Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
The red staters that suck off of the rich blue states want to kick the rich blue states out of the union.
This bit of inanity is brought to us by a Fox News poll, in which 17% of those polled would like to kick another state out of the union.
Since more Republicans than Democrats want to kick a state out of the union—displaying the same unwillingness to cross the aisle and play nice as their representatives in D.C. – it should come as no surprise that the most loathed state is California.
Per Fox News analysis:
Democratic pollster Chris Anderson says voters who want to kick out a state appear to have presidential politics in mind.
“The top four states targeted for expulsion,” he observed, “are also the four most electorally rich states in the country.” Anderson conducts the Fox News poll with Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who for his part approvingly noted the first two states on the chopping block are solid blue.
One reason more Democratic states end up on the chopping block is Republicans (21 percent) are more likely than Democrats (13 percent) to want to vote a state out of the union.
In addition, Republicans (12 percent) and independents (13 percent) are three times as likely as Democrats (4 percent) to want their state to secede. Nearly one in four voters who are part of the Tea Party movement would vote for their state to split off (23 percent).
Fifty-three percent of those polled wanted to kick California out of the union. California is home to the huge export business of films and much entertainment. Goodbye Silicon Valley revenue. Meh. No biggie, the Republicans will be fine without the money generated and the products provided by either.
The next state is also blue and the home of much money, but 25% of these self-sabotaging voters want to kick New York out of the union.
The larger problem with conservatives wanting to kick blue states out of the union is that, according to an analysis done by personal finance social network WalletHub, those individualistic, pulling selves up by their own bootstraps Red States “are altogether more reliant on federal funding than Blue States.”
The list of deadbeat Red States includes, South Carolina, Idaho, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia, according to figures provided by the Tax Foundation. The Red States as welfare states conclusion has been proven over and over again from different sources. While we’re at it, the majority of food stamp recipients are white.
It turns out that the beloved and much-worn conservative narrative about bold, conservative leadership resulting in a lower tax on residents is the result of federal dependence, and not said leadership. It’s a handout. It’s welfare that keeps those Red States afloat. Some of the least dependent states California, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey, and Minnesota.
The Blue States are keeping the Red States afloat. There are exceptions to this rule, but overall this is the trend.
Of course the feelings are mutual, just by a lesser degree and with less self to no-harm. Twenty percent want to drop Texas and 11% want to kick Florida to the curb, both of which score as more dependent.
In the wake of Mitt Romney’s 47% comments, the American Conservative pointed out that Mitt Romney’s reviled 47% live in the secession loving confederacy. “On the other hand, eight of the ten states with the highest non-payment rates are solidly Republican. The exceptions are New Mexico and Florida…. In short, Romney’s geographic base is in states where large numbers of households pay no net federal income tax.”
The conservative Wall Street Journal got in on it too, noting, “Delaware residents, who voted overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama in 2012, get 50 cents in federal funding for every $1 in federal income taxes they pay. Mississippi — 55.5% for Mitt Romney — cashes in with $3.07 in federal funding for every dollar paid in income taxes.”
This is an old story that only gets more pathetic the longer it continues. Republicans are not living much of the economic value system that they espouse. The Republican Party turns conservatives into self-loathing machines, too focused on hatred of the other to realize that the other is them. They are the 47%.
So conservatives continue to bite the hand that feeds them. That they can’t manage to do this without utterly misplaced smug self-righteousness that speaks to a pitiful self loathing is the curse Democrats must bear for their generosity and empathy.
Republicans want to kick California and New York out. They’ll get their handouts from some other blue state, thank you very much.
Image: Joshua Roberts /Reuters
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