Tag: Blue States

MLLG

Independence Day 2023

George Noga

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.

silhouette of Statue of Liberty under orange sunset

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

More Montana Moments

George Noga
By: George Noga – September 24, 2013
        I didn’t see it coming. My lighthearted September 10 posting, Montana Moments, drew an exceptional number of favorable comments from readers – enough to elicit a sequel. I love northwest Montana and probably would move there if I were younger. Make no mistake, however; things there are different. Just how different are they?
        Recently in Florida I saw a small boy riding a tricycle in his yard with his parents hovering nearby. Even though his head couldn’t have been more than a few feet off the ground and it is hard to fall from a tricycle, he was wearing a helmet. This is not something you would see in Montana where young boys wearing helmets often means they are riding 500 pound bulls.
“In Montana eight (8) year old boys ride 500 pound bulls.”
      Every Thursday during the summer there is a rodeo behind the Blue Moon roadhouse in  Columbia Falls, Montana. In a typical week, up to ten boys as young as eight (8) compete in bull riding. I once was seated next to a woman who volunteered she was nervous because her son, who just turned 8, was riding a bull for the first time. There are precautions: the bulls are younger, the tips of their horns are cut back and the boys wear helmets. Nevertheless, ample danger remains from a contest pitting a 50 pound boy against a cantankerous 500 pound bull.
       Nor is it uncommon at these rodeos to see young kids with Crocodile Dundee type hunting knives sheathed and strapped to their belts and freely mingling with the 1,000 to 2,000 folks normally in attendance. Imagine for a moment the utter consternation that would ensue if a few kids turned up at a Florida junior high school football game wearing similar knives.
“Toy guns are not necessary in Montana; kids get real guns.”
      Let’s progress from knives to guns. Throughout much of the USA (especially in blue states) it is impossible to find a toy gun in a store. In Montana toy guns are not necessary as kids age 6  and even younger get real guns, and just not BB guns or pellet guns. This is not vastly different than the norms when I was growing up. All of us boys had BB guns by age 6, pellet guns by age 10 and .22 rifles by age 13. In the Orlando of the 1950s and 1960s no one considered it threatening to see 12-14 year old boys walking around residential subdivisions with .22 rifles.
       An 11 year old can  obtain a Montana hunting license and a youth’s first hunting license is free. Montana has special hunting seasons set aside strictly for youth ages 11-15. Youth deer hunting season is coming up October 17-18. In past years the two days of youth deer hunting season (always the Thursday and Friday before the regular deer season opens on Saturday) were so popular that few students attended school. Recently the state of Montana recognized this and now there is no school held during youth deer hunting season. For comparison, I checked on youth hunting in Florida. Generally and with only a few exceptions youth starts at age 16.
        Ultimately it comes to this. Would you like to live and raise a family where people are comfortable with 6 year olds having guns, 8 year olds riding bulls, kids wearing hunting knives at public events and 11 year olds hunting elk? Or, would you rather live where parents force tykes to wear helmets while riding tricycles in their yard? I may not have chosen for my son to ride a bull at age 8 but I would like to live where parents are free to make those choices.

Travels in Blue States

George Noga
 By: George Noga – July 22, 2013
       Recently my wife and I took a vacation, driving from our home outside Orlando to Cape Cod and then back to the Washington, DC area from whence we took the auto train. We have driven extensively throughout the USA but not for decades in the deep dark blue northeastern states. Everything was copasetic while we drove from Florida through Virginia. Once we hit the blue states however, we began noticing abominations inflicted on motorists by government. Quickly sensing a pattern and understanding that these were not random atrocities, we began to make a list; this posting is the result.
“There was a pattern; these were not random acts of malevolence.”
     The most ubiquitious outrage was the doubling of fines for any reason and often for no apparent reason at all. In Florida speeding fines are doubled only when workers are present. Not so in blue states. All violations (not just speeding) are doubled whether or not workers are present – presumably even for non moving violations such as an expired tag. We encountered all the following signs. (1) “Intense enforcement zone – all fines doubled”; (2) “License suspended for two work area violations“; and (3) “Fines doubled when speed limit is 65 for speeding and other violations“. Fines were doubled for perhaps most of the miles we drove in blue states.
     The second most common ignominy pertained to rest stops, or the lack thereof – a matter of particular relevance to this septuagenarian. Blue state rest areas are few and far between and many (perhaps most) lack facilities. In Connecticut they (laudably) were renovating the rest areas; however, they closed consecutive ones instead of spacing them out. The real horror of the lack of public rest stops was having to exit the interstates to find commercial rest stops. This could require 30 minutes to get off and back on. Have I mentioned that blue state hospitality includes refusing rest rooms to those who don’t buy gas? Some blue states have designated certain rest areas only for vehicles over 5,000 pounds; I still haven’t figured that one out.
      Following are some of my other favorite blue state degradations.
  • You are forbidden to pump your own gas in New Jersey, Delaware and Oregon allegedly to create employment and for “safety“. I guess the other 47 states are dangerous.
  • In some places signs read “Up to $10,000 fine for littering“. Yes, folks, you read it right.
  • In many places there are street signs only for cross streets; good thing I had GPS.
  • There is a police presence in most work areas even for mowing alongside the highway.
  • In MA we encountered a 3-mile line behind a street sweeper, which (you guessed it) was escorted by a police cruiser. They were totally oblivious to the horror they had created.
  • Lanes were blocked off at rush hour for no apparent reason creating monstrous jams.
  • Exits are not numbered by mileage as in the rest of America.
  • Interstate 95 is a toll road in New Jersey.
  • There were numerous places where there was only 200 feet for double merges, i.e. for cars simultaneously entering and exiting limited access roads. This is uber dangerous.
      So, why this jeremiad about asinine blue state highway rules and practices? Granted, this subject is not on a par with the debt crisis or even documenting the similiarities between Barack Obama and King George III as in the last post. My reasons are straightforward.
“Government is a malevolent force in all matters both big and small.”
      This post illustrates the profound differences between red states and blue states even in relatively minor matters such as traffic rules. Second, it shows governments in blue states have run amok and are insensitive (one might say, hostile) to the comfort, safety and convenience of citizens. Finally, it proves yet again that government is fundamentally a malevolant force in all matters both big and small. The bigger the government, the more malevolent it becomes.