RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesPodcaster Joe Rogan warned liberals on Tuesday that moving to Texas and turning the state blue would ruin the delicate balance for everybody, including liberal Texans.
"The liberals that want to turn Texas blue. Like, don't, you're going to ruin it," he said.
Rogan has spoken out numerous times about his choice to leave California over its far-left policies, particularly those from the COVID-19 pandemic.
He lamented that many "coastal elites" and "coastal snobs" often "have this idea of Texas being filled with rednecks and ignorant people and foolish people. It's not that way at all. Especially Austin . Austin is like one of the most, like, liberal, easygoing, progressive cities, but like, even the progressives here, they’re like, more reasonable."
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He specified that liberal Texans, while they shifted somewhat leftward in recent years, are nowhere near the same far-left positions as those of Los Angeles or New York .
"There’s this saying about Austin: ‘Keep Austin Weird and Surrounded,’" Rogan said.
"And surrounded? What is the ‘and surrounded?’" his guest, adventurer and author Forrest Galante asked.
"Surrounded by red people," Rogan explained. "Like it’s all red state around you, and it’s this pocket of blue that’s in the center of this red state. I think that's good for everybody. I think that's good. It's a balance."
Rogan warned against liberals fleeing far-left blue states only to vote for the same far-left policies in red states. He illustrated the delicate political balance by comparing it to a natural ecosystem.
"You're going to ruin it for you too. You don't get it," he said. "Balance is important. It's like — you can't kill all the predators because then the deer get overrun, and you're hitting them with cars. And you can't kill all the deer, because then there's no food. That's what they did when they were market hunting. Balance. And you need balance with humans too."
"The Austin balance is a great balance," Rogan continued. "It's a liberal city surrounded by, like, hardcore Republicans with guns and tigers."
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In 2023, Rogan noted that he got the idea to leave California amid the riots in 2020 after the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, "I was like, ‘This ain’t going in a good direction and I f---ing smell chaos."
He then cited numerous policies in California, such as a far-left approach to crime and homelessness to the point that stores have to lock up merchandise: "It’s f---ing madness. There’s so many businesses that are closing down, they don’t want to be a part of it anymore."
Rogan went on to say, "I don’t like when I don’t see any course correction, I don’t see any readjustment, I don’t see any ‘Hey, we need to take care of disenfranchised people, but we also need to keep our streets safe, and we have to stop crime.'"
He added, "There’s none of that, there more ridiculous laws, more lax on crime, more money for the homeless people ‘Give them free drugs, give them needles, they need clean needles,’ like what?"
More recently, he blasted California Governor Gavin Newsom for his defense of California, warning instead that Los Angeles may go the way of Detroit as the film industry implodes and companies flee the state.
Texas and Florida are drawing the largest number of new residents, following a shift where more Americans are moving toward the South, for lower taxes, more jobs and higher quality of life.
Texas led the nation in new residents with 56,473 new tax filers in 2023.
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