Winegarden believes the ongoing exodus and increasing frustration from remaining residents will finally stir politicians to enact major changes: “Just like with the homelessness crisis, we have to let it kind of get to a point where people can stand it no longer, and then we’ll get the right policies implemented.”
Twelve years ago, living in the foothills of El Dorado County, Calif., Joanne Kraft enjoyed what many consider the California Dream. Seeing the snow-capped Sierra Mountains in the distance never got old. She and her husband happily shuttled their four children to soccer practice, school activities, and church events.
But all was not golden in the Golden State. The Krafts watched political, economic, and social shifts with dismay. Changes in the criminal justice system especially troubled Kraft, a former 911 dispatcher. Felonies were reduced to misdemeanors, and misdemeanors became citations. People who normally would have been in jail walked free.
The Krafts eventually decided to sell their house and move more than 2,000 miles across the country…
California, once the state of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, now boasts Democrat supermajorities—and it’s likely turning deeper blue as more conservatives leave. Some analysts argue mass waves of immigration in the 1990s, both legal and illegal, tipped the scales in Democrats’ favor. But Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, a nonpartisan public policy organization, said domestic migration likely played a more important role.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
Voting With Their Feet
Wayne H Winegarden
Winegarden believes the ongoing exodus and increasing frustration from remaining residents will finally stir politicians to enact major changes: “Just like with the homelessness crisis, we have to let it kind of get to a point where people can stand it no longer, and then we’ll get the right policies implemented.”
Twelve years ago, living in the foothills of El Dorado County, Calif., Joanne Kraft enjoyed what many consider the California Dream. Seeing the snow-capped Sierra Mountains in the distance never got old. She and her husband happily shuttled their four children to soccer practice, school activities, and church events.
But all was not golden in the Golden State. The Krafts watched political, economic, and social shifts with dismay. Changes in the criminal justice system especially troubled Kraft, a former 911 dispatcher. Felonies were reduced to misdemeanors, and misdemeanors became citations. People who normally would have been in jail walked free.
The Krafts eventually decided to sell their house and move more than 2,000 miles across the country…
California, once the state of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, now boasts Democrat supermajorities—and it’s likely turning deeper blue as more conservatives leave. Some analysts argue mass waves of immigration in the 1990s, both legal and illegal, tipped the scales in Democrats’ favor. But Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, a nonpartisan public policy organization, said domestic migration likely played a more important role.
Read the entire World Magazine article here.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.