America: Love It or Leave It

Author’s Note: This week, we have two extra articles.  One recently appeared in the New York Sun.  It concerns the Daniel Penny trial and how Daniel Moynihan’s paper on Defining Deviancy Down has been adopted by the prosecution.  Please click the link to read.  Unfortunately, it may be behind a paywall, although accessible through Smart News.

The other article does not appear in the Sun, but is set forth below.

Late last week, several tabloid newspapers reported that Eva Longoria had left the United States to live abroad, dividing her time between Spain and Mexico.  According to one paper, she “ revealed after President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 election that she has fled the United States with her family.” 

The concept of celebrities fleeing the country as a result of a Republican winning the Presidency is hardly new.  In fact, it goes back decades.  In 2000, several celebrities said that they would leave the country if George W. Bush were elected president.  Robert Altman, the film director, made such a promise, declaring: "If George Bush is elected president, I’m leaving for France."  So, apparently, did Alec Baldwin, although he subsequently equivocated whether he had done so or not.  Later, Susan Sarandon said she would explore leaving the country if John McCain were elected. 

Celebrities promising to leave the country multiplied exponentially when Donald Trump first ran for President.  Whoopi Goldberg, Miley Cyrus, Amy Schumer, Barbra Streisand and Cher are just a few examples of celebrities who vowed to leave the country if Trump won in 2016.  In 2020, Sharon Stone joined the list, although Stormy Daniels did not in 2024. 

These celebrities shared two things in common.  First, they were all Democrats.  Not just Democrats, but loud Democrats from the so-called progressive wing of the party.  Second, none of them moved.  They all managed to weather the political storms that resulted from the election of a Republican president relatively unscathed.  For this reason alone, Longoria’s announcement was notable, even if she later corrected the record by saying that she had moved well before Trump’s election. 

That Hollywood celebrities have declined to uproot their homes for reasons based upon election results does not mean that the phenomenon does not exist.  The people choosing to uproot, however, are not celebrities; they are ordinary citizens.  If the phenomenon is rare among the Hollywood gentry, it is not among those with less of a following.  Rather than talking about leaving their homes, these Americans have actually done it.  The only difference is that they are moving primarily within the country rather than without.   

Over the past five years, hundreds of thousands of Americans have moved from one state to another as a result of dissatisfaction with policies enacted by those elected to govern them.   For example, approximately 500,000 residents have moved from California to Texas over the past several years.  Similarly, between 2018 and 2023, approximately 368,000 people moved from New York to Florida.  To be sure, some Americans are moving in the other direction.  They are just not doing it in the same numbers.  This is reflected by the fact that the populations of major blue states, such as California, New York, and Illinois, have been in steep decline.  Further, to the extent the decline has been tempered, it has been tempered by new residents moving in who do not make or produce as much money as those who left. 

Undoubtedly, not all of these moves were the result of political concerns, although one suspects that the majority were.  Crime, high taxes, and the cost of living, all the product of progressive state and city governments, have driven residents away in droves.  Longoria unwittingly spoke for these Americans when she explained her reasons for leaving Los Angeles: “I had my whole adult life here.  But even before [the pandemic], it was changing. The vibe was different. And then COVID happened, and it pushed it over the edge. Whether it’s the homelessness or the taxes, not that I want to s–t on California — it just feels like this chapter in my life is done now.”

Anyone looking for a clear illustration of the disconnect between the concerns of many Harris partisans and those of ordinary voters need look no further than the rhetoric about leaving the country.  For the former, the threat to leave home is a performative pose, based upon a theoretical threat to freedom posed by Donald Trump.  For the latter, the decision to leave home is the consequence of policies that affect their daily lives – taxes, crime, schools, and the cost of living.  It is hardly surprising that, to many voters, these real-life problems were far more compelling.