Americans — especially younger Americans of the sort who just elected Zohran Mamdani mayor of New York City — are savvy shoppers. They excel at comparing products online, assessing quality and prices, delivery fees and return policies. Why don’t they turn those same skills to judging political candidates and policies? Isn’t choosing your leaders more important than picking out the perfect sneakers?

It’s not hard. After all, we have real, live and ongoing experiments in governance going on every day across our nation. We can look at how California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has driven hundreds of thousands of people to flee his state, for instance, and compare that with how Greg Abbott is attracting more and more people to Texas.

Our brilliant founders set it up that way; states and cities can compete for citizens and businesses by making decisions on taxes, environment, energy, development, law enforcement and a host of other issues that impact their citizens’ quality of life and opportunity to prosper. There are stark differences in approaches to regulating and managing communities — and starkly different outcomes.

Here’s the big picture (spoiler alert): red states are winning and blue states are losing. It’s that simple, but many voters seem unwilling or incapable of figuring it out.

It isn’t a matter of capability. We know, for instance, that in New York the most highly educated voters picked 34-year-old democratic socialist Mamdani, who promised gullible followers free stuff to make life in the Big Apple more........

© The Hill