We're not going anywhere
This is our country. No one is going to take it from us.
You may be seeing it on Twitter or on Facebook, or even, as happened to me recently, in emails. It’s been going on for quite a while. People started talking about it when The-One-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named won the presidency in 2016, but especially when the dimensions of his crimes and misbehavior in office began to show.
They talked about leaving, or getting dual citizenship in another country, or even forsaking citizenship here and moving overseas permanently. I was surprised when a friend first told me a couple of years ago of his plans to buy property and move to Portugal for at least part of the year. For him, it was all about Trump.
But I was knocked flat when another friend wrote me this week with concerns that have to do not just with Trump, but with the Right’s authoritarian impulses as well as their increasing talk of using violence to “save” what they consider “their” country. She wrote me an email putting it this way: “I’m making plans to leave the country, possibly permanently, trying to figure out timing, when it will best to have left by? 2024, Election Day? 2025 Inauguration Day? 2022 elections? Or??? Just how fast will they act? Just how many will they kill? We are already such a broken country. It feels cowardly to leave, but I can see no benefit to my staying…”
One side of her family traces back to the Mayflower, the other has roots in Jamestown. That’s some ancient history in this young country of ours. She lives in a very blue state and has been politically aware as well as active for as long as I’ve known her.
I wrote back and told her I didn’t think by leaving that she would ever really get away from what is happening to this country or what will happen here. Psychologically, no matter where she went, she would always be here in her heart. Even if she was able to move to Ireland or Portugal or another E.U. country, she would still see the headlines from the U.S., and she would still be hearing from her friends and relatives. If there are heartbreaking political events here at home, her heart would still be broken wherever she goes overseas.
And besides, we need every warm body we can get. We need both of my friends to vote and we need them to stand up and be counted. The other side isn’t talking about leaving. They’re too busy gerrymandering and passing voter suppression laws and looking for new ways to oppress women and people who aren’t the same color as they are or don’t share their sexual orientation. In the South, they’ve been at it since the Civil War, and everywhere else, they’ve been trying to seize the reigns of power in this country by hook or by crook for at least the last 50 years.
I remember a time in my own life when I thought the country had gone off the rails and wasn’t worth saving. Richard Nixon was president, the government was running a surveillance program called COINTELPRO against its political opponents, the Department of Justice was being weaponized against dissidents, and the war in Vietnam was killing hundreds of Americans every week. But opposition to the war finally caused us to pull out, Nixon was driven from office, a Democrat, Jimmie Carter, was elected to replace Gerald Ford, and the U.S.A, as they say, persisted.
Being a citizen is like being married. Citizenship isn’t just for the warm, sunny days. You are an American for keeps, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, until death puts you in the ground. Democrats may win, or Republicans may win. Right wing laws might be passed, or liberal laws like marriage equality may prevail. But we won’t be able to fight against the authoritarian streak that has shown itself in the Republican Party if we’re not here as a countervailing force in the Democratic Party or as Independents. Numbers matter. Our numbers matter just as much as their numbers. If they want to go off the deep end, that’s up to them, but it’s up to us to be here to make sure there’s an end from which to leap.
Dealing with disasters is a part of life, whether those disasters are natural or man-made, like politics. We repair towns and cities after tornados and hurricanes and floods and fires, and we’ll repair the damage done by those who do not share our love of democracy and freedom.
In fact, we’re doing it right now in Washington D.C. and in cities and states around the country that are trying to recover from the onslaught of COVID and the residual damage left by a president and a political party that would burn down the village in order to save it.
We’re not going anywhere. Tracy and Ruby and I are atop the bulwarks, and we are heavily armed with our hearts full and our hands ready to work for this country we cherish. This is our country, just like it’s your country, and we will defend it with our lives.
Well, I certainly hope that it doesn’t come down you giving up your lives. I am a dual national, and have the easy option of moving back to Switzerland. Except that, as you say, it’s not really an option. When Trump prevailed, Swiss friends wrote me in droves saying « come back. » But going back to Switzerland would mean going back to a country where, in some Cantons, women only got the vote in 1988, and where overt racism is perfectly tolerated (witness the main party’s employment of a poster that showed a black sheep being kicked out of a pasture of white sheep by a jackboot). We are an imperfect country, but I treasure the diversity, the discussions, and the fading but still enduring hope that the « melting pot » represents the best of us all.
Lucian, you are a man after my own heart, and I love you for your heart as expressed here.
Of course, as seems to invariably be the case, we are on the same side. However I do have to make a statement.
We need to acknowledge the deep despair, anxiety and concern wrought by these times.
I have people very close to me who are experiencing countless episodes of insomnia. Every week they are going through this hardship. The attacks on democracy are disturbing. We must have compassion for our dear ones who are being deeply affected. Losing sleep multiple times a week over concerns about the political stability of our democracy is not something easily brushed off if you are the one losing the sleep and awaking in the night terror.
What we must offer them is reassurance. Hope. Encouragement. They are looking for a remedy for their deep trouble, their despair. Leaving the country looks like a solution.
It is incumbent upon us to provide the acknowledgment, reassurance, and encouragement they need to help them weather this period of trial.
Democracy will prevail. In my opinion, the racism and sexism and gender orientation persecution we are witnessing so openly displayed is a result of our society shifting out of red and purple and into blue. The cornered animals are thrashing around wildly as they approach being captured and caged.
America will survive this test. Democracy will favor and outpace the attempts to curtail it. That is what I feel. That is what I believe will happen.
Just before the ship sinks, the rats and other pests abandon ship. But before they do, a lot of them will hang on for dear life, kicking and screaming, as the ship goes down. They will be invested until the bitter end to the “ship,” the old society of racism sexism
antisemitism gay bashing et al.
They know the end is near. The news media keeps running stories about their activities, but those relentless stories neglect mentioning the context within which those stories are taking place. The Republican Party, now majority extremist, is fighting desperately in a losing cause. The adherents to the old society are struggling for survival, for relevance. This society is going diverse, egalitarian, democratic.
For decades and decades and decades, men and whites called all the shots. We are going inexorably into a world where everybody calls the shots, not just the racists and sexists in denial.
Everyone has power now. The signs and symbols of the Confederacy, of male supremacy, of white supremacy, of straights persecuting non-straights, are disappearing one by one. The writing is on the wall. The direction of movement is clear. Reactionaries who are trying to keep us in the past are losing the battle.
Remember, too, it is women, non-whites, and non-straights who bear the brunt of the risk to their personal safety during this time of turmoil. We must send them love and reassurances of security, especially now.