I could probably write a novel (or at least a pretty long post) on this subject, but just for kicks, here’s what I’m ruminating….
America became great under our founding principles. It was a haven for the free market, abundant in natural resources, and governed with limited intrusion or restrictions on the everyday lives of its citizens.
Sure, there were problems. The right to vote was infringed, an entire group of people were enslaved, and workers were under-paid and often worked in deplorable conditions.
But it still was a place where people wanted to come to live the American dream and escape even more deplorable economic and political conditions.
Yet something interesting happened as more and more people came to the United States — a progressive movement started which, in the process of making things “better”, gave more and more power to government and labor groups. So much so that the pendulum has swung well past a happy balance between freedom and big government.
That’s in the macro. Now let’s look at this at a state level.
Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, the north dominated in manufacturing and industry. This is where all the jobs were. The conditions in our large northern cities were such that business could thrive. Taxes and regulation were low. (While the South was largely under military rule, followed by a series of political machines).
Therefore, people gravitated to our large cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia – in hopes of finding a job and a better life. But as more people came to the region, more progressive policies followed. Which has led to higher taxes, more regulation of business, increased social engineering, and, of course, big government. So much that our northern cities and regions are in decline.
After machine politics, southern realignment, northern decline (the rust belt), and increasing technology to improve shipping, production, and all-around business efficiency, the south began to emerge as a place to create jobs.
There are good universities. Right to work laws. Low taxes. Etc.
So, businesses and jobs began flowing into places like Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi to augment the largely agrarian and textile-based industry that had been in decline.
However, as people who suffered high taxes and regulation from northern areas began coming to places like Virginia, they brought with them their politics as well…just as all immigrants have.
And, when politicians say that in order to do good, we can just give government just a little more power, folks who have seen anything but over-regulation and taxation don’t seem to mind so much, because it’s better than where they came from.
I don’t think it’s so much that people themselves are liberal, but I think it’s folks who have a liberal agenda follow the people with a do-good mentality. And, in the process, end up wrecking all the positive gains a region possessed when it was conservative to begin with.
So the bottom-line – conservatism does well, populations grow, liberal ideas come in, society declines. Therefore, in order for liberalism to survive, there must initially be conservatism.
