s victory by 20,000 votes was due to the departure of 175,000 people in the past two years from Cook County. Without that migration, Chicago would have a more moderate mayor.
Red states are becoming redder, blue states bluer and purple states disappearing. Like any vicious circle, it feeds on itself. As conservatives and moderates clamor for the blue state exits (along with their tax base), the remaining population is even more progressive causing blue states to further increase taxes, cut public safety, neglect infrastructure and enact even more wacky laws; that in turn causes even more people to flee and the circle keeps going round and round. The opposite occurs in red states where revenue pours in enabling even more tax cuts and better public services.
The phenomenon described above is illustrated by recent actions by Minnesota and Florida. The Minnesota legislature just enacted ultra progressive laws regarding increased rights for abortion, transgenders, illegal immigrants, felons and others. Meanwhile, Florida just passed laws cutting taxes, creating universal school choice, stopping gender reassignment surgery for children, restricting abortions, expanding gun rights, cracking down on illegal immigration and more.
How does it end?
We are headed for an America divided into two opposing groups of states. Where all this ends is yet unknown – as in The Second Coming, which ends with the question: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”
© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com