Hide yer money and yer wimmin, the liberals are invading!
by digby
The Upshot points out that the greatest threat of creeping liberalism isn't caused by a bunch of child refugees at the border escaping death --- it's good old fashioned Americans migrating to Real America. And they're bringing their Blue State ways with them!
Over the last few decades, residents of many traditionally liberal states have moved to states that were once more conservative. And this pattern has played an important role in helping the Democratic Party win the last two presidential elections and four of the last six. The growth of the Latino population and the social liberalism of the millennial generation may receive more attention, but the growing diaspora of blue-state America matters as well.
The blue diaspora has helped offset the fact that many of the nation’s fastest-growing states are traditionally Republican. You can think of it as a kind of race: Population growth in these Republican states is reducing the share of the Electoral College held by traditionally Democratic states. But Democratic migration has been fast enough, so far, to allow the party to overcome the fact that the Northeast and industrial Midwest contain a smaller portion of the country’s population than they once did...
These changes aren’t happening simply because the national population has grown over the same period, either. In fact, the red-born population in blue states shrank, to 7.3 million from 8.4 million, between 2000 and 2012. Some of this decline stems from the fact that California has become a less popular destination for people from all over the country, in part because of high housing costs. Illinois and Michigan, states that used to draw migrants seeking economic opportunity, have also become less attractive.
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Of course, not all blue-state migrants are liberal. And people’s political views can change over time. But enough of the migrants have the views of their home states to have made a difference. It’s no accident that the places in once-red states where migrants have tended to settle — like the Virginia suburbs of Washington, the Research Triangle of North Carolina and the Denver metro area — are the places that have allowed Democrats to overcome huge deficits elsewhere in those states. Many of these migrants are Northeastern Democrats.
Better arm up, boys. The hippies are on the march. An they don't need a passport.
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