Leaving isn’t the only answer

On toxic politics, fleeing to safety and fighting back

There’s a lazy tendency in the discussion of American politics that goes something like this: if you don’t like the politics and laws of a place, especially a state, you should just leave, go somewhere more aligned with your beliefs. It’s dismissive, damaging, and for most people, it is simply not an option.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that Trumpism didn’t go away when Donald Trump lost the last presidential election. Toxic rhetoric and politics grounded in hate have gone local, overwhelming state and town governments in places like Montana, where I live. But telling people the solution is to run away does nothing to address the core problems that led us into this place. The years of ignoring rural spaces, allowing grievances to fester, the evils of unchecked hate being channeled toward marginalized people.

I’ve spent some of this summer and fall writing about people who are under direct attack from right-wing political extremism and listening to how they weigh staying and leaving in the places where the politics have made their lives and work dangerous. These are not folks whose lives have been made a little bit unpleasant by politics, but people who are in the immediate line of fire from anti-abortion laws and anti-LGBTQI+ legislation.

In Montana, Indigenous trans writer Adria Jawort has chosen to stay, but makes it clear that part of her decision to remain in her home state was financial. This is something the stubborn “just leave” discourse always ignores: moving, especially to another state in the midst of a national housing cost crisis, is too expensive for most people. Jawort discusses things in detail in this piece. She is one of several plaintiffs suing the state over its new, restrictive laws on gender expression.

In Idaho, I spent time with women who are staying and leaving, under threat from extreme anti-abortion laws. One doctor in this story stayed as long as she felt she could, but the legal landscape is such that neither she nor her husband could feel safe doing their jobs. What’s happening in Sandpoint because of anti-abortion laws reaches far beyond the medical procedure of abortion and shifted life for all women and families. You can read the full story here.

And today, I’ve got a profile out on a politician who has chosen to stay and fight back. Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat who represents Missoula, isn’t getting chased out of the state where she was born. Instead, she’s digging in and starting a new organization to get others to run for state office. You can read about Zephyr and her work, also at the Guardian.

If there’s one thing I understand from living in a place that was known as politically moderate until just a few years ago, it’s that state borders don’t stop toxic, hate-based politics.