The Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez posts his daily cartoons on Substack at the Michael Ramirez Newsletter. He is a conservative whose genius cannot be denied. Thus the Pulitzer. Readers can subscribe here.
Michael has also been writing weekly essays for his newsletter that I have posted in our Picks as each one was made freely accessible. Today Michael has posted an 18-minute video essay that is keyed to his recent cartoons on the Academy Awards. I found his remarks entertaining, interesting, and inspiring. He tells some inside stories and he talks about joining the protest at Columbia when he received his Pulitzer. He wraps up with a statement of his his core beliefs.
His is the voice of a free mind and a free man. I thought some readers might want to listen up.
In the latest episode of the Hoover Institutionβs GoodFellows podcast (with Dan Senor sitting in for H.R. McMaster), Niall Ferguson joined from Jerusalem. He had some advice for Tucker Carlson regarding his misadventures in Putinβs Russia buried at about 43:00 of the video (below). Asked to assess Carlsonβs interview with Putin, Ferguson responded:
I am beyond disappointed in what Tucker Carlson has become because four years ago he was an impressive and effective broadcaster whose monologues I used to enjoy. I mean Tucker β I donβt know if you listen to this β but you have a chance to admit that you made a terrible mistake by going to Moscow, that you were made use of by a fascist dictator. You donβt want to be the Walter Duranty of this story. You donβt want to be the useful idiot of American journalism who fell for a dictatorship.
So my advice is own it. You made a huge blunder and you need to admit it and recognize that you have been used by a fascist regime. The fact that Navalny was killed just after you had been made a fool of in that interview where Putin filibustered, made stuff up that you didnβt know enough Russian history to correct β all of this has all but destroyed your reputation and the only possible solution is a full and frank apology and an admission that you screwed up.
See my own βPolitical pilgrimage revisited,β βFrom glib to stupid,β and βThe lonesome death of Alexei Navalny.β
Tucker Carlson has worked himself into a dark corner of which his Russian misadventures constitute only one component. He seeks to fill the niche formerly occupied by Charles Lindbergh on the isolationist wing of the populist right and has become a fool for Putin in the process. The odds of Carlson taking Fergusonβs advice asymptotically approach zero, but not because he shouldnβt take it.
The Great Sort is under way, as normal people move to red states and liberals move to blue states. (That last is hypothetical and hasnβt actually been observed.) When massive numbers began leaving blue states like California and New York for red states like Texas and Florida, many conservatives worried that those blue staters might bring their bad voting habits with them. Happily, that doesnβt seem to have happened.
This Wall Street Journal story is headlined: βBlue-State Residents Streamed Into South Carolina. Hereβs Why It Stayed Ruby Red.β But it deals with more than one state:
A Wall Street Journal analysis of census data found that a third of [South Carolinaβs] new residents between 2017 and 2021 hailed from blue states and a quarter from red ones, according to census data. β¦
Yet the new arrivals are disproportionately Republican. Estimates from the nonpartisan voter file vendor L2 suggest about 57% of voters who moved to South Carolina during that time are Republicans, while about 36% are Democrats and 7% are independents. That places them roughly in line with recent statewide votes in South Carolina.
It shouldnβt be surprising that when conservatives leave liberal states, they likely will move to conservative ones. The same thing is happening in states other than South Carolina:
The Palmetto State is a prime example of why a yearslong wave of migration to the South has largely failed to change its partisan tint. Many people who leave blue states are Republicans gravitating toward a more politically favorable new home.
In Florida, for instance, 48% of people who moved there between 2017 and 2021 came from blue states while 29% came from red states, Census figures show. Among those who registered to vote, 44% are Republicans, 25% are Democrats and 28% are nonpartisan, according to L2 data. Texas also has a heavier flow of newcomers from blue states but a greater share who L2 data estimates are Republican.
There is much more at the link; it is fun to see Democrats try to spin the numbers:
McDougald Scott and other South Carolina Democratic officials are working to target these new voters and persuade them to vote Democratic by focusing on issues like educationβ¦
I live in a blue state (for the time being, anyway) where the public schools are almost unbelievably bad. To be fair, though, the schools in New York and California are likely worse.
β¦infrastructureβ¦
Have these people never driven on a highway in California?
and healthcareβ¦
What about healthcare? Most people get health insurance through their jobs, and jobs are much more plentiful in red states. Blue states spend incomprehensible amounts of money on Medicaid, but that isnβt exactly a magnet for desirable new inhabitants.
β¦which she believes the Republicans are neglecting.
Apparently millions of Americans who are moving from blue to red states do not agree. Perhaps this is what it comes down to:
She said South Carolinaβs limited access to abortionβwhich is banned at six weeks of pregnancyβis also something that crosses party lines.
Right. Hey, blue state economies may suck, crime may be rampant, taxes may be too high, government may be corruptβbut if the occasion arises, you can always kill your baby. This is the sales pitch my stateβs liberal government is actually trying to implement: come here to get an abortion or a sex change operation, especially if you are a kid! Somehow, it doesnβt seem to be working.
The bottom line is that the Great Sort continues to benefit Red America. The question is, to what extent is the out-migration of normals locking liberalism into the blue states?