Rolling to the Volunteer State

Some have asked me why I want to desperately move out of sunny South Florida, Miami Dade County, in particular, and head up north to Tennessee.

Well, other than trying to find Megan Fox's long lost twin sister (or body double) to marry, yesterday's Wall Street Journal gives ample enough reason, at least from a political perspective:

President-elect Barack Obama chalked up prizes among the South's formerly red states, but Republicans dramatically increased their power in Tennessee -- a state that not long ago looked ripe for the Democratic revival.

Republican Sen. John McCain defeated Mr. Obama by 15 points in the state. Republicans held their four U.S. House seats, took control of both chambers of the state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction, and Sen. Lamar Alexander became the first Republican to carry all but one county in his re-election win -- even taking a quarter of Tennessee's black votes.

Tennessee Republicans seemed immune to the national dissatisfaction toward the party that laid the groundwork for Mr. Obama's historic win...

Changing demographics, with an influx of new residents from other southern states & regions, the lowest percentage of African Americans in the South and a traditional conservative religious majority all are key factors in the above cited phenomenon.

In terms of me moving, I am further enthralled with the opportunity to reside in eastern Tennessee close to the majestic Great Smoky Mountains, in a log cabin environment away from the crazy hustle and high costs of city life in Miami.

To live in a state which has produced or is (was) home to such diverse figures as Andrew Jackson, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Davy Crockett, Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Ginnefer Goodwin, Isaac Hayes, Peyton Manning, Quentin Tarantino, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Penn Warren, Sam Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Shannen Doherty, Fred & Jeri Thompson, to name but a few, would be an honor indeed!!!

Lastly, let's recall that in 2000, not even Al "Spotted Owl" Gore, Jr., could carry his home state, which conversely made Florida, my state, the arbiter of that highly contested election...