This election has been a personal watershed in my house...

[misanthrope]

...not for me but for my wife. The ubiquitous bigotry and race baiting she has witnessed permeating this community, her workplace, friends and family has finally taken its toll. She has grown exasperated with being marginalized in this reddest of red places that is pretty much without redemption and is at last relenting to move far, far away to another state, region and reality. I've never heard her speak in the manner she has recently about this town where she has lived her entire life.

She is finally tired of beating her head on the wall.

The last hurdle will be clearing the passive-aggressive guilt games her mother uses to control her.

Free at last, free at last...

[patrice]

1. Getting away sometimes allows you to rescue the good stuff in a relationship.

And different places definitely DO have different personalities.

I hear Austin is really very nice and Texas Progressives could use some support.

[rucky]

2. nice! though you may have to change your screename soon.

[RedLetterRev]

3. Sometimes enough gets to be too much

I had to leave NC for 25 years before I felt free enough to return. When I did, I found it bluer and I was stronger and more able to make differences where I could. You need to breathe some fresh air for a while to get your own strength. It's always inside, but if there's too much racket outside, sometime you can't hear it.

It'll be okay. If nothing else, get up and get away for a little while just to chill, you and the wife together. You've always got the rest of us!

[massvsmatter]

4. sigh..

Yesterday I was at a family friend's and she told me she didn't think she could let me be in her driveway with the Obama sticker on my car. Her 7 year old son booed Obama several times and got all his friends to boo, too. Their chants grew louder and louder until I guess his mom was annoyed enough to tell him to stop.

I'm really seeing how I need to cut some of my ties here but it's so hard when I a) am way too nice and care about what others think I guess and b) have known these people forever.

Ugh!

[mnhtnbb]

5. I've lived in MO (and NE) and now live in the Berkeley of the South--Chapel Hill, NC

Hubby is closer to his family (GA) who are all Repubs, but he enjoys being able to get together
with them more frequently than when we lived in the midwest or CA.

It might be good to look for a progressive college town within a day's drive so your wife
can continue to see family, but discover how wonderful it is to live in a community where
her values and way of thinking predominate.

Take some time. Don't rush into a move.

[misanthrope]

6. I've been trying to get her to move for over ten years**nm

**

[Pithy]

7. I live in a liberal island

in the center of a brain-dead red state. I can't imagine living anywhere else in this state. I'm happy to hear that events are causing your wife to reconsider where you live, yet sad to think of how painful it must be for her. Hang in there.