The day after the election, my Irish pen-pal Declan suggested Aer Lingus might be my best bet.
Oh… so tempting. The election triggered my fight-or-flight instincts big time; my adrenals have been screaming “FLY!” for nearly a fortnight straight. The volume is up, the cry is more strident, but it’s not a new refrain. I’ve long had a desire to expatriate.
Some of my nearest and dearest suspect my generally negative attitude toward all things American isn’t geo-political, but temperamental. The way they see it, it’s in my nature to deplore my homeland and sing the praises of other nations, a facet of my innate pessimism. Had I been born in the Netherlands, they say, I’d be deploring Holland’s failed integration and multicultural policies today, and singing the praises of the American melting pot.
Perhaps they’re right. No way to test that hypothesis. I was born in America.
I was born in America because America was the shining light, the safe haven, the land of hope and opportunity to which my (Polish-Balkan/Jewish) maternal great-grandparents fled to escape the pogroms
and my (Carpathian-Rus/Orthodox) paternal grandparents fled to escape persecution at the hands of the Austro-Hungarian military.
I was born in America – hell, I was born, period – because my progenitors knew when to get the hell out of Dodge.
My innately optimistic husband has twice promised to leave America for more socialist climes. “If Bush wins a second term,” he swore back in 2004. Bush hadn’t won his first term. Didn’t matter. The United States Supreme Court nullified the results of the national election and installed him as President. It was a coup. Millions rejoiced as the rule of law was broken. Abetting the demise of American democracy, the media glossed over clear evidence of election fraud and fell in line with the new regime. In the interests of “smooth transition of power,” the true winner of the election declined to contest Bush’s appointment. Four years later, his 2000 usurpation of the office forgotten, Bush won fer-reals. I started packing my bags.
But my guy had already changed his mind. Every country has its problems, right? We had to stay and fight, we had to take back our country.
This year, he dangled the promise before me a second time. “If Drumpf wins,” he told me, “I give up on America. It’s a lost cause. We’ll move to Spain. Or Costa Rica.”
The election results hit him hard. He spent days with his head in his hands, but when he raised it, it was to say that moving wouldn’t make things better or easier. It was say we have to stay and fight, we have to take back our country.
So, I’m staying. I’m fighting. I’m taking hope from memes that proclaim, “First they came for the Muslims, and we said, ‘Not this time, motherfuckers.’” I’m re-upping my civil disobedience training. I’m trusting in Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and every other decent human being in Congress to fight like hell for the soul of this nation. I’m counting on every well-meaning person in this country to cop to the horrible gravity of the situation and refuse to normalize it, adapt to it, or in any way enable it.
Through the complicity a self-serving Republican party and the apathy of privileged white Americans, and with the violent support of an empowered alt-Right, an infantile, ignorant, bigoted, xenophobic, lecherous, unbalanced prick is in the process of transforming America from a republic to a fascist oligarchy. I’m staying. I’m fighting. But with every racist, misogynist, creationist, homophobic pick he makes, with every oil baron, every climate-change denier, every loose military cannon he selects for his cabinet, the future gets bleaker. I might be making a big mistake by not getting the hell out of Dodge.
ps: Retraction: I wrongly referred to the Day of Infamy speech. Hopefully age is an excuse for faulty memory. The speech I was referring to was FDR’s “Fireside Chat” On the War with Japan (December 9, 1941). One can read this worthwhile speech at http://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/speeches/speech-3325
My source is the America Collection vol XIV (The Second World War 1947-1945)published in 1947. The whole volume is worth reading. Especially Hitler’s Speech to Reichstag Dec. 11, 1941. Of special interest in this speech are sections resembling some of our President Elect’s campaign speeches.
More reason to stick around for the action.
Risa, I’m with you…..& Roy too.
Muy fuertes abrazos, Adrián
Adrián, amigo mío… muchíssimas gracias, estámos contigo y con su esposa maravillosa, también.
Hooray for you. To say I agree with you is too weak a statement. The word applaud is more appropriate. When people have spoken of leaving the U.S. because of political climates the feelings that come to my mind are similar to yours. On my mother’s side there was a man named Peter Helm. He and 12,000 others were conscripts of the Hessian ruler Frederick the Great. He was a farmer and when he saw the potential farmland in the strange country he was transported to he ripped off his uniform and stole civilian clothes to wear. Later he was again conscripted into the Continental Army and fought the rest of the war. The maiden name of my Grandmother from dad’s side Cruz. She was from Mexico. My favorite uncle fought in Guam during WWII. And would never talk about it. From his campaign patches and medals my cousins inherited I would say his time was spent in face to face combat. I have a great, great, great, uncle born in 1849 who was a 2nd generation Irish Poet. He was widely recognized for his love of rural life in America. I have spent considerable time in several other countries that I felt would be comfortable to live in. Spain, Ireland, Switzerland and Australia are among them. To “Get the hell out of Dodge” with the motive of getting away from problems in the land that my predecessors invested so much in for the lives of future Americans brings to mind two words: betrayal and ungrateful. I hope no one got the idea from one of my last posts that I am living in denial. I was simply saying that I don’t want to waste my energy on a knee-jerk reaction. The SNAKE needs to betray the direction he will crawl before we can be in a position to cut off it’s head. There is no other way to separate his posturing and feints from his strikes. In the mean time I am financially supporting organizations like NOW and ACLU so they will remain strong for the battle to come. Marches and demonstrations are OK but it take legal weapons to fight legal battles. I am also putting my money in support ot the most powerful group in the world. The Consumer. i.e. not investing in companies that do not create American jobs. For example Ford trucks made in Mexico and Cadillac plants in Beijing (I was there two years ago) Not buying goods from companies that focus on purchasing goods from cheap labor markets. Walmart has forced he closure of more than half the small businesses in our small and geographically located community. There are many ways we can fight this war if we are willing to pay sacrifices. Anyone who has not read FDR’s Day of Infamy speech probably does not have any idea of the power we hold. Enough! I have been beating this drum for at least three decades.
d
Hi, D. I had to wait for a day off to reply. Your words resonated so deeply with me, I wanted the time to respond in full.
What an amazing variety of experience in your family legacy, a patchwork-quilt of bloodlines and story-lines! It’s the quintessential American tale.
Your two-word encapsulation — betrayal and ungrateful — exactly right. I remember distressing my grandparents no end with my vehement words against the Vietnam War and my active participation in the protests. I saw myself as a true patriot; they saw disloyalty and ingratitude. I felt pressured to shut up and appreciate the myriad advantages that were mine because I was born white and middle-class in America. But growing up Jewish in America, I also felt the disparaging, judgmental, blame-the-victim pressure of the question: why didn’t they flee when they had the chance? Surely the writing was on the wall after Kristallnacht, and with the armbands, and the registrations, and the re-locations. Why did they stay?
The only reason I could come up with was that they were in denial. So, when I hear “It won’t be that bad,” or “Sure, your surname is Hispanic, but you’re Spanish, not Mexican,” or “He was born in the US – he isn’t even a practicing Muslim!” I cringe. Nobody knew how bad it was till the gates of Auschwitz were opened. How many died with the plaintive cry, “I’m a German, not a Jew!” on their lips? And should it come to registering Muslims in this country, does anyone really believe they’ll care whether or not somebody with the surname “Mohammed” or “Masri” is actually Muslim, Christian, Pagan, or an atheist?
No, no way did it seem from any of your previous posts that you are in denial. Part of what I find distressing in these post-election days is the myriad reactions to it, that sense of dissipation from having too many causes, too many fronts needing soldiers. What you describe with the SNAKE is very much my own martial arts approach to a fight: wait for the opponent to strike, seem to yield, (drawing the opponent off balance), then counter-attack for the win. Meanwhile, I am right with you, supporting the already-organized opposition with time and money — the ACLU is top of our list, too — and by withholding our money from corrupt corporations.
Finally, thanks for recalling for us FDR’s stirring speech. Keep beating that drum, D. I’m marching in time. I’ve got my own retraction, btw. In my original post (now corrected), I conflated two elections. Bush was appointed in 2000; Roy promised we’d expatriate if he won a second term in 2004. Oops. Our old brains may be confused about the dates, but no denying we’re crystal clear on the lessons of history.
I really sympathise. I hope it won’t be as bad as we all think it will be, but as each day passes and his cabinet gets even crazier, you have to wonder. Ireland is still here. Of course, getting in is easy. If you own several stud farms and an oil field. Or a multinational company. I’ll write you a letter of reference if you like, but just so you know, the American Embassy refused me a visa to the States about 20 years ago, and denied my appeal. So I’d say my name is a big red flag ;-)
PS I went anyway, on my Brit passport. I regret to this day not sending a postcard to the dickhead in the Embassy…
We refused you a visa? On what grounds?? Thanks for the céad míle fáilte to Ireland. Now, where did I put that stud farm…
In fact, Roy and I would have no trouble getting into all sorts of countries, as long as we’re there to spend our money. They’re less keen on admitting old folks who just want to take advantage of their socialized medicine. Our best bet — and my Plan B — is Spain. It’s all diaspora-stuff on my side of the family; I can’t throw myself on the mercy of any nation. But though Roy’s dad was born in NYC, his grandfather was from Zaragosa. He and his sibs just need 1 year of residency to become Spanish; their significant others just need 2. And since the whole family repatriated to Spain and Dad was on the front lines in the Civil War, maybe we could wangle an expedited citizenship. I’ll pressure my son to stay in Canada, as well, so if things get really hairy here, we’ve got a familial excuse to slip over the border. My real worry — should it be necessary to implement Plan B, will the US let us OUT?
No comment. Hah! Just kidding! It’s a fine line we are walking, choosing to stay. But like WWII, the hell he creates will pursue us, no matter where we go. In the end, everyone will get drawn into the madness, unless we all actively oppose him in whatever ways we can. Here. Now and for the next 4 years. He’s got a plan for America—which I doubt, more likely his buddies have the plans. We’ve got our plans, too. Sanctuary cities, boycotts, signing on to be Muslims, contributing to the ACLU, SPLC, NARAL, and others (all in Mike’s and his names, of course). Let the games begin!
I totally agree with the “plans” part. Unflinching, unfailing political action is, indeed, our best and only hope. But I see the historical parallel differently. Everyone suffered the hell of WWII. Not everyone suffered the Holocaust.
Desperate circumstances, displacement, and a harrowing journey to a strange land is the story of nearly every family in this nation, as American as apple pie. The tale is ubiquitous even among Native Americans, thanks to the refugee-invaders’ traditional values of white supremacy and greed. It’s the nature of our families’ desperate circumstances, though, and the philosophical legacy of those histories that shape our hopes and fears.
For my husband’s family, the circumstances were the Spanish Civil War. They endured Nationalist bombardments, executions, assassinations, deprivations, and oppression, the older boys battled the Guardia Civil in the streets of Barcelona, fled to France and were interned in a refugee camp, my father-in-law escaped, got his brothers out, extricated his sister from Spain, and the siblings were reunited at last on American soil. The Jiménez family knows fascism intimately, but in their experience, it’s something you stand up and oppose, sure that others will stand with you in opposition. On the Walton side of his family, Roy’s ancestors were folks like J. Heron Foster, famous abolitionist, and his daughter Rachel Foster Avery, travelling companion to Susan B. Anthony. Roy’s Walton-family philosophical legacy — courtesy of privileged white folks who happened to be morally-conscious Quakers — encourages him to stand and fight.
All of my people — all of my ancestors, both sides of the family — were the intended victims of ethnic-religious extermination. In my family’s experience, there are no good Quakers steering us to safety or volunteer armies from other nations hurrying to defend our freedom. In my family’s experience, there are good Germans turning a blind-eye as we’re carted off to the gas-chambers and armies tasked with stringing us up and beating us down. In my family’s experience, there is no stand and fight. There is flee or die.
Thing is, this time we’re not at the top of the extermination list. I’m staying and fighting for those who are.