Nobody doubts that Stephen Moore has a particular perspective and a personal stake in advancing it, but here’s a tidbit he provides in The Washington Times that Rhode Islanders should read with some thought to how we allow our ruling class to run things around here:

I’m talking about an economic depression in the blue states that went for Hillary. Here is an amazing statistic. Of the 10 blue states that Hillary Clinton won by the largest percentage margins — California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut — every single one of them lost domestic migration (excluding immigration) over the last 10 years (2004-14). Nearly 2.75 million more Americans left California and New York than entered these states.They are the loser states. They are all progressive. High taxes rates. High welfare benefits. Heavy regulation. Environmental extremism. Super minimum wages. Most outlaw energy drilling. The whole left-wing playbook is on display in the Hillary states. And people are leaving in droves. Day after day, they are being bled to death. So much for liberalism creating a worker’s paradise.

There’s a reason our neighbors are leaving, and whatever your beliefs about social issues or the abstract role of government, you can’t really be humanitarian when the regime you support is forcing people to leave their homes.  The fact that our state remains preferable to third-world countries (or near-third-world countries) doesn’t mitigate the message.

Our place on Moore’s list is a warning sign we should have heeded long ago, and it’s one we’ve got a good excuse to explore at this point in our state’s history.