77 Comments
User's avatar
Don'tStopMeNow/Toni Lawrence's avatar

I just hope and pray that our allies (I will always call them that) realize this is not the American people who are spewing venom, it is a small, select group of white men who think they are entitled to what everyone else has. It's like a spoiled child who eyes a toy someone else has and will fight to get it for himself. We just hope this national embarrassment will not even last a short time, let alone the years we anticipate. By that time the United State will no longer exist.

Amy's avatar

Sounds to me like it's time for sane Americans like yourself to implement an exit strategy. I did in June 2016, in the nick of time. New Zealand isn't perfect by any stretch, but definitely a huge civilised improvement over the increasing derangement and self destructiveness of the US.

Linda Querry's avatar

Amy, sane Americans love their country, and know their civic duty. America is a baby country with a very rocky history, but the lives that have already been lost fighting for the rights and freedoms of the common good cannot be in vain,

we are not just our failures, our mistakes, but we are also our wonderful successes developing a country of immigrants striving for a more perfect union, a multiracial pluralistic democracy. The Declaration of Independence coupled with the Declaration of Human Rights are some of the most eloquent and hopeful documents our species have ever developed. I for one will always want to stay and fight for this great ideal.

Veronica von Bernath Morra's avatar

Do you have the funds to fight billionaires who are playing DIRTY???

Bill Gourlay's avatar

Amy, I love New Zealand. I've spent some time there and have some dear friends there. An exit strategy to NZ or Australia is very tempting, but I feel compelled to stay in the U.S. and fight for our high ideals. I think we can turn this shit around, but it will take people digging in for the fight. Cheer us on.

Robot Bender's avatar

I wish we could, Amy. We have kids and grandkids here. We can't leave them behind.

Chris KD's avatar

I too wish I could but grandchild, aging ill relatives , myself & husband aging give us no opinion but to stay . If younger , more time and finances we’d be gone

Amy's avatar

I appreciate the feedback on my suggestion to jump ship. First, leaving behind family isn't good, take them all with you! Do you really want them growing up in that environment, trying to make a healthy future there? Just think of the toll that can take on their well being.

Second, while it does take a little bit of fearlessness to leave, it's actually so much better in so many places, it's an easy choice to start fresh in a healthier place. And it doesn't have to be expensive to immigrate. Every situation is different but very very few are spending a lot to immigrate.

Finally, I definitely will cheer those remaining to not give up the fight as I have. My disenchantment goes back decades so I lack faith in America's future. But I do hope I'm wrong because it's a severe global impact. As an expat, that's even more obvious. There's no complete escape - even tiny remote NZ has been quite negatively affected by the Trump nightmare.

Veronica von Bernath Morra's avatar

Amy: Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to make such a move. The greatest protest would be a MASSIVE exit. I did. Many would love to. But the people who are the most vulnerable and in harm's way, can only dream of it. They are also faint of heart.

Marsha Rose's avatar

No. More like faint of pocketbook.

Julie Dewine's avatar

Unfortunately not all of us have the luxury of leaving.

Linda Fairchild's avatar

Thank you! I am a dual citizen of the United States and Canada 🇨🇦 My Norwegian family survived Hitler. You can read about me on Talent Talks/Linda Fairchild on Substack. I just restacked your post. Also, see my new Substack friend Alexander Trebeek/The Planet. We can all be Resistance Fighters like my Norwegian family.

Linda Fairchild's avatar

Sorry Alexander Verbeek!!

anna's avatar

we are all baffled here in Europe and sad that no signs of any fight whatsoever are emerging.. when Trump was last elected there were marches on Washington right away. now, even after all the unthinkable, almost nothing??? very disheartening to watch 🥲😫

David Kimball's avatar

Thank you for saying this.

Is it time for a Constitutional Convention to plug in the holes of the Constitution so that it can deal adequately with money, business, and lobbyists?

Robot Bender's avatar

Not while MAGA is in control. Can you imagine the havoc they would cause?

Geraldine Cordova's avatar

Beautifully written. I was born in the United States, my deceased husband was from Peru, where the government changed periodically from a democracy to a military government, then back to a democracy. In the 40 years of our marriage we traveled back & forth between Peru & the US, always feeling safer to get back home with our son to the Democracy of the US. I'm sad to say that I'm glad he didn't live to see his beloved adopted country as it is today. He would be in disbelief and heartbroken. I also know he would fight beside me to restore it to its former self. We both knew the US democracy wasn't perfect, but it was much better than the alternatives. I am fighting for our democracy as hard as an older slow-moving retired 77 year old CAN fight. I can't march, but I can make hundreds of calls, write hundreds of postcards. If I can do it, so can any able-bodied person. WE MUST NOT LOSE THIS FIGHT!!

Bill Gourlay's avatar

Geraldine, thanks for reminding us about how Peru's government changed periodically from democracy to military government and back again. I think of that from time to time as I wonder about the future of the U.S. I am also a retired 70+ born in the USA person with plenty of fight in me. And I can still march too! We are not going to lose this fight!

John Hardman's avatar

Sadly, the U.S. has become a nuclear-armed banana republic which makes Peru's history relevant. The MAGA crowd is itching for a fight and the wrong move could set off a chaotic civil war here. The U.S. military is no big fan of their commander-in-chief and will likely remain loyal to their oath to protect the Constitution. They are in control of the nukes and take that responsibility seriously. A military coup to restore order and allow the provisional government to call a constitutional convention is highly probable. Directing such a regime change at the superpower level will require great leadership. Yes, this will take time (years perhaps) and unleash all sorts of global chaos.

The Republic is dead... long live the Republic.

anna's avatar

you are definitely a dreamer… 🍀

John Hardman's avatar

Actually, I am relatively pragmatic. I was raised in a military family and spent four years in military intelligence. I have an advanced degree in the psychology of terrorism. I sorta know what I am talking about. Dismantling the Federal government can have unintended consequences of anarchy which cannot be tolerated in a nuclear-armed superpower. I mention martial law because it is a very real possibility.

anna's avatar

I do hope that by midterm there will be a reckoning that stops this madness 🍀

John Hardman's avatar

Pragmatically by the midterms much of the Federal government will be dismantled and the economy in tatters. Yes, it would be nice to have a Congress willing to slow the rate of destruction, but no one has a magic wand to wave it all away. If the U.S. government was an automobile and I was an insurance adjuster, I would likely write it up as a total loss. Sadly, we’re to the point, of being beyond repair. We will have to haul the wreckage away and shop for a new ride.

anna's avatar

so depressing 🥲

Carol S's avatar

Thank you for the hopefulness about other ways to structure our lives. An open future. Hard work. New possibilities. After a lot of loss and a whole lot of hard work to rebuild. Future generations need us

Marvin Waschke's avatar

I am an optimist. Sometimes we have to see to believe. I hope seeing the travesty of the current regime is opening many eyes in the U.S. It is incompetent (Signal debacle), greedy (Greenland), and mean-spirited (all the rest.) A throwback to all-powerful kings in an age of science and technology. The 19th and 20th centuries rejected kingship for professionalism because kings could not hack it. This bunch does not have the gears to run a country like the U.S. and we are getting the evidence that proves it.

Wendy Wolfson's avatar

I will do my part to lobby for Southern Ca to be annexed by Denmark. Denmark, despite its civilized amenities like healthcare, great beer and sandwiches and education has crappy weather and cold beaches. We have important resources to offer Denmark if they would only adopt us as a colonial protectorate as obviously we are too immature and dissolute to govern ourselves properly.

Laura Obregon's avatar

We the people must resist and turn this fiasco around.

Lynn Geri's avatar

Look up Goya's painting of Saturn Eating his Son... we are allowing these men, these monsters, to eat our mother... they are through the chest wall, devouring her heart.

Suzy Anand Garfinkle's avatar

I remember that embarrassment over my blue Passport from the early Reagan years when I was often asked what Americans were thinking, electing a B movie actor to such an important role on the world stage!😥

Robert Venafro's avatar

Though the damage is done, and it is for Canadians, a new relationship with a stronger Canadian identity will be forged. Yes, he-whose-name-must-never-be-spoken forced our hand. I trust our future Prime Minister will not cave (not to him) but to we, Canadians, in forgetting that we are ready to stand, be counted, and forge ahead. As a pacifist nation in the past, we trailed behind (and probably that is a good thing), and with a new identity (one not attached to your nation), we can market ourselves in that strong pacifist framework with a velvet glove that extends friendship and understanding. This all remains to be seen, of course.

Joan Grabe's avatar

We are not giving up on ourselves but we are being battered. The only thing between ourselves and chaos is a thin line of judges with an armload of federal suits against Trump. The administration, if one could call it an “administration”, will go down in history as the worst in our history.

It is the rupture of our relations with our old allies that really marks this administration as illiterate and vindictive. From the heights of the Marshall Plan to the calamitous meeting between Trump and Zelensky we can see the fractured lines of discord.Joe Rogan would rather visit Russia than Canada. Canada is quite OK with that ! But all I would like is one sane action by the current crew and a little breathing room.

Jeff B's avatar

Thanks Elliot.👍🏼

Kerry Knoll's avatar

Well said. Unfortunately I will have to unsubscribe to your posts as I need to travel from Canada to the United States to visit my daughter, and the border patrol is refusing and even jailing people who have negative things on their computers about the current government.

Jane Critchfield's avatar

Get a burner phone and leave your real phone at home.

Veronica von Bernath Morra's avatar

You gotta be f...g kidding me! But I believe you. I guess I'd rather never go back than unsubscribe.

Robot Bender's avatar

If i were you, I'd take nothing electronic except a burner phone.

Judie's avatar

As a Canadian, I know it's not 'we' Elliot, it's 'they', the poorly educated who have caused this cull of the American population. These policies will and are killing Americans in such tragic and needless ways. It's so hard to watch, and even harder for the citizens to endure. 'They' are burning so hard and bright that this can't last, sustain itself indefinitely. At least that's my hope, that the clown car will roll them off a cliff into the pit of eternal infamy. Soon. They screw up as much as they destroy, so let's all hope that cliff is close by. And NATO holds strong. Hope the film does very well.