Leavin' the Country

Remember how, after the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, some liberals said they were going to leave the country to protest the outcomes? And remember how many conservatives tried to use such statements to prove that we weren't really committed to Americuh?

Well, today it came full circle. A very nice woman who works in my building was chatting with another employee. He jokingly said that he was quitting so he could move out of a state where you can have 80 degree temperatures one day and six inches of snow two days later. She responded, with the practiced tone of a conservative on a liberal campus, "I'm thinking about moving out of the country, after those elections!"

This struck me as funny, for some of the same reasons that consos ripped on liberals for grandstanding in the same way. Is her commitment to the U.S. of A. so shallow that she's ready to flee after the first Democratic electoral victory in a long time? And just where would she go? Unlike liberals and progressives, there aren't that many countries to which a conservative American would either consider emigrating or which would bother to receive her. (Are there any truly conservative states in the West? Italy? Portugal? El Salvador? I don't know; I'm asking.) And, really, I'd hate to see her go: she's a lovely person with lots of interesting things to say. But my goodness it's satisfying to see and hear the other side taking its lumps. I hope we can visit on them as much electoral damage as they have visited on us since 1994.