The End Is Near

Recently I have read several articles that all point to the same conclusion, THE END IS NEAR. Not THE END end, but the end of what, for lack of a better description, I will call the post World War 2 liberal model of governing. Actually Walter Russell Meade in one of those articles does have a good description of it, he calls it "the blue social model"

In his article the brilliant Mr Meade points to recent census numbers to show this demise.

The Census reported that waves of blue state blacks fled the stagnant job opportunities, high taxes and rotten social conditions of the mostly blue northern states to seek better lives for themselves in the south.

The migration of blacks to Northern cities at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century was one of the most massive and historic migrations of a people in human history. Now it appears that the migration is reversing itself. But as Meade points out it is even more devastating for the "blue social model" than that:

The Census story is a shocker. First, according to the Times, the Blacks leaving tend to be the “younger and better educated”. Second, the three states Blacks left in largest numbers don’t just include snake-bit Michigan; the other two are Illinois and New York. Within those states, Chicago and the city of the New York (widely considered among the most successful cities in the country) are the places Blacks are deserting. 17 percent of the Black flight from Big Blue is from the Empire State; after almost a century of trailblazing social policy, New York State has succeeded in creating the most hostile environment for Blacks in the country.

All the bluster and at times vitriolic rhetoric of the old line liberal power bases such as the unions and Progressive politicians can not hide the fact that their time is passing as a workable social-economic model, if it ever was a viable model. As Herb Stein famously noted "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." The liberal governance model is with much drama coming to a stop even as it drags its fingernails across the chalkboard of history in the process.

More from Mr. Meade:

“The notion of the North and its cities as the promised land has been a powerful part of African-American life, culture and history, and now it all seems to be passing by,” said Clement Price, a professor of history at Rutgers-Newark. “The black urban experience has essentially lost its appeal with blacks in America.” [bold italics added]

When whites leave failing blue cities and states, the pundits call this racism: all those white Californians fleeing Nancy Pelosi’s utopia for less ambitious jurisdictions where ordinary people can do things like get jobs and buy homes are clearly pathetic trailer trash hicks too dumb, too selfish and above all too racist to understand the gloriously multicultural blue beauty of California today.

So what are we going to call the young, educated Blacks making similar choices? Dumb cracker racists?

During the election of 2010 I pointed out that there were more African American Republican candidates for Congress than at any time since Reconstruction actually ever. Although only two of them won, incidentally both from the South and both from predominately white congressional districts, the lock on minorities that the Democratic Party has had for decades is quickly being eroded.  Can you say Marco Rubio.  Then there are two new Republican Governors of Hispanic decent and two  Republican Governors of India decent, again both from the South. Minorities are beginning to see that there is more than one choice politically but more importantly that there is another path to success that has little to do with government.

Which brings me to a Forbes article I recently read Best Cities For Minority Entrepreneurs . Which points out the following recent change in America:

As for growth, minority entrepreneurs are playing an increasingly important role. Just one data point: In 2010 immigrants accounted for nearly 30% of new business owners, versus 13% in 1996, according to the Kauffman Foundation.

More and more minorities are seeking out the true "American Dream" which is about self fulfillment and self sufficiency has little to do with trust in government for happiness ...of either party and certainly has little in common with the "Blue Social Model":

In Atlanta, where half the residents are African American, a host of Hispanic and Asian entrepreneurs have set up shop over the last decade. Atlanta now boasts the second-highest percentage of self-employed minorities among the top 52 metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million

 Consider this list from the article of the top metropolitan areas for Minority Entrepreneurs. I stop with the top 20:


# Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
# Baltimore-Towson, MD
# Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN
# Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
# Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL
# Oklahoma City, OK
# Riverside-Sand Bernardino-Ontario, CA
# Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
# Orlando-Kissimmee, FL
# Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
# Memphis, TN-MS-AR
# Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
# San Antonio, TX
# Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
# Austin-Round Rock, TX
# Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC
# Indianapolis-Carmel, IN
# Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
# Richmond, VA
# New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA

What is the first thing that jumps out at you from the list? How about you have to get to Indianapolis (17) before you are north of the Mason Dixon line. Also that other than Baltimore(2) Riverside CA (7), Washington DC (8) and Los Angeles (18) all the rest are in what are considered "Red States". But it is not the party that is the key, it is the political philosophy, smaller government, lower taxation and less regulation which attracts. I would even suggest that the "Blue state" represented on the list are there simply because of the overwhelming demographic disparity in those locations.

Minorities and immigrants are attracted to the same thing most of us are, less government control over our pocket books and our lives. All of this does not bode well for the post World War 2 liberal formula for political power.

It is not as if the entrenched political power base of the left will not fight to hold onto their core constituencies, see Wisconsin, but the tide of history has turned against them. As always happens in the long human epoch, "people power" ultimately overcomes any temporal political power structure. What determines the course of history is determined by what the people ultimately see as being in their long term best interest, also known as common sense.

The war is over as the battles rage on but in the end individual liberty and freedom will triumph over centralized power schemes, the end is near and growing nearer all the time