True, Professor Brian Kiteley reacted as if I’d called for Biblehumping hicks to take up arms against their more polished and civilized betters, but what I’d actually predicted was a soft civil war that would manifest through changes in demographics, with people self-separating by geographical locale along political and public policy lines. And it looks like I may have been on to something. Michael Barone, writing in the Washington Examiner, fleshes out the details:
[…] people from the Northeast and the Midwest have been flocking to the South Atlantic states, not to retirement communities but to Tampa and Jacksonville, Atlanta and Charlotte and Raleigh, which are among the nation’s fastest-growing metro areas. The South Atlantic has been attracting smaller numbers of immigrants as well.
Coastal California, in contrast, has had a vast inflow of immigrants and a similarly vast outflow of Americans. High housing costs, exacerbated by no-growth policies and environmental restrictions, have made modest homes unaffordable to middle-class families who don’t want to live in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods or commute 50 miles to work.
California for the first time in its history grew only microscopically faster than the nation as a whole (10.0 percent to 9.7 percent). Metro Los Angeles and San Francisco increasingly resemble Mexico City and Sao Paulo, with a large affluent upper class, a vast proletariat and a huge income gap in between.
Public policy plays an important role here — one that’s especially relevant as state governments seek to cut spending and reduce the power of the public employee unions that seek to raise spending and prevent accountability.
The lesson is that high taxes and strong public employee unions tend to stifle growth and produce a two-tier society like coastal California’s.
The eight states with no state income tax grew 18 percent in the last decade. The other states (including the District of Columbia) grew just 8 percent.
The 22 states with right-to-work laws grew 15 percent in the last decade. The other states grew just 6 percent.
The 16 states where collective bargaining with public employees is not required grew 15 percent in the last decade. The other states grew 7 percent.
Eric PWJohnson wants to know why a hard leftist like Professor Kiteley sought to distance himself from me. He wields this question as if represents some indictment against me.
But the answer is simple: because he’s a hard leftist. And when hard leftists seek to demonize me, that’s a signal to me that I’m doing something right.
Unsurprisingly, Kiteley seized on the phrase “soft-civil war,” removed it from its context, then pretended, despite all evidence to the contrary, that I meant something by it other than what I’d actually posited — and he did this in order to paint me as a dangerous extremist advocating armed revolt, and to justify the shunning..
Tactics that, it turns out, Eric PWJohnson and friends have themselves been relying on in their dealings with me.
Probably just a coincidence, that.
We say, “vindication!”; they’ll say, “Barone is as much of a dangerous extremist as Goldstein! Shun! Shun!”
:^þ
Shun! Shun!
They claim to be doing the shunning, when the rest of us are doing the fleeing, if you agree with the thesis and follow the census and demographics charts.
The problem is after awhile you look back, and here they are following you.
Hence, the high energy prices and restrictive regulations on home-selling.
Metro Los Angeles and San Francisco increasingly resemble Mexico City and Sao Paulo, with a large affluent upper class, a vast proletariat and a huge income gap in between.
Watch for it, no matter the reality of this, Barone will be labeled a RAAAAACIST and any other points he is making will be shoved down the memory hole (ala Palin’s appropriate use of “blood libel”)
Barone shoulda watched his language! He could have easily, and more pragmatically, couched his phrases.
DOESN’T HE KNOW HE’S LOSING THE INDEPENDENTS AND MODERATES???!!
So… now you want the foam rubber OFF the grenades?
Darleen,
Naturally!
Something I believe that backs up Barone’s thesis is that government policy is almost entirely to blame for the disparity on both sides of the analogy.
Government is there to make things more fair, Spiny. This disparity cannot be the result of government policies.
“advocating”
Professor, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Recognizing the plainly inevitable != advocating.
Speaking of far-left academics (who are assholes), there’s a big hubbub building around Wisconsin’s Professor William (!) Cronon, who is crying like a big baby because the evil GOP wants to see his
CorporateUniversity emails under FOIA requests.Let him bleed, I say.
When the TV weather guy says we’ll have half a foot of snow, is he “advocating” it? Or is this more of that Magical Thinking stuff: By predicting something, you’re somehow conjuring it into being.
Didn’t Professor Kitely also get offended (poor dear) by Darleen’s cartoon brusqueness regarding President Obama. I think he would fit in well with the Patterico crowd.
The new [Media Matters] strategy, he [Soros fellatrix David Brock] said, is a “war on Fox.”
Sharpen your pitchforks, wingnuts.
serr8d: Let him bleed, I say.
I wouldn’t be that quick but I’m interested to hear a certain hammer-wielding person’s take on it.
One the one hammer, sure, don’t use tax-payer equipment to foist more government on the peons. On the other hammer, if the situation were reverse, (say, the IL gov. rifling through UofChicago’s email to find mentions of conservative political consulting) wouldn’t we be a bit concerned?
I don’t know since I haven’t taken the time to read all of the available info or the relevant political background that might assist one in coming up with a consistent response but it is damn interesting.
The case of the the Atty Gen. of Virginia Cuccinelli pressing the UofV AGW frauds for data and email seems relevant as well.
The thing about Prof. Cronon is if you are going to use email for political activities it would be prudent to use a private email account not one belonging to your employer.
Of course the University of Wisconsin has long advocated for “The Wisconsin Idea” and so progressives would think themselves to be immune from interference by the regressive forces that are stifling all of the greater society. Holding it back from the wonderful future that is almost within grasp.
#11 Abe
I saw that yesterday, but was a bit kinder to Brock, merely referring to him as lickspittle…
Brandon Kiser notes that Media Matters may be putting their tax-exempt status at risk if they pursue this strategy:
Wouldn’t it be a hoot if the IRS got their hooks into one of Soros’ sockpuppets?
Linking back to another PW post or comment seems to choke the comments thingy. At least in the preview box.
Test.
OK, there it is.
That’d be a good thing.
I posted this at Althouse’s…
And I a reply to the one who replied to you.
That’s pretty much their whole bag in one way or another, right?
We should probably just be impressed that he was able to figure this out on some level and mimic it in his own sub-simian fashion.
“And when hard leftists seek to demonize me, that’s a signal to me that I’m doing something right.”
Bingo. I’m about to the point where I’d say the same about soft rightists, myself.
Well, Geoffb, if the Wisconsin idea advocates for contributions like Warfarin then I think they are on the right track. Unfortunately, it seems some have a Joel Rogers outlook on that Wisconsin idea.
The open records use on Cronon was priceless. I was just tooling around looking for info related to the open meeting law. Several articles were interesting and I found this one amusing.
“Jonathan Anderson, former editor in chief of the UWM Post and one of the students who filed the request, said they were pleased Van Hollen recognized “the need to bring sunshine” to student governments.”
Speaking of civil war, there seems to be a disturbance in the Chicago force.
Ayers affirms he wrote Dreams from my Father
Video of Matt Drudge at the National Press club, way back when. All 4 parts are a fascinating look at the old media view of new media. I thought Matt Drudge was brilliant here.
Re: Ayers — Nice to see that guy (Cashill) who did all the text analysis comparing Dreams with some of Ayers’ books finally vindicated, particularly when he was viewed by many on our own side (don’t make me go searching around for the old posts on (those ‘other’ blogs)… you know they’re out there) as a crazy conspiracy nut. And decidedly unhelpful, to boot.
Of course, I suspect the New Improved Conventional Wisdom will be along the lines of “oh, everybody knew that Ayers was the ghostwriter for Dreams, that’s not news. In any event, it’s of no importance whatsoever. Let us never speak of it again.”
Krugman on the Cronon affair (I got it done!).
[…] commented a bit on this a few days back, but Thomas Sowell really hammers home the takeaway from the latest census data: The […]