Their kids leave then don't come back and slowly, family by family, whole groups are forced to abandon the region; they're net emigration regions, especially when you count rural versus urban (eg, the pattern becomes clear when you look at Georgia minus Atlanta).

Their migrated children tend to be more liberal, as urban populations are in general. Starvation is a wonderful motivator to change social order, and help mix society.

Now, I'm not even arguing this is a good thing, but I'm pretty powerless to do much when I consistently vote to help those regions develop new industry and they consistently vote to overrule that.

So, I hope they enjoy what they voted for: they won the debate, now they can have their prize.