Perhaps but I’ve been thinking about where is best to live re climate change for about 15 years - I’ve bought land in Western Tasmania and Ireland although I’m not yet convinced either will work well enough - so its something I am prone to thinking about (and partially acting upon).
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It is a conversation that has unfortunately been forced on us already. My partner is ethnically Korean and the growing doom feels less abstract for her. I love it where we are in our diverse, mostly liberal bubble in central Florida, but outside of this bubble, and even in large pockets of this place there is much that feels genuinely threatening to her about Florida. It likely wouldn’t take much more of a slide for us to move. At that point, as she has Canadian Citizenship, it would likely be straight to Toronto or Montreal.
This conversation actually pushed me to get my American Citizenship. I know that sounds backwards, but if I were to leave as just a permanent resident, as I have been for about 15 years, I’d be forfeiting my right to come back. As a US Citizen we could leave, see what was happening and have the flexibility to come back later.
The tipping point will likely be around the 2024 presidential elections. They are being pretty transparent about their plans to subvert the democratic process and we just look utterly feckless in response. It’s difficult to see at this point anything but a more competent, well organized soft coup part 2, and this time being successful. I’m not even sure at this point if the machine even needs Trump at the helm, and so if he dies, or he goes down, the process of stealing an election likely continues. If he somehow loses the nomination though, then he tears the party apart and possibly saves the country in the process. That’s a pretty grim situation for that to be our path to victory.
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We have rabid loonies in Germany too, of course, but the difference is that they aren’t heavily weaponised and they are shunned by all the major parties and the media. The system is geared towards consensus and dialogue in a way that isn’t the case in the States.
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Of course, you would be a US taxpayer for the rest of your life were you to do that, regardless of where you live.
Yeah. A real downside of the plan.
Understand, this is being done as a threat. If you make it impossible to understand if people who are unlikely to vote for you are legally allowed to vote then they wont. Every time you see stories about it being difficult to vote here, understand it is by design.
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For some inexplicable reason, Democrats have never done enough about voter suppression when they have had the chance. It’s baffling.
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When they do they are
- accused of cheating by their opponents
- accused of undermining faith in elections by the washington press
- told by the galaxy brain experts that its just a distraction, and that the things that were designed to stop segments of the population casting their vote and/or having it counted, by the party who overtly say they dont want everyone to vote and cannot win if they do, dont actually have any effect on elections.
See the shit Stacey Abrams went through in 2018
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I’m not sure whether he’d consider his beat to be the Alt Right or Disinformation. Whatever he thinks it is, it has essentially turned into being a Trump World beat and he is now probably the best source of insight into what is happening among Trump supporters.
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Moved here 13 years ago with two young children. Grew up in England. Married there. Wife American. She partly grew up in UK, father’s work was there. Got married in UK, both went to Uni there, kids born there, both worked there, but then moved here.
I had no real desire to become a US citizen but when Trump was elected I decided to do it, mostly for the purpose of maximum flexibility. If we chose to move back to the UK, or elsewhere, we could still return to the US if we wanted to, without all the hassle of another application process to establish residency.
Life has been fine, but we are a little concerned by the underlying political and divisive situation. But on the other hand it only affects us as much as we want it to. We live our lives, know the people we know, have our friends, do our thing, and it’s no big deal. There’s a sense in which you are immune to everything that is happening. At least somewhat.
But interestingly our daughter feels it much more keenly. Recent high school graduate. Not really sure what she wants to do in life. Clever, could do lots of things, but very unsure about America, despite being a dual citizen, and didn’t just want to slide into college here. So she went back to the UK, we have family over there, and she is having a great time, a little travel, while she thinks about what to do next. She is starting to talk like she wants to go to Uni over there and says she feels more at home over there.
As grown adults we get into our careers and lifestyle, but I half wonder if perhaps we are a bit more blasé about some of the issues that our daughter keenly feels?
I am well aware that half the country appears to be losing its mind, but for my daughter, it’s a lot more existential, and she is in the middle of trying to work out who she is and where she will live and so on.
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Sure, but 1, is what political opponents do, especially those ones. 2, is patently false and should be argued against, after all, isn’t that what political discourse is about? Not all the press is pro Republican. 3, is also incorrect and surely the benefits to the Democratic party of having a fairer electoral system are so obvious as to require no justification.
The Democrats have a majority of the voters, their policies are popular, but they are ineffectual. That’s why 30% of the electorate is able to dominate the debate.
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Went to uni in the US and first place of work was there. Was there for 10 years (mid 90s to mid 2000s). Was in lower manhattan during 9/11(used to work for one of the big US banks).
Things did feel different after 9/11 but the thing people don’t talk about any more is how Bush essentially stole the election from Gore.
Even if 9/11 were to happen then I feel the world would have still been different. Don’t think Iraq would have happened and consequently Blair wouldn’t have shat the bed. Oh well.
Moved back to the UK in mid 2000s after I got married. Most of my family had migrated to the US later 70s early 80s so there was always that pull plus back when I was there the US felt like a “fun” place to be.
So when I got divorced the first time in 2017 I straightaway thought about moving there.
Got married to my US gf of a year during the pandemic and moved (not to New York but to Dallas).
Things didn’t work out and we got divorced and I’m happily back in the UK now. A significant part of it was the US.
I couldn’t abide by how things were. Very very different from the US I’d left the first time. So much intolerance, greed, lack of empathy for your fellow citizen. I sensed it in so many people I talked to. Jan 6th happened while we were on holiday in Colorado (could scarcely believe it).
Yeah, despite all the problems we are facing, I’m very happy to be back home.
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Texas is a law unto itself. Dallas is the only airport I’ve ever been to where there is no expectation that passengers deplane from the front. That’s one of the clearest examples of the Texan me first attitude I can think of. I know many Americans who have tried moving there and couldn’t handle it.
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For some reason they’re so proud of that airport (AA’s hub).
I’m like “have you SEEN your town?!”
Texas is a strange one, agreed. They are the only State that can fly their own State flag at the same height as the Stars and Stripes - the usual protocol, observed by all other States, is for the State flag to be lower.
In recent years I was a little surprised to see Texas had half a chance to go blue. It will be interesting to see if that is on the cards again soon.
I was only in Texas for basic training and tech school but I have some family on my in-laws side who live down there. My wife got covid and couldn’t come down for graduation, one of my in-laws down there said “Just as well she couldn’t make it, if she came down here she would never want to leave!”. I just laughed along while thinking ‘I fucking hate this state, get me back to Maine as soon as possible’.
The red/blue state divide is actually better described as a rural/urban divide that turns on the basis of balance of hose populations in a state. If you go to the major cities in even the reddest of state and its local politics will be reliably blue. Texas has had a lot of growth in its major cities and so now has 4 of the largest 10 cities in the country. People recognize Austin as being liberal, but often miss that Dallas, Houston and San Antonio have become similarly reliably Blue.
One of the interesting things about the recent Democratic wins in Georgia is the grudging recognition that it didn’t happen as a result of 1 successful cycle, but was a decade or more of organizing and putting infrastructure in place. Beto might not beat Abbott this year, but this is now his 2nd statewide race where he continues to do all the right things in terms of creating a lasting effect.
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Mmm I don’t know about that. Dallas and Houston seemed pretty staunchly red to me. People may find it embarrassing to support Trump but won’t change from being Republicans (from my experience).
I shouldnt say local politics TBF, but in national elections those localities are very reliable Democratic votes
I think the thing with Dallas is that as a city it is geographically enormous and touches about 5 different counties. The more suburban you get the less the effect, as with any city and some of those more ex-urban counties are still Republican, but trending blue as well.