I agree with this article’s thesis. And I would add another, equally serious problem: at least anecdotally, it seems that the “redder” the state, the more likely its elected officials will be squishes. They throw a bone out once in awhile, to garner positive notices in right-wing media, but they’re really neither diligent nor effective [1], perhaps because they’re too safe. So another reason red states are failing is so many of them are not even trying.
But as I’ve written somewhere on this site: I don’t vote for Republicans. I vote against Democrats. I know the Rs will not save me or my family. But I also know the Ds will hurt us. Moving is a defensive posture against what I think is looming.
Some tinfoil hattery follows. Hope to be wrong.
Sometime during the Obama disadministration, I started thinking that a second civil war in our future was possible, albeit very unlikely. (Not the “Illinois attacking Indiana” type of war that characterized our first civil conflict, but the breakdown of civil society.) Each year since my estimate of the probability has risen. My current assessment is that the left has become too powerful to back off or down, so during the Autopen era I started plotting a move to give my family a better chance of thriving in what appears to be a dicier future.
Indeed, in my humble opinion, the civil war started already, in the early evening of July 13, 2024, in Butler, PA. Not because the assassination was attempted, but because it failed, and it helped (re-)elect and shape Trump 2.0, which has to a some degree actually joined the battle with the left instead of just noisy managing the decline.
[1] Greg Abbott is one. Change my mind.