I remember once when I was talking to not-yet Governor Pete Ricketts about a gig I was exploring in Nebraska. This was a couple of years before he was elected. He’s now the Ex-Governor of Nebraska. I hope they nominate him to fill the vacant Nebraska Senate seat.
One of the things we chatted about was the difference between a town like Chicago, and smaller towns like Omaha, Louisville, Tulsa, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and even where I live in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is NOT a big town. It’s 2 million people.
One interesting thing I read about Tulsa is they are paying professionals a $10K bonus to move there. 90% of the people that accepted that bonus stayed. That could mean that a network of those types of workers will be built there. There could be network effects from that network as those people create opportunities for people in that network. Others could move there to become a part of it.
For example, if you want good Chinese in Chicago, there are a few places you can go. In the other towns, there might only be one. They also might not keep the hours of the big city town. I can’t tell you where you’d find good Chinese in a place like Louisville but in Omaha, there is one great Chinese place.
I was chatting with my jeweler in Chicago before I moved to Las Vegas. He said, “You know what’s great about Vegas? You can get a bowl of chocolate ice cream at three in the morning if you want it in Vegas.” Turns out, Las Vegas also has an incredibly large amount of really great Asian restaurants off the Strip so if you want that in Vegas you can get that too.
There is certainly a lot of local charm in the smaller towns. There is less traffic. But, there can also be a lot less service and choice. Las Vegas is not like other smaller towns because the casinos drive the entertainment industry and it is a tourist magnet. 400,000 people came here just to celebrate the New Year.
I was thinking about that as I tried to get a carry-out steak in Louisville after the Kentucky Derby at 9 PM. It was impossible. Even Ruth Chris Steakhouse told me they were closing at 9 PM and didn’t want the business.
It is something to think about when you move from a big city to a second-tier city. My wife told me that 41% of America is imprisoned in blue states by total domination of the political sphere with Democratic governors, and state legislatures. 39% enjoy freedom in red states that are 100% dominated by Republicans. 20% is mixed. That just illustrates the polarization that is happening in America. The 20% will not stay mixed. As we know from experience, the center doesn’t survive in war and America is in a Cold Civil War right now. If you think I am crazy, you might ping Karol Markowitz.
I was chatting with a person who loves history and he gave me an interesting opinion on why the Civil War in 1860 started. He cited the admission of states to the Union as a problem. It was supposed to be one free state, one slave state. But, the slave states got three in a row. That started the dominoes to fall which eventually led to a hot war. I am not saying he is correct but it is interesting to think about in terms of what is happening today. History never repeats, but it does rhyme.
Leftists never let up. They never quit. They might ease off the gas pedal but they never quit. The ESG, global warming, pro-open border, big union, pro-abortion, pro-government health care, pro-destroying cultural norms and decency, crowds never quit. They are not “Democrats” in the old sense. They are communists and they mask their intentions with socially charged causes.
Hence, when I say I am against an open border all of a sudden I am a member of the Klan. I guess Democratic (and openly gay) Colorado Governor Jared Polis is a member of the Klan too since he is bussing illegals from Denver to NYC and Chicago.
Have fun feeding them in Chicago Wiener Circle.
We will continue to see people from the blue states leave for the red states. It’s a desire for basic freedom, but it is basic economics too. For example, if you are going to build an electric vehicle car plant, you aren’t planting your flag in a blue state. You are going to red states where the business climate is a lot better. The other thing that happens is the entire supply chain for that industry locates around the factories creating a multiplier effect of jobs, and opportunities.
If you are in a mixed state, freedom is worth fighting for. I was at a small gathering of Nevada Republicans last night. It turns out that while ballot harvesting is illegal in other states, Nevada Democrats rammed it through the legislature, and our ex-Democratic Governor signed it so ballot harvesting is LEGAL in Nevada. It’s just another example of Democrats codifying ways to cheat in the voting procedure. We saw it in Chicago all the time and you can see what it leads to.
The Nevada Democratic Governor was so bad, he was the only one to lose a statewide race. They couldn’t even harvest enough votes for him. However, his party did severely gerrymander the state which will stay in effect until 2030, so that has to be overcome.
There is a way and that’s to get in the mud with them. The civility that William F. Buckley espoused in the 1960s when he re-energized the conservative movement can work in some places but it doesn’t work when you are in a war.
A tip for the donor class that actively funnels money to political campaigns and for the PACs, it means you need to redouble your efforts and concentrate on states that are purple. You need to make them more Republican, if not 100% Republican run.
Based on migration patterns, people don’t like 100% Democratic rule but when it’s entrenched, they will do anything to keep it.
For 100% Republican-dominated states, you need to enact policies that are meaningful for people. That means school choice. It means building nuclear power plants to provide on-demand cheap energy. It means deregulating businesses and taking all taxes lower. It means being a right-to-work state. It means defanging and taking on the hard leftists that run all the institutions in our country. If you don’t, you will lose the full faith and trust of your voters and wind up in a place like Illinois is today.
I’d never move from a blue state to another blue state unless I had a terrific job opportunity. Like the Joe Biden Economy, the governments of blue states are always in your pocket taking a little more of your wealth each day.
I just moved from Austin By God Texas (my home for more than 40+ years - ATX was very, very, very good to me) to Sweet Southern Savannah with its lovely live oaks draped with Spanish moss.
[My daughter has three daughters, so I have 5 women related to me within a distance of a solidly smacked five iron. It is very nice. My SIL is front runner and leader in the clubhouse for SIL of the year.]
Austin was 240K pop when I arrived and 2.5MM when I departed.
Savannah is much smaller than Austin -- 334K people in its "metro" area, but it plays much bigger than that both culturally and food wise.
I will be seeing the Ukrainian National Ballet perform in a couple of days and Savannah has great restaurants and, being on the coast, insanely good seafood. I am 4 hours from Highlands and the Appalachian Mtns and 15 minutes from the beach.
I can hop on a plane and be in NYC in an hour. I will not go because NYC is a shithole.
The thing is to pick a smallish town that has character, history, culture, temperate climate, and charm. [Also, good Internet service. I get 1Gig, but it isn't as good or competitive as Austin.]
This is a parallel development to WFH -- live from home in a great city.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Spot on. I’d rather have fewer service/food choices and more freedom any day of the week though. It’s an easy decision! (Said a big city dweller who has stepped out of IL)….