Seems to me that many people exaggerate their opposition to a particular presidential candidate. I recall plenty of liberals claiming that they would move abroad if Bush was reelected in 2004. Bush got reelected and there was no particular mass exodus.
I don’t recall many conservatives emigrating when Obama was elected or reelected, either.
So, aren’t most such claims really just exaggerated, made for rhetorical purposes?
Yes.
People underestimate how difficult it is to leave the US and permanently take up legal residence elsewhere. For one thing, other countries have stringent immigration requirements. For another, unless you renounce your U.S. citizenship, you’re still on the hook for filing U.S. taxes every year, which is a headache.
I think most of the bluster is made on the memories of the Americans who went to Canada to avoid being sent to Vietnam, ignorant of the fact that things in both countries’ bureaucracies and immigration policies have changed since the 1970s.
They are declarative statements made in the heat of the moment by people with celebrity that are given a voice that believe that people in the general public put stock in what they have to say away from a movie script.
In both cases, them leaving the country and believing that the general public cares for their opinions they are wrong.
Although Pierre Salinger (JFK press secretary/RFK campaign manager/ABC News correspondent/TWA 800 conspiracy theorist) did follow through on his promise to spend the rest of his life in France if George W Bush was elected president.