On June 1, 2018, writer Roger Simon, his wife Sheryl Longin, also a writer, and their 20-year-old daughter found themselves on the road, moving cross-country from Los Angeles to Nashville. They were part of a stream of people leaving the Golden State, New York, and Illinois for destinations like Texas, Florida, and in the Simons’ case, Tennessee. Since then, that stream has become a river of refugees: individuals and families who, like the Simons, sought an escape from high taxes, tyrannical regulations, and extreme leftist politics.
To pull up stakes and exchange the familiar for the unknown isn’t an easy choice. As Mr. Simon, a contributor to The Epoch Times, writes of that first day of his own migration, “My family and I were less than three hours out of Los Angeles when I thought, What on God’s intermittently green earth am I doing?”
Notes on One Man’s Odyssey
As he describes settling into his new quarters and new life, Mr. Simon gives some great tips, often unintentionally, to anyone making a similar trek. Upon arriving in Nashville, he deliberately sets out to explore the city, open mindedly absorbing its politics, culture, and customs. He avoids making negative comments about his new surroundings or remarks that begin with “That’s not the way we did it in L.A.”—always a mistake, this one—and he looks on his move and resettlement as an ongoing adventure.Anyone contemplating such a move should note that Mr. Simon engages the people who helped him settle into his new way of life. At the end of “American Refugees,” he expresses his gratitude for the new friends he’s made and the “wonderful people I have met here, many of whom have been described in this book.” He then immediately adds: “Notably missing are perhaps the best of all—the plumbers, electricians, HVAC folks, construction workers, and the like who, when I have talked to them, have exhibited more common sense and more down-home patriotism for this country than any group of people I have ever met.”
Mr. Simon laces his story with wit and humor. Having spent a good part of my boyhood in a small town in rural North Carolina, I smiled when Mr. Simon comments on the good manners and pleasantries of the Southerners he meets. “In the first few weeks after my arrival,” he reports, “after so many years in New York and Los Angeles, I even thought such friendly behavior was a trick.” Over the years, several of my own visitors from outside the South have asked if these manners were faked, or perhaps a false front hiding ulterior motives. “Not at all,” I would tell them. “It’s just the way people behave here.”
One Surprise
According to Mr. Simon, the answer to this question is “Absolutely not.”He tells us that “a 2022 census showed that nearly a quarter of those still streaming into Tennessee were from California.” After sharing that figure, through data and his own personal experiences, he refutes the idea of a red-state takeover, concluding: “The newcomers were anything but liberal and progressive, overt or otherwise. They were American refugees: people who so rejected these ideologies, who so preferred to live in a constitutional republic, that they were willing to pull up stakes; quit their jobs; leave behind friends, family, and their accustomed ways of life; and trek across the country—all to live in accordance with their values.”
Another Surprise
Guided by a source with political connections who appears in “American Refugees” under the pseudonym Rocky Top, Mr. Simon discovers that a good number of the politicians and activists in Nashville, Tennessee’s capital, are as blue as their counterparts in New York or Chicago. Even many of the self-labeled conservatives, who play to the public with promises and pronouncements, have little real interest in the welfare of those constituents.“Most of the politicians and the business community on the right were immune to solutions,” Mr. Simon notes at one point, “as if they had an allergy to actually doing anything that might disturb the status quo and effectuate positive change.” Though he’s writing of Tennessee, he also includes chapters on Georgia and Florida, where this same reflection applies. His observation likely extends to communities nationwide. From our federal to our local officials, we find this same dead-headed approach to solutions all too often.
Other Gifts
Mr. Simon mulls over other political and cultural issues. He writes of the night when American political commentator Matt Walsh appeared at a first showing of his film “What Is a Woman?” and the generally insipid conservative response. He brings in national politics, including our upcoming presidential election. Sadly, at the end of the book, he also addresses the murders at a Nashville Christian school in March 2023, when a transgender shooter gunned down three 9-year-olds and three adults.We also get to meet some fine Americans along the way. In the chapter “Playing Tennis With a Guy Called Bubba,” for example, Mr. Simon introduces us to a number of Nashville residents who become his friends, writing: “I know if I were ever in a pinch, these men would have my back.” He befriends Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, through whom he reflects on some of the trials faced in the Senate by members of the minority party. He devotes a chapter to Kathy Harms, another conservative refugee and a leader in the Election Integrity Networks, and dedicates the book itself to Glenn Reynolds, a longtime friend who is a political pundit and a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law.
For all of the above reasons, “American Refugee” is a worthwhile, entertaining, and educational read.
