MY SO's former bassist and his wife decided in 1996 that they'd had enough, shook the dust of Southern California from their boots, moved to Amsterdam—the consideration governing their choice of city being what you'd imagine—and have never looked back. They're legal residents, legal to work, own a home in the city and have mastered the lingo. From here, two days after Black Tuesday, they're looking kinda...prescient.
I feel a strong regional loyalty to the US west coast, where I have lived all my life (various parts of California and, briefly, a Seattle suburb) but to the country at large...no. If the Redstates want to be the "Real America," they're welcome to it as far as I'm concerned. I just fret that after another decade or so of dominionist triumphalism the crazy motherfuckers will come after us Blues all on fire for Jeeesus in an orgy of conversion by the sword.
cordially,