We probably won't get it in 2024 but the country really needs a debate about the future. Do we want to be Texas or California? New York or Florida? Why? Because the country is having that debate and voting with its feet. The voters here are ahead of the political class and the media.

This is from Joel Kotkin:

Forget the presidential election. The real contest about the future direction of the country has already taken place, and it’s the red states that are clearly winning.

What we are witnessing is not so much a national ideological triumph, in the manner of the Reagan era, but a grassroots shift in economic, social, and, ultimately, political power from one set of regions to another. This continues a pattern congruent with American history since the first settlements pushed out from the Atlantic coast, expanding all the way to the Pacific. Even today the wealthiest states, not adjusted for costs, remain perched on the Northeastern or Pacific coastlines.

Today’s shift is not a repeat of “manifest destiny” associated with the old adage “go west, young man,” but more like a call back to the South, and even some places in the country’s vast center. These areas are still catching up with those areas that flourished in the last half of the twentieth century. But over the past four decades, income and job growth in places like Texas and Florida were 50 percent or more above New York and California.

In recent years, the gap between regions has narrowed. Texas, Nevada, Florida, and Arkansas experienced the nation’s highest personal income growth; in contrast, ultra-blue California ranked last, followed closely by Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York. Sunbelt states dominate the list of fastest job creators while California, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Oregon rank toward the bottom. Overall, in the past decade, the six fastest growing Southern states -- Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee -- added more to the national GDP than the Northeast, the traditional economic powerhouse.  

Wouldn't that be cool? A debate of ideas and the future.

Let me repeat that the country is already voting and going red. The biggest difference, and I’ve had this conversation with quite a few arrivals, is that they breathe freedom when they get here.

Some of the arrivals are sad to leave but do it for the kids. One told me that California is beyond repair. Sad but probably true.

The media won’t ask these questions but the country is moving and it’s go red, young and old.

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