Re:Brain Drain Across the United States
by jaredklewis on Sunday April 28, 2019 @03:10AM
(#19769807)
How is it not a landslide? Of the 9 top gainers you listed, only one leans republican (Texas) [1]. All others lean democratic.
Of course as pointed out by a sibling, it’s kind of an irrelevant point anyway. The brain migration is away from rural areas (which are red, regardless of state), to big cities (which are blue, regardless of state). That only reenforces the parent’s hypothesis that intellectuals resent the anti-intellectual bent republicans have taken in recent times.
1. https://news.gallup.com/poll/247025/democratic-states-exceed...
Illinois at least supports their claim - that it's because of the large cities, not the states as a whole. Take away Chicago and Illinois would be pretty Republican: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Il...
You're picking states, but the report talks about moving to cities that tend to be blue.
My point is that all cities tend to be blue. Look at the electoral maps by county in the last several elections and it’s pretty stark: little blue islands in an ocean of red - but the blue dots are the big cities where about half the country lives.
If you look at the 2017 Net Brain Drain it shows the following top gainers: - Texas - Virginia - Illinois - Maryland - Colorado - California - New Jersey - New York - Massachussets
Georgia and North Carolina also showed strong gains (along with many other states). That may be blue-leaning but it's not a landslide.
It's more like people are concentrating in the biggest cities generally, and to the degree that there's a blue-shift its that states dominated by their urban population lean democrat and states dominated by a rural population lean republican, so the cultural change follows the demographic shifts rather than driving them.