Emigration -- or democratic activism?

Listening to Yascha Mounk and Matthias Matthijs discuss the Future of Europe, a throwaway remark stuck with me. (Do read the whole article; it's thought provoking.)

On the topic of relations between Viktor Orbán's authoritarian Hungary and the rest of the European Union, Matthijs commented:

Many young Hungarians have already left for other EU member states (it’s very easy within the single market with free movement of labor) and they don't vote anymore. Orbán has made it very hard for them to vote when they live in the rest of the EU.

Freedom of movement, including to work, between all 27 member states (and some non-members including Ukraine) is a baseline principle of the European Union.

On 1 January 2021, there were 23.7 million citizens of non-member countries living in one of the EU Member States, representing 5.3% of the EU population. In addition, there were 13.7 million people living in one of the EU Member States with the citizenship of another EU Member State. Eurostat

This must have political consequences in some European states as the young and the skilled migrate to places they find more congenial, taking their energy and modern ideas about society with them. They retain citizenship in their state of origin, but often find themselves outside the practice of democracy in both their homelands and their new abodes. Does this matter? Probably in different ways in different EU states. 

EU flag flies along with Italy's on a San Francisco consulate

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Which brings me to that nutcase Georgia Republican Congresswoman who is hawking "a divorce" between red and blue dis-United States. Obviously this is just more attention-seeking bullshit, but still dangerous bullshit.

On this I think Tennessean David French has a right insight from our history:

... The South [in 1860] separated from the North and started a ruinous and futile war not because of calm deliberation, but rather because of hysteria and fear — including hysteria and fear whipped up by the partisan press.

So my question is not “Is divorce reasonable?” but rather, “Are we susceptible to the unreason that triggered war once before?

Much as I participate in my own fear and disgust as I watch the entrepreneurs of hate promote terror of drag queens and the danger of crime (that usually means Black men), I try to remember that the haters are still a minority and still can be overcome. Previous generations have risen to that task; we must again.