“Where do you go? Most of America is fucked with global warming and water rights. I’d argue the Midwest holds out the longest but they’re also chancing with tornadoes and floods.”

I think this is the honest question. The Midwest is not a perfect refuge. We get tornadoes, flooding, heavy storms, polluted runoff, and all the problems that come with old infrastructure and bad planning.

We saw that here in Wisconsin during the second week of April when flooding hit parts of the state. So I would never pretend we are untouched by climate problems.

But where I live, there has also been real investment in flood mitigation. Retention ponds have gone in. Low-lying parks and flood-prone areas are being treated more like places that can hold water during storms instead of letting that water run straight into homes, basements, roads, and businesses. That kind of planning matters.

There are practical things communities can do: restore wetlands, build rain gardens, use swales and berms, plant deep-rooted native grasses, protect floodplains, stop paving over every natural sponge, and design parks that can flood safely before neighborhoods do.

“The Midwest is entrenched with staunch conservatives in poor rural areas who keep their states solidly red. Lower education, lower wages, more car reliance.”

There is truth in the rural struggle, but I think the picture is changing and more complicated than that. A lot of rural people are not the enemy. They are underpaid, overworked, car-dependent because there often is no transit, and ignored by both parties until election season.

Wisconsin itself is not some solid red wall. We are a battleground state, and our politics are messy because the people here are not one thing. We have farmers, union towns, college towns, small cities, rural conservatives, progressives, independents, and a long history of fighting over public goods.

So where do you go when everywhere has problems?

Come to Wisconsin.

We are not perfect. We have work to do. But we have water, soil, farms, forests, lakes, towns that still know how to help each other, and a state tradition rooted in public service and reform.

Our state motto is simple: Forward.

To me, the answer is not finding a perfect place. It is finding a place with enough water, enough community, and enough will to build resilience before desperation makes the choices for us.