Migration

“Now main street’s whitewashed windows and vacant stores.
Seems like there ain’t nobody wants to come down here no more.
………
Last night me and Kate, we laid in bed, talking about getting out.
Packing up our bags and maybe heading south”
My Hometown – Bruce Springsteen

The decennial census wrapped up some time ago counting everyone in the United States as of April 1, 2020. Hopefully they only counted citizens and not visitors or people here illegally.

The census bureau continues counting and estimating population every year between the last census and the next one. They just released their estimates of population nationally and by state for the period from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021. The results are illuminating.

The total U.S. population grew by only 0.1% during this 12 month period, which is the smallest growth ever recorded since the nation’s founding. As is often the case, there are various reasons posited for this slow growth. One with which everyone agrees is that the U.S. birthrate per child-bearing age female is continuing to decline. This is a phenomenon occurring in most first world countries.

Increased deaths due to the pandemic is another generally accepted reason in addition to less international legal migration dues to covid restrictions. What the propaganda media will not report however, is the increased deaths due to fentanyl pouring over the uncontrolled border, increased deaths due to a huge jump in the murder rate, vastly increased suicides primarily of young people during the lockdowns and increased deaths due to people not receiving medical treatment for non-covid illnesses because of the lockdowns and mandates and other actions taken in response to the Wuhan Virus. If you added all those deaths up, it probably exceeds direct deaths from the virus, but the leftist propaganda machine doesn’t want you to know that because it does not fit with their authoritarian narrative.

Although the total population was stagnant, there were massive shifts within the country as the official US Census map below shows.

There are 4 states that lost over 0.6% of their population during those 12 months. They are California, New York, Illinois and Hawaii. What do those 4 states have in common? They all have Democrat governors and legislatures and are probably the 4 bluest states in the union.

Now, let’s look at the 7 states that gained over 1% in population in the same period. They are Arizona, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Texas, South Carolina and Delaware. All of these states, except for Delaware, have Republican governors and Republican controlled legislatures.

Coincidence? I think not. People are voting with their feet. I was one of those people having moved out of California 6 years ago seeking a lower cost of living and more freedom.

There are a few outliers like Delaware and Connecticut, which appear to have benefitted from the flight from New York amongst people who didn’t want to go too far away. Additionally, some reliably red states such as West Virginia and Mississippi have had declining populations for some time largely due to the decline in jobs as major industries in those states have been pummeled by regulation and international competition.

The region that grew the most by far is the South. The region with the biggest loss was the Northeast.

Freedom, public safety and classic education and values work. Socialism, authoritarianism, defunding police and leftist cultural indoctrination do not.

This is all a very good sign for the future as long as two things do not happen. The first is we must hope that the people fleeing these socialist-leaning states understand that it is leftism that caused them to move and do not keep voting for the same people and policies that ruined the place they came from. The second is that the Supreme Court and the US government allow federalism in the United States to flourish unfettered by federal mandates. Let California be leftist California but also let Texas be conservative Texas. That is how the founders intended it. And it was a brilliant intention indeed.

The Bruce Springsteen song at the top of this post was recorded in 1983. It was written about rust belt factory towns that were in decline at the time. Today, the same lyrics are remarkably applicable to the big blue cities in America. Same problems. Different causes.

I remain respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive fast and live free.