Arizona, where the citizenry soil themselves with racist hatred.
New Mexico, where police are murderous thugs.
Utah, where rigid ideology destroys the semblance of democracy.
Missouri, where the police have armored up to protect a venal government.
Texas, where reason is a crime against the state.
Mississippi, where the good ol' boys are still riding high.
Louisiana, where an proven adulterous white US Senator retains carte blanche.
Florida, where a rapacious Legislature and Governor work to destroy opposition.
Georgia, that would have the confederate states of America rise again.
Arkansas, that glorifies the confederate general who tried his best to destroy the United States of America.
Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virgina, and both Carolinas, where people like me have the dreaded liberal "curse" or who aren't part of the blatantly regressive white crowd ...
Wisconsin, whose public leadership is corrupt, incompetent, and captive to the Koch brothers.
Other states on my "no visit" list include both Dakotas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Wyoming, and Idaho - too many guns in seditionist hands, just for starters.
Nor is there much positive to write home about in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas.
No room at the inns in Alabama either, I should think.
Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania are Virgina are mixed bags, some good, some terrible in each case. Easiest to just stay away.
I'm left with travel destinations that include the west coast states, Minnesota - where I live, the dubious positive provenances of Maryland/New Jersey, and the more secure positive provenances in D.C., Delaware, New York, and the far northeastern states.
California, New York, and Chicago, IL have a hefty percentage of the entire population of the country. Other urban areas like Austin (TX), Denver (CO), Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati (OH), and Savannah (GA) are densely populated islands of electoral sanity IMHO and there are no doubt other such enclaves scattered around the country writ large.
It seems to me that the deep south/southwestern states and the lightly populated states centered around the great central plain and bounded by the Rockies on the west and the Mississippi River on the east are a combination that is trying very hard to hold onto political supremacy that excludes what is becoming a compelling majority in this country.
A new wave now elects the US President, but not yet majorities in the Houses of Congress (thanks in the short run to blatant gerrymandering, a clearly partisan majority of Justices on the US Supreme Court, and a great deal of partisan monkeyshines in state government venues meant to keep the "peasants" in their place).
What the fortunes of the fading supremacists cannot prevent are large natural occurrances that dry up water reservoirs and sharply diminish flows in the aquifers west of the Mississippi. Increasingly violent weather systems are pummeling great swatches of the entire country. Multi-billion dollar physical catastrophes pay little heed to political arrangements and a few more fracking-induced earthquakes will no doubt have a salutory effect on rich and poor alike.
It's also clear to me that the technology-dependent relationships among the several states are inexorable now just as the early industrial-era national interdependencies doomed the separatist aspirations of that time's regional oligarchy. As a corollary, the integrity of modern technology is vulnerable on a national and even international scale - a few well-placed EMP atmospheric discharges would destroy productive capacities on a global scale, not just in some dustbowl backwater with delusions of grandeur.