I'm a progressive living in a red state and I would love to leave, but who has the money or connections to just fucking move states? Like who the hell do I know in Washington state? And because the cost of living tends to be higher in blue states, it's impossible to save enough to move to one of those areas from fucking Arkansas.
No, it's just me and my wife. But we both have stable, decent paying jobs. Plus it's really the people that make this place terrible, the area itself is beautiful. I was born here, so I'd like nothing more than for this place to be better, but with the current political climate, leadership (both state and federal), and the unwillingness of anyone on the right to even have a conversation about progressive talking points, I just feel really hopeless that anything will ever get better.
We've done it more than once. It was easier this last time due to being fully remote, so no need to get new jobs. The previous time we visited a few times to look at housing and apply and interview for jobs, and when one of us landed one, we sold everything that wouldn't fit in our cars and just drove to the new state. It took a while to get the house fully setup, but it worked out.