Publisher's Note: One of the most significant things you can do to promote Liberty is to support our mission. Please make your gift to the 2024 Year-End Campaign today. Thank you! —Mark Alexander, Publisher

March 27, 2018

No, Hillary Clinton: It’s the Red States That Are Dynamic

What hasn’t been noted for the record is that Clinton had her facts wrong.

Hillary Clinton is being universally panned by Republicans and Democrats for her recent rant against people who voted for Donald Trump. While giving a speech in Mumbai, India, Clinton boasted that she “won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product.” She went on: “So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward.” As evidence, she pointed to places such as Illinois, where she won by sizable margins. Then she added that those who voted against her “didn’t like black people getting rights, and don’t like women … getting jobs.”

Many have commented on how her speech was offensive and arrogant — which it was. But what hasn’t been noted for the record is that Clinton had her facts wrong.

For at least the last two decades, most of the dynamism and growth — as measured by population movements, income growth and job creation — has been fleeing from the once economically dominant blue states that Clinton won and relocating to the red states that Trump won.

Here’s the evidence. Of the 12 blue states that Hillary Clinton won by the largest margins — Hawaii, California, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Washington, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware — all but three of them lost residents through domestic migration (excluding immigration) over the last 10 years. In fact, combined, all 12 lost an average of 6 percent of their populations to net out-migration over the past decade. California and New York alone have lost three million people in the past 10 years.

Now let’s contrast the Clinton states with the 12 states that went to Trump with the largest margins. Ten out of them — North Dakota, Oklahoma, Idaho, South Dakota, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Nebraska and Kansas — were net population gainers.

The outpouring of residents from blue to red states almost has been one of the biggest demographic stories in American history, with a thousand people making the move every day on average. If you go to states such as Arizona, Florida, Tennessee and Texas these days, you’ll see many blue-state license plates.

Pretty much the same pattern holds true for jobs. The job gains in the red states that Trump carried by the widest margins had about twice the job creation rate as the blue states Clinton carried most comfortably.

Clinton mentioned gross domestic product numbers. While it is true that the blue states of the two coasts and several of the Midwestern states are richer than the redder states of the South and mountain regions, she failed to mention the giant transfer of wealth from Clinton to Trump states. IRS tax return data confirm that from 2006 to 2016, Clinton’s states lost $113.6 billion in combined wealth, whereas Trump’s states gained $116 billion.

The Clinton states are in a slow bleed. That is in no small part because their governments have adopted the entire “progressive” playbook: high tax rates; high welfare benefits; heavy hand of regulation; excessive minimum wages; and war on fossil fuels. These states dutifully check all the progressive boxes.

Even more unbelievable to us was Clinton citing Illinois as a dynamic place. There probably isn’t another state in America that can match it for financial despair and incompetence. After decades of left-wing rule, things are so bad in Illinois that residents are fleeing on net to West Virginia and Kentucky to find a better future.

Even when it comes to income equality, the Left’s favorite measure of progressive success, blue states carried by Clinton fare worse than red states. According to a 2016 report by the Economic Policy Institute, three of the states with the largest gaps between rich and poor are New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Sure, Boston, Manhattan and Silicon Valley are booming as the rich prosper. But outside these areas are deep pockets of poverty and wage stagnation.

The “progressive” tax-and-spend agenda has been put on trial. The policies not only lead to much slower growth but also benefit the rich and politically well-connected at the expense of everyone else.

Getting these statistics right — about where the growth and dynamism is really happening in America — is important because if we want to be a prosperous nation, we need to learn what works and what doesn’t.

We need national economic policies that have been shown to work at the state level. Trump wants to make America look like Florida and Tennessee. Clinton wanted to make America look more like Illinois and Connecticut. Maybe that’s the real reason why she lost.

COPYRIGHT 2018 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.