I agree it's not great, but red states are actively persecuting minorities. Why would a minority willingly stay in a red state at this point? And if you're an ally or liberal or whatever and see what's happening clearly, why would you stay and be a part of it?

Polarization is the logical outcome of Republican policies.

Seeing the real harm caused by recent legislation in states like Florida, I'm not convinced this effect isn't mostly women and POC actively fleeing red states.

Had to escape Florida for the safety of my partner and myself. She couldn't even get her hormones anymore.

I'm planning on moving my family out of Texas. It's not safe to be a woman here and I can't put my kids through public education that is being systematically dismantled by underfunding, book bans, and restrictive curriculum.

And red states are also the ones suppressing blue votes as well. That's the only reason GOP win any presidential elections, or probably federal elections in general.

Conservatives want to eradicate anyone that isn't Straight, White, and Christian, so why would I ever move to a red state if I'm not in that group?

This offhand comment that was quoted in the article is really unsettling:

“Here, the tax dollars naturally goes to the citizens, not the immigrants,”

This isn't a conservative vs liberal policy thing, this is more insidious. This person's worldview subconsciously classes "citizens" and "immigrants" as mutually exclusive groups. There's "us, who were here before and belong here", and "them, who came here from somewhere else and shouldn't receive the benefits of our government". It seems like it wasn't long ago that the dominant left-vs-right conversations I observed were mostly discussions about economic and foreign policy where both sides had reasonable points and compromise was possible, but this isn't that. This ideological divide built on religion, xenophobia, nationalism, etc. can't end well.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the US will break up like the USSR in my lifetime.

It's going to be messy, and there's going to be some serious consequences for certain states that wanted to control their own laws based on Church/Hate despite being completely unable to go it alone economically.

The problem is that the real divide still is urban vs rural, not state v state. I always lived in red states and am very leftist. There's always strong leftist communities in every red state, even in small cities. Every state is less than 10% off from true purple last I checked.

It is a real shitty time to be a gun loving transgender anarchist...feels like there is nowhere for me to go.

I'm in MTG's district, the thought has definitely crossed my mind to leave. But this is my home, and it's going to have to take something truly horrific for me to leave. Honestly, I feel that a situation like that is inevitable at this point, but I'm staying put until I can't.

I feel like I will be forced to move out of my state if they manage to pass the proposed anti-transgender laws. 😔