On June 1, 2018, my wife, daughter, and I decamped from Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee.
That was enough.
The once semi-gorgeous Hollywood Hills home didn't seem so glamorous anymore, with homeless people trudging down Mulholland Drive every morning, making walking the dog a dangerous experience.
Nor is it a particularly enlightening experience to drive through the city for work, play, or shopping, with children next to you, and to see drug-addled people hunched over and defecating in doorways. Ta.
This wasn't exactly “California Dreamin'” anymore.
Furthermore, I had already been involved in betraying the liberal cause of the movie business by founding and becoming CEO of the conservative website Pajama Media (now PJ Media), and I had already received a message in my inbox. We know where you live!'' was discovered with a scrawled warning on it. ”
Many of the people I met were strong constitutionalists who were searching for their beloved lost America and hoping to find it in red states.
It was time to leave, but the question was where to go.
I loved Charleston, South Carolina. My wife and daughter are both country music fans and preferred Nashville. So I was voted out.
We also chose this city because my wife and I have spent our lives as novelists and screenwriters, and we wanted a creative city.
But the truth is, even though we've been there, we didn't know much about the place. We were running blindly and optimistically from the bluest of blue states to red states.
It is no exaggeration to say that I was surprised.
That's why it took me over five years to write “''.American Refugees: The untold story of mass migration from blue states to red states”
This is an experiential book, not data-driven, so I had to put it into practice first. I'm a fan of “writing what I know'' when it comes to my mystery novel series.
After spending most of my life in Los Angeles and New York, the first thing that struck me was how nice everyone was. At first I thought it was almost a trick.
The bigger shock was how blue the city of Nashville itself was. Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga are blue islands in red Tennessee.
Naively, I thought Music City was more or less purple. Metro Council meetings turned out to be more like gatherings of “woke” Politburo members on steroids.
But that wasn't all. A few miles out of Nashville, the city became increasingly red. Or was it? Demographics were complex.
Even places like neighboring Franklin, Tennessee, are like Republican dreamlands. Norman Rockwell meets sushi bar — was in action.
Our friends on the left were intent on turning red states blue.
(My book focuses primarily on Tennessee, but also has chapters on Texas, Georgia, and Florida.)
This makes me think about the story of “refugees” and what their role was and is now.
Initially, those of us who came from blue America were thought to be viewed with suspicion because we were motivated by cheaper living (lower taxes) and would taint red state nirvana with our innate “California views.” I did.
While true for a small number of people, my observations indicate that this preconception is largely off the mark.
Who wouldn't want to save money on taxes? But moving across the United States is a big undertaking, and usually requires more motivation than saving a few dollars that could end up disappearing in moving costs anyway.
Many of the people I met were strong constitutionalists who were searching for their beloved lost America and hoping to find it in red states.
As I learned, they were often more constitutionalist than the residents of the red states themselves, and often more MAGA as well.
Is this really that surprising? It's worth noting that California, because of its size, had more Trump supporters in 2020 than any other state.
So who are these people who have gone out of their way to cross the border to become the new American refugees, recreating the (legally only) refugees of yesteryear who founded this country?
In my book, I call them cavalry – on SUVs, not horses – coming to save red states from themselves.
Now, this isn't always true. As the cliché goes, “It's complicated.”
In any case, they are facing entrenched politicians, a significant number of whom are nominally Southern Republicans but often resemble old Southern Democrats in new clothes.
This led to conflict;
cultural movement Both sides of necessity are changing.
One of the arguments that old-school conservatives have made with legitimacy is that they were the ones who turned Tennessee and other states red in the first place.
Aren't you a bunch of rebellious blue state people?
Baczynski?
I'm trying to figure this all out in “American Refugees.”
Overall, I view migration as a positive experience in this book. Perhaps most importantly, in contrast to blue America, where God is largely ignored, so many people in red America are devoted to God.
That part changed me more than anything.
Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and current editor-in-chief of The Epoch Times.
