The Northeast is dying on the vine.

That is… a remarkable shift.

Deep in a recent report, for example, the American Legislative Exchange Council tabulated how the drop in population relative to the rest of the nation cut the region’s power in Washington. While the states from Pennsylvania to Maine had 141 House members in 1950, they are down to 85 today, a drop of some 40 percent.

And I fully expect that in eight years I’ll be hearing more about how the 2020 Census is going to shift power away from the Northeast even further. Which is going to tick off a lot of Northeasterners, but not as much as it will the Californians when they find out that they’re going to lose a seat for the first time.

Via AoSHQ.

Moe Lane

PS: What interests me here is that the places where our self-appointed elites congregate are turning into precisely the places where actual voters are getting thinner and thinner on the ground. Obviously, power and money can compensate for that… but what happens when the new centers of economic growth and prosperity generate elites of their own? – Because I’m pretty sure that most of the think-tanks and orgs out there don’t really want to move to, say, Dallas.

9 thoughts on “The Northeast is dying on the vine.”

  1. But no matter how many house seats are lost, each one of them still gets 2 Senators. And as those populations drop, those Senators become more and more beholden to those who those voters not smart enough to leave. And the NE is filled with small hyper liberal states. So, one cheer for the NE dwindling power in the house and the electoral college.
    –
    Sadly, that won’t get conservative laws and judicial nominees through the senate any easier. (though Dingy Harry’s nuking of the filibuster on non SC nominees certainly will next time we have both a R President and Senate)

    1. I will add, that it would be an interesting thought experiment to calculate just what it would take to flip the smaller NE states by demographics. How many conservative people would it take to move to RI to flip it? What kind of industries could setup shop there to draw that kind of population? The local D politicians would probably catch on eventually, so how might we combat their efforts to fight back (by say legislating against the kind of businesses that have a primarily conservative workforce).
      –
      Just an idea…

        1. The FreeState-ers are more than offset by the MassH*les the migrate across the border with their voting patterns intact and no concept of what makes their quaint little vacation town actually viable.

          1. In an article a few months back (maybe from RCP), worrying about the same general process of immigrants from blue states turning states like Texas a more purple hue, that specific concern was generally laid to rest.

            Basically, the people moving tend towards the states that match their ideology. So, people leaving a blue state like Massachusetts tend to be more conservative than the people moving *into* Massachusetts (and when you consider how heavily-laden this state is with college students, that really makes sense).

          3. This is why a virulent (and perhaps .. violent) culture to *explain* things to the n00bs is needed.
            .
            Colorado doesn’t have it. They have spent too long being overrun by ski bunnies and now potheads.
            .
            The Northeast doesn’t have enough who carry it.
            .
            Texas should be okay… the Texan culture is pretty virulent, although it doesn’t seem to penetrate Austin much.
            .
            Mew

  2. ” not as much as it will the Californians when they find out that they’re going to lose a seat for the first time.”
    .
    Why do you think California pols are so opposed to any controls oh
    immigration? They need to replace all the natives that are fleeing….

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