DLers: Will you be more hesitant about your Red State travel plans going forward?

You sound like an idiot, OP.

I’m traveling to Florida this month for the fifth time since Covid started. I’ll be having a pecan waffle at Waffle House and not be thinking about anything you’re experiencing.

I am not going to any red state any time soon. Fully realize not all the people who live there are unhinged but it’s not worth it to me. So many other places to visit.

I decided long ago I never want to go to Texas, Florida or Vegas. But I’d go to the rural southern states.

OP You gotta flip somehow and expand D territory

R2 is literally the reason half a million Americans are dead of covid.

And I killed Sparky, too.

Vaccination doesn't eliminate transmission, it can only reduce it, so even a vaccinated person can contract and spread covid. A few will be hospitalised and die. Them's the breaks. Makes no difference where you go if people are there.

I've refused to travel to Texas or even book a flight to the West coast that has a layover there. I find their policies on gay, women's and minorities rights to be repugnant. I have better places to spend my money.

It's our house rule. Red states get enough of our hard-earned, NYC tax dollars. My husband and I are not going to put any more money into their evil coffers. Which is sad. We have very close friends in Miami and Austin.

My husband's from Texas. He doesn't go back to see family any more: American won't just circle over DFW for an hour or two while he visits.

[quote] Vaccination doesn't eliminate transmission, it can only reduce it, so even a vaccinated person can contract and spread covid. A few will be hospitalised and die. Them's the breaks. Makes no difference where you go if people are ther

Thanks Tucker. Do you come and read all the threads about you?

The idea of going to, and spending money in, a red state is very unappealing. I don't want to go out to restaurants and be surrounded by Trumptards. And I don't want to pump money into their economies.

More importantly, many of these republican states have been passing so called "religious freedom" bills, which means that if I were to go to say, rural Montana, where I have a good friend, and had a health issue, the two doctors in the area, both of whom are evangelical Christians, would be legally in their rights to refuse to help me.

Not worth the risk.

Snowflakes melt in red states.

R10 The state of Florida does not take your New York tax dollars, if you don’t want to travel somewhere then fine, they don’t need you.

I'm saving my travel plans for xmas overseas...hope xmas won't be canceled this year. I'm quite nervous about flying since it will be at least 7 hrs on the plane.

You should just stay in New York where it's safe. Probably best to avoid nursing homes, however.

OP's home.

Absolutely not! I’ve been to Ft. Lauderdale twice in the last 60 days. Packed bars, good entertainment, great food, fun beaches. Had a blast both times.

[italic] R19 has been a paid announcement by the Fort Lauderdale Board of Tourism

Will never go to those shitholes willingly.

I’ve definitely limited my contact with and purchases from red states. They are a backward, poor minority but have a stranglehold on national policy because of our shitty federal system. Why should I transfer my wealth to them? Fuck that.

Have never gotten the point of Florida---dull stripmall burgs and clearly it's on its way to environmental self-destruction. Texas--have been there many times for work, again dull, carbound cities either built on swamps or surrounded by dull, often wasteland-like scenery. Have been to all 50 states and tehre's plenty to see w/o going to FL, TX or most of the Southeast.

I used to go to Fort Lauderdale once a year, but there's no way I'll go to Florida again until DeathSantis is out on his ass and the state pulls its head out of theirs.

R23 - You’re missing so much!! Ft. Lauderdale has a tremendous gay beach (with 99% men, no women!), a wonderful thriving bar scene with something for everyone, and is an affordable getaway. (No I don’t work for the Chamber of Commerce)

I live in Atlanta when FLL was taking off as a destination for Atlanta gays. It sounded like Atlanta with a beach, which sounded dreadful. I'd rather have a beach without Atlanta, which is not difficult to do.

i have got to go to Laurel, MS before i die!

[quote]I don't want to go out to restaurants and be surrounded by Trumptards.

Do you think that being at Olive Garden is going to be like being at a Trump rally with people frothing at the mouth and chanting "Lock her up!"? Trust me, you would be hard pressed to know which of your fellow diners voted for Trump and which voted for Clinton or Biden. Just like you don't know right now in whatever liberal paradise you reside in. Most, like you, will be busy shoveling endless breadsticks into their gaping maws. You won't need to fear some Marjory Q type going from table to table sharing the latest conspiracy theories.

You are very privileged to just point your nose up on refusing to go somewhere based on your ideology. Not everyone in this world is going to agree with you toots.

If you are traveling to exert your beliefs on the local populace you might as well be a Jesuit missionary.

[quote] Trust me, you would be hard pressed to know which of your fellow diners voted for Trump and which voted for Clinton or Biden.

The ones with the MAGA hats would be the ones who voted for Trump

R21 hangs out in latrines.

Floridians despise New Yorkers. You’re doing Floridians a huge favor.

I just love seeing all the scared New Yorkers fleeing to Florida in droves. I guess they’re swallowing all of their previous shit talking.

My wife and I did a 4 month road trip while Obama was in office. More than half the trip was through the south. We went to a lot of civil rights museums and sites and toured the LBJ library in Austin (it was fascinating.) We were so glad to have done it then. I would be hesitant to do it now as I feel the effects of trump giving a voice to the violent bigots is still strong.

I have a real problem with spending money in red states, propping up their economies and rewarding their dipshit MAGAt governors. So no, I don't plan to go to any of them. If I do have to drive through one, I'll be sure and top off the tank in a neighboring blue state--like when I had to drive through Indiana on I-64, I made sure to gas up in Illinois.

Oh yeah! For two years now I'd planned a birding trip to the southern Atlantic seaboard, but I cancelled because of the Pandemic and the godawful Red State response to it.

I don't know if I'll ever make it now.

R25 you sound like an unpleasant house guest.

[quote] Vaccination doesn't eliminate transmission, it can only reduce it, so even a vaccinated person can contract and spread covid. A few will be hospitalised and die. Them's the breaks. Makes no difference where you go if people are there.

Why do people keep saying this? Is it the same 2 people on this site?

If you’re fully vaccinated, you are not going to kill an unvaccinated person. Ever. Your chances of ever being meaningfully INFECTED (with a significant viral load that you would ever notice or be capable of spreading) are close to nil as can be.

Why do people keep lying about vaccines?

I’m writing from the UK, and have been to the US a few times and loved every minute of my time there but, be honest, I am in no hurry to go back. The US seems to be an increasingly aggressive place. It’s not just the insane lack of sane gun laws, but also the media which gives an impression that the country is under siege.

America is an advanced democracy, with almost limitless possibilities, some of the world’s greatest universities and businesses, and a huge amount of cultural capital, and yet it seems as if your rightwing has genuinely been driven to the brink of insanity. The desecration of the Capitol was the final straw for me. I watched as one Republican after another sought to exonerate Trump and play down the event, and it genuinely made me feel sick, as if I was watching real moral bankruptcy at work. They care only for their own power and privileges, and I genuinely feel that it threatens to be the real downfall of America. America’s enemies will seek to exploit it, and America’s friends can only hope that the country wakes up to the danger.

^^ all good points.

What's it like driving through the South with a liberal state license plate? Do the cops stop you a lot?

I can't even drive through Kansas with a Colorado plate without being stopped for some BS reason.

Honestly, no. And like the OP said, pretty much anywhere I would travel within those states is more blue anyway.

And if by chance I did foresee a situation that may cause me anxiety, it’s much easier to social distance in any of those spots (compared to NYC), plus you can do far more things outdoors.

R40 They think you are smuggling weed. Same is true in Nebraska.

Do you realize that no state is 100% red or blue? Even the most backward red state has 30-40% voting blue with the reverse also being true. In other words we are all fucked up, it's just a matter of degree

30% of the white people in Alabama and Mississippi did not vote for Biden

R43, you're ruining the DL dystopian fantasy where blue-state liberals caught in a red state are forced to battle to the death in Thunderdome while MAGA hat-wearing Trumpers cheer it on with chants of "Lock her up!" and "Fake news!"

It's best if all of you blue-staters just stay cowering in your basements. We don't need another hero.

R44 Yes 20% of 'whites' in Alabama voted for Biden while 80% of non-whites voted for him. But what exactly was your point- blue vs. red to bring race into the discussion?

I wonder what will happen to convention business in Florida and Texas?

R47 - Speaking as a hotel banquet manager, it will be fabulous! I have every single weekend from now through October booked for weddings, and some people are renting out space during the week for weddings. I’ve never had a completely full calendar before now.

On the contrary I think we should make it a point to go to these states. No gains are made by acting stubborn and angry.

They need more exposure to sane people, not less.

[quote] Most, like you, will be busy shoveling endless breadsticks into their gaping maws.

But isn't that the point of Olive Garden?

[quote] They need more exposure to sane people, not less.

LOL. These are the states with the highest number of psychiatrists per 100,000 population:

District of Columbia (50.1)

Massachusetts (30.0)

New York (25.3)

Rhode Island (23.5)

Connecticut (23.4)

Vermont (23.1)

Maryland (20.4)

Hawaii (18.0)

Red states would no doubt prefer that certified loons from these other states not visit.

I won't say "never" because something could come up that would make it cruel, vastly irresponsible, etc., not to, but outside of that, fuck 'em. There are a few zillion places I'd like to see in blue states and generally sane countries so I have more than enough vacation options.

R51 That means people in these states are more healthy mentally, because they take care of their heads. Try again.

[quote] I've spoken to other friends and they report having the same feelings.

No, you haven't.

unless compelled to for business reasons, why would any sane person ever go to those racist, shitholes of bigotry and ignorance?

^^ To visit Betty Lynn.

I'm with you OP. I wasn't thrilled about going to red states before, but I didn't avoid them.

Now I'm very reluctant to put a dime in their pockets.

And agreed, a lot of the cities are blue, but that's not really enough for me.

A lot of conservatives on this thread who live in red states apparently, but the feeling you're describing is probably very common.

Exactly R57

The thing was in 2016 you could sort of see why someone might have voted for Trump as a way of saying fuck you to the system or because they despised Hillary.

But fast-forward to where we are now, where most Republicans really do believe The Big Lie and continue to press their representatives in Congress to do something about it--it really is like dealing with Nazi who believed that Aryans were superhumans and all of Hitler's other crap.

[quote] That means people in these states are more healthy mentally,

R53, riiiight. Just like how the states with the most prisons have the least criminals.

In general, you can't paint all states with such a broad brush. For example, CA has red areas, Texas has blue areas etc.

R60: If Reds are the majority, they run it. Makes a big difference.

R61 please speak in complete sentences.

Yes please do what R62 is asking of you R61

Our translation software only understands full sentences

Hey long-duc-dong R63, please use proper punctuation too.