Most North Carolinians have no idea what they've just done and how seriously it will impact them, how negatively they've affected the future growth and development of their economy by having officially joined Redneck Nation with this vote.
In a state whose growth has centered around the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill research triangle and that has staked its future on what author Richard Florida calls The Rise of the Creative Class, they've just stuck a fork in their future.
We live in a world where both capital and labor are mobile, where the future is in "creative capital"--whether it's the next Groupon or Apple or Microsoft or Facebook or Starbucks or Martha Stewart for that matter--and these all require educated, creative open-minded, out-of-the-box thinking types of people--the kinds who won't live in Redneck Nation.
The best and the brightest leave Redneck Nation, moving to Boston or New York or Silicon Valley, and they take their talents and start-ups and 21st century jobs with them.
The successful companies that need to attract the best and the brightest who tend to be cultured and liberal and prize diversity, will not locate in Redneck Nation North Carolina anymore as it would put them at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting the best and the brightest, the "creative class" who do not want to live in Redneck Nation and do not want their children growing up there.
The harsh reality of the 21st century is that if you want to go back to the 19th century then you're going to have to live with a 19th century economy, or even worse, as all those industrial jobs that did not require the creative class are gone with the wind.
So it's not going to take something as dramatic as a boycott to do North Carolina in economically--they've already done it to themselves. Many of the top 21st century oriented businesses, as they find it increasingly difficult to recruit and maintain top talent in the creative class (and as many of the CEOS and owners of these businesses want to get out of Redneck Nation--they too don't want their children growing up in ignorant and anti-science and anti-intellectual and intolerant Redneck Nation) they will seriously consider relocating to the 21st century.
But hey, North Carolina's loss, in a world where capital and labor are mobile, will be New York's and Massachusetts' gain.