I see by your profile you are in Tennessee. I used to work in Memphis thirty years ago. As beautiful as Memphis Midtown mansions are, it is a Shit hole city run by the Fords for many years! So just how does this business of staying a Red State play out in Tennessee? You’re lucky that you don’t have a number of really big cities, so it will take longer for you to become Blue. But the big cities in Tennessee are probably growing faster than the rural areas Not a lot of major growth in Shiloh.
So all I can say is you had better watch out, because I can still remember when CA was the bedrock of Conservatism, Ronald Reagan was our governor, and we had majority Republican Legislatures and Congressional Representatives!
I live in East Tennessee, 500 miles from Memphis in the diagonally opposite corner. The district is solid Republican and pretty conservative.
As a point of interest, there is a FReeper I will not name who with her husband left California within the past two years and has settled on a few acres in what might be considered boon docks. I haven’t talked with her recently but believe they are settled into a semi Mother Earth life with jobs and the good life.
I hear your message and do not doubt it.