I feel the same. If I cannot travel my life is pretty much done.
This is an excellent point, and I should have mentioned that there are places in my own state that I have no real desire to visit either.
As I mentioned in the OP, I grew up doing family road trips. There is still so much of this country I want to see. But the fun of a road trip isn’t just hopping from city to city, it’s exploring the nooks and crannies. And that’s the part that I no longer feel as comfortable doing.
I would have once said that overt is better than covert, because I like not having to guess, but these people feel so empowered right now that I think they are more likely to cause trouble with any perceived outsiders, rather than appreciate the money that it brings to their local economy.
Certainly not Hispanic. San Antonio is over 50% Hispanic.
There is also a sizable Black population and Middle Eastern population.
There have been sizeable populations of these people for a long time. Hasn’t stopped issues of “driving while black” or, very recently, Hispanics or Arabs getting nabbed and deported. It’s so bad that other European countries (UK, Denmark and Germany at least) have issued travel advisories to their citizens about the dangers of traveling to the US.
Not to mention the likes of sheriff Joe Arpaio in the Phoenix area who, despite court orders, was more than happy to nab Hispanics off the street. Didn’t matter that there was a sizeable population of them there.
If nowhere is dangerous then where are the travel advisories coming from (advisories that are about our government and not random criminals)?
Here is the TV show Top Gear in Alabama. Granted, they painted their cars with provactive slogans and they almost got into serious trouble for it (jump to 4:05 in the video if the link doesn’t put you there):
I’ve eschewed chances to go to Texas on other peoples money not because I feel threatened there, but just because I don’t want a penny of my money going to the Texas government. I switched a river cruise from the Danube to the Rhine to avoid going to Hungary and supporting those fascists - same reason, basically.
There are red parts of California, but I don’t mind going there since my tax money supports our good government. Of course I look “the right way” so it is doubtful anyone would hassle me where ever I went.
As mentioned in the OP international travel is down. Fine with me, I don’t blame those who won’t come here one bit.
And not just rural areas. I live in a rather affluent area (despite not being all that affluent myself) in California, and there are Trump merchandise stands on two different busy streets in my area, where you can buy all the cheap, Chinese-made propaganda your little rich heart desires. We even have a couple of pick-ups with the big flag pole in the back toting a tattered and dirty American flag as if that’s somehow respectful to the flag. But I still feel more comfortable here than I would, say, in Riverside County where MAGAs are in abundance.