'I don't think I can stay if Bush wins': Some Californians vow move to Canada if Kerry loses
Screen door, etc.
LOS ANGELES - Some left-leaning Californians say they would rather leave the United States -- and go to Canada or elsewhere -- than stay with George W. Bush as president. ''I certainly don't love the climate of Vancouver, but I love the sanity,'' said Steve Crawford, 54, a singer and actor working as a volunteer at the Democratic Party offices in Santa Monica.
A singer and actor is the arbiter of sanity? He works for the Dems and plans to leave if they lose, but don't dare question his patriotism.
He and his wife, Karen, have been investigating selling their home in Pacific Palisades, an upmarket area close to the coast, and moving to Canada.
Global elites of every stripe hate and fear Bush. Why?
''For someone like me, if this happens, I can't in good conscience allow myself to support another Bush government, even benignly. And a lot of other people are saying the same.
''I have a good friend who is adamant he will leave if Bush is re-elected. He's picked two countries and will definitely go to one should this happen.''
Syria and North Korea?
In the heavily Democratic state, famous for its Hollywood- and San Francisco-inspired latte liberal politics, such talk has become increasingly common at Starbucks and at dinner parties.
Another bullseye for the Telegraph, the center of anti-idiotarian resistance in the British media.
At first, the threat was little more than a joke. Now, on the eve of one of the most polarized elections in recent history, some say they really do intend to leave should ''the worst'' occur. There seems little doubt Californians will deliver the state's valuable 55 electoral votes to the Democratic candidate. In a poll on Friday, Mr. Kerry had a seven-point lead statewide, with a 24-point lead in Los Angeles county and a 35-point lead in the San Francisco Bay area.
But fear at what may happen in the key swing states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania has led to an escalation in coffee-shop chatter about emigration to Canada, Britain and elsewhere. ''Do you think Great Britain would give us political asylum?'' a woman in Starbucks asked. ''It's just ... I don't think I can stay if Bush wins again.''
Only if you toe the Guardian line, but that should be easy enough.
Mr. Crawford said it would be a difficult decision to move his nine-year-old son from his elementary school. ''But if I feel he's going to be living in an environment that's not safe for him, then I will do it. First and foremost I'm a dad.''
His son is in danger because lib fruitbats like him have turned California into a terror-loving crime-infested lunatic asylum.
Gretchen Witte, 35, from Alhambra, east of Los Angeles, who runs her own Internet business, is making plans to move to London, where she previously lived for eight years, should Mr. Bush win. ''As a woman, the current climate is becoming intolerable. Bush has just appointed a man to the FDA reproductive health panel who believes that women with medical trouble should pray to Jesus for relief. If this is what America is becoming, I cannot live here. The only reason I can sleep at night is the thought that I can leave the country if he wins.''
She prefers to pray to Allah?
Robert Boleyn, a 35-year-old independent consultant from Los Angeles, says he hears people ''all the time' 'saying they will emigrate if Mr. Bush wins. ''But I think it's often more a measure of frustration with the last four years than a real intention to leave,'' he added.
Voluntary exile as a political statement is nothing new. Democrat-supporting celebrities have a habit of making (usually empty) threats to leave should the election not go their way. Robert Redford, a vocal critic of Mr. Bush's policies, was reported this month to have vowed to move to Ireland, where he owns homes near Dublin, if Mr. Bush is re-elected.
Ah, Ireland, where every media-dhimmi is an infallible authority on American shortcomings. The smart ones left in the 1840s, so Redford should feel right at home.
Remember something when you read this: Those of us who might be annoyed at a Kerry victory have nowhere to go. I, for one, will not desert the ship even if it sinks. America is the last best hope for free people. 
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