Ellen, Cher and Sharon Stone say they're leaving US after Trump's win. See ya! | Opinion

Have they left yet?

You know who I’m talking about.

In the days after last month’s election, news reports said Google searches involving leaving the country and moving overseas rose more than 1,500%.

A survey reported that 1 in 5 of Americans actually said they would consider leaving the United States if their candidate lost the race.

Then, of course, there were those few high-profile celebrities who very quickly flew the coop.

Those with least to lose were first to leave

Within days after the election, there were photographs of comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, the actress Portia de Rossi, in England.

Some of the others who proclaimed their intention to head for the hills were Barbra Streisand, Cher, Sharon Stone, “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston, comedian Amy Schumer, actress America Ferrera (ironic, given her first name) and Elon Musk’s transgender daughter, Vivian Wilson.

Each of them has expressed virulent anti-Trump opinions during the course of the campaign, and in the aftermath of the election felt a deep and genuine sense of disappointment and, in a real sense, grief.

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I acknowledge their disillusion. I understand their unhappiness, their distress, their heartache.

And that is why if I were to bump into any one of them on the way to the airport, where a private jet is fueled and ready to whisk them away, I would most sympathetically say … good riddance.

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After all, it is people like them, with the financial means to take a powder, who would be the least impacted by anything the second administration of Donald Trump might do.

At the same time, it is those same people who have the resources and freedom to offer some type of support to those individuals who will be impacted.

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So, bon voyage, adios, adieu, cheerio, and don’t let the door hit you on the you-know-what on your way out.

As for the rest of us, we’re staying. And not only because we don’t have the cash for a condo in London or Vancouver.

It’s because what made America great, and keeps us great, has never needed to be remade. And we’ll stick around to prove it.

The French have a word for election overreactors

Meantime, of all the news stories involving Americans who planned to relocate abroad owing to election trauma, my favorite involves Robert Horton, a 79-year-old man from Virginia Beach who qualified for a long-stay visa in France and announced before the election his plans to move to Paris.

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Horton, a big Trump supporter, was convinced Kamala Harris would win.

So, he dumped his residence and decided to leave here and move to France “even though it’s a socialist country.”

In Paris, I believe they would refer to such a person as "l’idiot."

EJ Montini is a columnist at The Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump won the election, now celebrities flee. Good riddance | Opinion