A friend of mine just left the United States. Not leaving forever, but in some respects philosophically departing. He packed a bag and is presently traveling in South America on an undetermined timeline.
Before leaving, he said that he felt he had to leave the country for a while rather than watch as Trump and his minions work to lacerate democracy on a daily basis.
My unnamed friend’s odyssey is all the more distressing because he had just recently become a naturalized US citizen, something that he had neglected to do while living and working here for more than ten years. He had put off applying, thinking that he’d get it around to it some day. Meanwhile, he’d been able to live here, thrive, and occasionally travel back to his childhood home. Then he finally made a successful effort, swearing his allegiance. He celebrated his first opportunity to vote in a U.S. election, much like a second birthday.
But alas he had the misfortune of picking a time like none other in this country. In this year, 2025, half or more of the nation is in disbelief finding that our country is becoming a nightmare, thanks to a single self-absorbed individual. Arguably there are fellow travelers and willing helpers. But things would not have reached this fever pitch without the maneuverings of that corrupt figurehead. In the prophetic words of Henry Adams: he was using politics to achieve “the systematic organization of hatreds.”
My fleeing friend isn’t the only one. There are a dozen others I know – including a once highly placed official – who have said that they almost religiously avoid reading the news They claim that each new day brings reports more disastrous than the last.
It is indeed tempting to shut out unsettling reports, attempt to escape the sick feeling in the pit of one’s stomach and heavy feeling across one’s chest. Many instead turn to sports contests, flee into fantasy, or seek other distractions. But sadly that avoidance is counterproductive.
The truth is that the opposition can only win if it remains fully in the game. This, of course, brings up the question: what can the average individual do besides shudder? While there seem limited ways to combat the unraveling of democracy, it is important to do whatever one can: make phone calls to one’s representatives, attend town halls and speak up, donate to appropriate causes like the Reporters Center for Freedom of the Press, volunteer to help in some democratic action, join with others to demonstrate, work to show solidarity against anarchy.
I like to think of how it must have seemed back in the early days of this democracy: the time when this young nation, although ill-represented by only the landed few, faced the unyielding authority of the British Crown. There is a glimmer of hope in remembering that the nation’s forebearers once rejected kingly power. With determination and even broader representation today we could do so again.
It is probable that one individual’s efforts averting eyes from the dreadful news and standing up, won’t make a bit of difference. But one thing is very certain: If we drop out, tune out, turn a blind eye, then there is no hope at all.
Preach, Jean!
It seems like all the normal, politically unaware people were gathered in one place at one time by all the cruel and malicious people, and got bamboozled into voting for a long, slow trip into the crematorium oven. Except that they and we are not quite dead yet, and we can all hear ourselves screaming.
Please, please, encourage as many left (and east) coast progs as possible to get out now! Provincial Seattle has never benefited from the degradation that socialists have engendered there, especially over the last decade. I hear Venezuela is lovely this time of year and Nicolas Moduro is much more to attuned to the average Seattle lefty’s political and social points of view.
Good points as ever Jean…BUT.
While Trump did not have a mandate as he daily claims, this was a close election. But equally inescapable is the 40+% support Trumpism seems to have, much of which are his immovable core MAGAists. If that represents what the US is becoming, then other factors come into play. In my case age and others in the growing 70-80-90+ group. To change the direction the US is taking will take more than another election, more than a decade, we may be seeing generational challenges.
There are parts of the world that show signs of resisting the hard right rather more effectively than the US. Their values, once ours, are the grass that seems greener on the other side of the fence.
The old order that was our comfort zone, Centrist Republicans, government and governed who accepted the the value and need for compromise and respect for the rule of law; those comforts are, for the moment, lost in polarization where dialogue has become uncompromising.
We will know more after next year’s midterms, but the outlook is bleak beyond the issue of wha an individual can do.
Jean, in both 2023 and 2024 my wife and I lived in Mexico for two months, where I served a congregation made up largely of ex-pats, from the U.S. and Canada. I asked myself if I would want to join them, permanently leaving the U.S. My answer was no, not because life was unpleasant there. On the contrary, life in San Miguel de Allende was very pleasant and beguiling. But in the end I felt like the U.S. is my home, my country and I think I would have felt as if I were abandoning ship to migrate. For what’s it worth. Tony Robinson
As someone who fled … I think those who simply flee, are probably making a mistake. A substantial number who move here, to Portugal, move back in a year or two. The majority, I think. Maybe the numbers would be lower for Australia/New Zealand and Canada – if only it were easier to get in there – but in a more different culture with a different national language and everything, the novelty wears off pretty fast and the challenges remain. If you relish that challenge, you’ll probably be fine, and honestly, looking in the rear view mirror … well, let’s say it’s nice to get away.
Have we abandoned America, like a sinking ship? Me, Mark Hinshaw whose articles about life in Italy are a delightful occasional feature here, others who have moved to Canada or Mexico? I don’t know. The world isn’t as divided geographically as it used to be, and to some extent there may be a slender lifeline here for our sinking ship. Go where you like, do what you can.
While the headline, art and intro talk about geographical displacement, the text turns out to be more about an engagement / disengagement dilemma. That too is a question with some nuance. There’s good engagement and not so good, there’s good awareness of what’s going on and not so good, and more is not necessarily better. The battle lines are sure drawn, out there, but it isn’t always clear that they’re drawn the right way, and retaining a little corner of detachment from the skirmishes and the present day’s spectacle may be a necessary part of eventually seeing the light on that.
What appears, from this column, is a growing realization that the wealthiest elitists will simply flee, leaving the rest of us to try to fight the authoritarian takeover of the U.S. to try to assist the vulnerable and sick ones thrown to their own resources. I sorely wish we had the kind of determination of an earlier generation, like we saw during the Battle of Britain.
I’m in no position to emigrate, for personal reasons; my parents died last year and our family has a small business. An upcoming week-off for vacation will be my first personal time off since before the pandemic; I simply haven’t had the time, let alone the mental energy, to get away from it all.
In another universe, where my immediate family life was less hectic and I was married to a non-American and we were working and residing in another country (not necessarily hers)? I’d be a lot more loath to come back for the foreseeable future, I would be seeing all the crazy in the news and think, why step into that voluntarily? The only exception was if my theoretical wife and I were raising a family, in which case we’d still come back often so the kids can stat in touch with their cousins and relatives.
Right now, though, I’m staying put. I want to be part of the generation that gets us past this moment and overcomes whatever certain bad actors in DC are doing to our democracy. This country has long been the example younger democracies have strove to emulate, I want to see us regain that mantle.