Back in Sept, for the Weekly Standard's 10th anniversary, the JFK school of govt's Institute of Politics had a forum containing William Kristol, PJ O'Rourke, and Fred Barnes among others. A decent sized crowd showed up, was civil, and asked some excellent questions.
Every state in the US is actually more or less purple, though some tend to the blue side and most to the red. Still, that means that in eastern Massachusetts, as in SF, there will be great patriotic Americans and there will even be some red-staters with a familiarity with common civility.
I'm sorry if my flip comment suggested otherwise, because I do recall the respectful reception given many good conservative thinkers out in the West (when I was still living there).