Odd & ambitious piece of writing here bro. Honestly u were part of me being so sure Trump would lose. But I didn't check any numbers for myself I didn't follow polls and I didn't research that shit so I certainly can't blame you it's my own fault. I literally did not believe he was gonna win until it was official. I am one of those homeless traveler mfs and although I never cared at all who was in office, Donald Trump's words and actions have permeated into my everyday life harder than any other politician ever. The racist opinions people feel empowered to express ... It's hard on me and hard to handle. Fox news has brainwashed my brown immigrant dad (an obama/Bernie man) into supporting trump and although I can see it's the media's fault and I adore my dad I'm trying to consis5ently hold him accountable. The votes didn't even matter but trump is effecting us street level every day. People repeat shit he said, feel vindicated over his choices, and there has been a lot of backlash on the streets. But shit. U know something Dan I've been reading u since I was 13 that's 10 years I grew up in SF read u I'm SF weekly but as I grow and change I'm having trouble identifying with u. Anyway we both despise DT so that's something.

Dan, I think you're known more for your advice and opinions themselves, and as a speaker, than as a prose stylist. But that shouldn't be the case. This is lovely, powerful writing: well thought out, well composed. Thank you for sharing it.

Those brass memorials Dan found are called 'Stolpersteine' (Stumbling stones), a decades-long art-as-remembrance project by Gunter Demnig, based in Köln, Germany. There are currently over 60,000 STOLPERSTEINE in over 1,800 places in Europe (mostly in Germany). They almost all are inlaid in the sidewalk in front of the dwelling from which the victims were abducted. I believe there are 5,120 of these in Hamburg alone, where I had the honor of meeting Herr Demnig. Info here: http://www.stolpersteine.eu/en/technical…

We are living through the worst political crisis in over forty years, so it's understandable that we're all glued to the news wondering what fresh hell of chaos this destructive regime is about to unleash.

Also, if you're looking for someone to blame, it lies correctly with Twitler voters who decided to commit a national murder-suicide by installing an openly fascist, racist, sexist, xenophobic, bullying, incompetent, lying, asshole, rapist as our country's leader. The majority of voters cast their ballots for a better future.

Democrats have spent decades trying to offer Twitler voters higher wages, healthcare, access to education, job training, and on and on and on. Each time they've reached out a hand, these amoral degenerates have chewed it off. Whether they voted for President Rapist out of greed, fear, or racist hatred, they're getting the con artist that they deserve. The tradegy is that they're going to drag the majority of us right down into hell with them.

@ 7,

Clearly you're unconcerned about an ICE raid or whether you'll still have access to healthcare next month. You don't give a shit about your neighbors, either.

If you smugly think that you'll be able to sit back and enjoy while this erratic, unhinged lunatic and his kleptocratic minions ruin everyone lives except yours, then you've got a whopper of a surprise coming once they take their discredited voodoo economics wrecking ball to the economy.

"keep defending them from your little compound"

You mean Seattle, America's whitest city?

"kleptocratic minions ruin everyone lives except yours, then you've got a whopper of a surprise coming once they take their discredited voodoo economics wrecking ball to the economy."

Didn't you say all that about the candidate I voted for, Hillary Clinton?

Maybe if people like you had said nice things about her, the rubes wouldn't be running the country.

Dan, this is the most tone deaf piece of writing I think I've read. I'm ashamed for you. Wouldn't it be nice if we all could go travel to Europe when our failed candidate finally failed?

You have a safety net of your own. You had or have a television sitcom, a podcast that pays well, a weekly syndicated column, and this tony job submitting articles to a flailing newspaper without an anchor. You have a house large enough to have its own dungeon playroom. You have the funds to fly off to Austria for a few weeks and the connections to stay there. You have an escape plan.

You almost come close to realizing what the problem is, time and again, but you never ever want to acknowledge the full brunt of it. The failure of neoliberal policies dating back through the 70s, enacted under both Democratic and Republican Presidencies (both without congress having to override vetoes) are responsible for the shit you see today. The article you mention in passing from The Guardian about Brexit applies to Trump and most of our Western countries. You blame Susan Sarandon and Jill Stein for Hillary's loss, but you never EVER look at the failures of the Democratic Party that has isolated them from having a legitimate point. You take the time in this article to bitch about America's Green Party, but have no amount of reflection for the party you champion and the role they played in this shit.

Until the Democratic Party comes to terms with their own participation in the economic failure, they'll continue losing the fight.

And, while you're taking the time to ponder the failures of the Democratic Party, consider your own participation in the loss. Not just in the month preceding the election, but in the tone deaf Bernie-slamming articles you wrote or edited all the way back to September 2015. You need to own this.

The last time I was embarrassed to be an American in Europe was in 2005, on the heels of Dubya's re-election, which was due largely to the fact that he was a "wartime President" and we couldn't switch horses midstream. Unfortunately it was spineless Democrats like Hillary Clinton who supported the war that got Dubya re-elected.

It could've been President Sanders now. Too bad spineless Democrats didn't support Bernie when it counted.

If you want to keep undecided and confused Democrat voters, keep throwing 2-3 different people in there for them to vote for. And make sure no one ever finds anything damning about at least one of them because they couldn't handle another scandal, they might lead others to jump off a cliff out of despair. People knew Trump was a scorpion. They voted for him anyway...and this BS about Snowflakes, isn't that like saying no one has the exact same fingerprints?

"Who to blame? Not for her losing the election."

Then expect Democrats to keep losing and losing. Hillary was a demonstrably awful candidate, coming from a political family that represents the worst of the present-day Democratic Party.

A bakery on every corner, my idea of heaven.

Wow, Dan---powerful piece. I plan to save up and visit Germany and Austria and hope the locals there don't view me with contempt as a "stupid American".
@20 LavaGirl: I second that.
@21: STFU already.

Great to see long(er)-form writing from you, Dan!

@23 Troll much?

Thanks for this, Dan. Lovely piece of writing. Had me on the edge of my seat.

@24 Squirrel Dude & @26 VelvetBabeAgain: Agreed.

"Lovely piece of writing. Had me on the edge of my seat. "

I was on the edge of my settee in Kensington just thinking about those American rubes!

@23: See @22.

Simone Says ... what a fucking cunty little troll you are.

Kisses from Middle America, bitch.

#7 Go fuck yourself. YOU are fine. Enjoy having dinner on Ballard Ave. A perfect place for a smug ass hole. If you can afford to be there and fit right in you probably will continue to be fine. But it's not about you. Again. Go fuck yourself. And if you run out of orifices. Make yourself some new ones.

@31 David in Shoreline: Are you a die-hard Republican who voted ecstatically for Trumpzilla and its lackeys? Do you consider Fox TV your primary news source? Dial in to Rush Limbaugh? Then you're part of the problem and not the solution.

This was very good

@35 David in Shoreline: What was your reason for voting so enthusiastically for Trump this last election? Or was it really that you just couldn't stand the idea of a woman in the White House?
Burn the country instead of voting for the only truly qualified candidate?
Thanks for nothing!

@35: And I hope you and all your ilk feel the burn for decades to come.

Dan, thank you for sharing this. I didn't realize you were in Europe. I'm a broke-ass Canuck living in Germany, following America in the news more worriedly now than ever. Your writing is the reason I started reading The Stranger as a child and your readers are the reason I fell in love with Seattle, which I've still not visited (but hope to when I have the means). I disagree with you regularly and sometimes angrily (maybe more on that another time), and thank goodness for that. I'm here to encourage this new writing you've been doing. And if you head to Germany before you return home, let us know. Europe needs you too.

Get out while you can Dan. And hope America's death throes don't damage the rest of the world too much.

Nice bit of writing that was unexpected...yeah, Simon Says is kind of a dick, but he's just pointing out how lucky Dan is to be chillin' in Austria afar while we're still stuck here, fucked.
And he said he voted Hillary...so maybe he's looking at both sides objectively? Everyone was too complacent and yeah, figured she'd win so didn't bother voting.
The electoral college really opened up some eyes this time around- a candidate needs to appeal to rural/ flyover America and not just the coastal cities. Crazy oversight...

We're fucked but at least Dan will come back and help fight the #FourthReichFührer. Atta boy!

Right about the same time you left Germany in the early 90s, I moved to Europe. I decided that was what I wanted to do one evening in 1990 in Berlin while at the Café Einstein. I was still just traveling around then, and that evening, sitting at a table for 12 with people from all over Europe who could all speak at least 2 languages, I suddenly thought “THIS is how I want to live.” As luck would have it, a couple weeks later on a ferry from Sweden I met an Englishman who planned to move to the French Pyrenees, and in 1994 we settled here together.

The first 5 or 6 years we lived here, I rarely heard an American voice. The Herald Tribune arrived a day late. Little by little, America crept in. We could buy books, then read newspapers, then see films undubbed. Eventually I could listen to NPR while cooking dinner, just like I used to do in the 80s. Now we’re awash in American news and everything else. A couple of days after the election, my lone American friend in this area and I sat in her car, fuming. Even though we both love it here, for a moment we wished we were over there, so we could DO something.

What crappy timing for you, Dan. I understand totally why the idea of moving to Austria was so attractive just last year. But yeah, there is no escaping Trump’s loathsome mug over here and you’d have the double frustration of not being able to be right there resisting and unable to vote or speak (fluently) against the far right over here. I’m glad you’re going back.

Geez, forgive us if we don't throw a pity party for you. Self-indulgent naval gazing and wudda-shudda-cudda hypotheticals while we're over here freaking DYING one daily slice at a time. Get back IN the game, Dan. (Really IN.) We need ya more than ever.

Each person has to decide whether to stay or leave. You are allowed choice.
Trying to shut down the FBI, keeping well respected news services out of briefings. It sure is moving fast.

Delighted to hear you and yours may be re-locating to Europe - when it feels right to do so. Given your focus is now keenly trained on US socio-political changes, seems less stressful to be fully here than attempting to build a new life elsewhere. If I was in your shoes, I'd rather start afresh with all of me on-board for the adventure. Thanks for your heartfelt musings - and I'm glad you crossed to ocean for some R&R and reflection. Good to see things from another vantage point.

@44 Of course you would say that, having left for Australia long ago but still trying to have a say in our election.

I was born in Australia @46. And given the whole world is influenced by what the US does, which is a giant pity, I will have my say about your elections.
What, you don't think people are free to chose where they live? Bit fascist of you.

"Who to blame? Not for her losing the election."

Yeah, let's not blame the person with the most power to effect the outcome, especially if that would somehow reflect on our own judgement after a primary season spent insulting anyone who didn't agree with your perspective that Hillary Clinton was clearly the best candidate. Surely the Greens (who got creamed by the Libertarians, took less of a percentage than usual and had no effect on the outcome of the election.) are more to blame. And not the lady who refused to release the text of her $100,000 speeches to bankers and who knew going in that she had a massively unfavorable rating among the independents who were going to decide the election. No surely the blame can not be laid with Hillary Clinton and her supporters for saying young women who didn't support her were just in it for the boys and had a special place in hell waiting for them. Surely the Democratic National committee should just replicate their attempt at this past election, since failing to win the electoral college by 80,000 votes against the least popular Republican candidate ever fully justifies not blaming Hillary Clinton.

Also, regarding the hydroelectric dam: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-…

Hydroelectricity is not without serious environmental impacts, both local and global.

Yes, lets please still blame the qualified candidate who gave speeches to Goldman Sachs -- and overlook your part in demonizing her to help elect a so called president who has hired Goldman Sachs to dismantle our Treasury.

Yes, lets again overlook the fact that the Bernie bros were insisting the Democrats undemocratically deny the 3 million more Democrats who voted for Clinton in the Primary.

Let's overlook the far left who swallowed Republican and Russian propaganda whole to help the Republicans steal another Presidential election.

And lauded a Green party candidate who dined with Putin and Trumps manager.

Those who ignored basic math:
Sanders won THREE MILLION FEWER VOTERS THAN CLINTON.

CLINTON WON THREE MILLION MORE VOTES THAN TRUMP.

1 FAR RIGHT CANDIDATE
VS
THREE LEFT CANDIDATES =
EMPEROR TRUMP

Let's overlook all of that so you can pull the same stunts in 2020, and give Trump and a Republican Congress 8 years to dismantle democracy.

So a rich, white liberal living in a million dollar house in Seattle and spending weeks on vacation wonders why working class Americans continue to reject his values.
The lack of even basic self awareness is hilarious.

@50- Yeah, Hillary won the Democratic primary. That's a competition almost entirely among people who are going to vote for the Democrat. Independents are the people who decided the election. It is too bad that 3 million primary voters failed to notice how unpopular their candidate was with the people they needed to persuade. Hillary Clinton LOST with 3 million votes more than Trump because the electoral college system is rigged to favor lower population states. In battle ground states where the election was decided (and where the Democrats lost the Senate) Hillary Clinton's unpopularity lost the election for herself and the Democrats down ticket from her. Hillary Clinton's candidacy was a disaster.

Unless you're getting a Constitutional Amendment passed in the next couple years to change the way Presidential elections work, then the Democrats had better pick a candidate who isn't widely despised and legitimately seen as cozy with big business and late to every progressive cause. Otherwise it's another guaranteed loss.

It'd be great if we had an electorate that understood how terrible Trump was and showed up to vote against him. It'd be great if we had an election system that gave the presidency to the winner of the popular vote. But we don't, and that's why the Democrats need to stop blaming other people for losing and realize they need to work with the country they have and cut the dead weight of the Clinton machine from the party. Triangulating moderates aren't going to win.

"Yes, lets again overlook the fact that the Bernie bros were insisting the Democrats undemocratically deny the 3 million more Democrats who voted for Clinton in the Primary." How did that effect the general election? I doubt more than a couple thousand "Bernie bros" voted for anyone but Clinton, and most of them in deep blue or deep red states.

"And lauded a Green party candidate who dined with Putin and Trumps manager." The Green Party got a smaller percentage of the vote than usual. Again, why do you keep bring this up? It doesn't help any kind of Pro-Clinton argument. It just points out how badly she did, even without an insurgent Green party she lost. After Gore's loss the Democrats refused to take responsibility for their mediocrity and the Greens were a convenient scapegoat, but that well is dry, the Green Party barely existed in the election except as a punching bag for Dan Savage to try to distract us from Clinton's flailing, stupid, misguided campaign.

"1 far right candidate" is Trump, you're right there. There weren't three left candidates. There was a moderate (Clinton), a libertarian (basically Right on everything but a couple social issues and really they don't give a fuck about gay people and women, they just want weed and guns, so really Right), and a Leftist (Stein).

Great writing, and I am extremely glad you'll be here to help. We need every bit of passion and get-shit-doneness we can muster, and you have ample reserves of both.

The Naderites are still attempting to wash the blood off their hands a dozen and more years later.

So I guess its no surprise the Bernie Bros are playing Pontius Pilate/Lady MacBeth.

Those who don't study history, will be forced to repeat it--and drag the rest of us into the pit with them.

So, Simone, watching TV in a foreign country is somehow highbrow? What's your objection to this situation, exactly? That such a trip would be inaccessible to most middle class folks? Not really true, it's actually pretty affordable if you do it on the cheap, as Dan did 20 years ago. And even if it was out of reach of the middle class, you are out of your damn head if you think Trump and his League of Billionaire Assholes will do a damn thing to make things better.

But look at me, trying to talk sense to you. You don't want sense. You want to have your tantrum. You are more interested in anger for anger's sake than you in being an adult and thinking of ways to fix our situation. That's why your logic and attitude is distinctly third grade. Really sad thing is that people like you are gonna be the ones who take Trump's economy on the chin the most.

Of course, I'm guessing you have a million reasons for not being able to do this kind of thing now. Job difficulties. Family demands. Etc etc etc. It's totally not your fault, right? You didn't fuck up your own life and are now resentful of anybody who hasn't completely boned themselves.

And that's why you love Trump. Because you always make good life decisions. Like never replacing thoughtfulness with anger.

@54- HILLARY CLINTON LOST. That's the history we need to not repeat, So do what Hillary Clinton and the Democrats did last time.

@54, without typos this time- HILLARY CLINTON LOST. That's the history we need to not repeat. So do not do what Hillary Clinton and the Democrats did last time. Run a candidate who isn't widely disliked. Run a candidate who is trusted. Run a campaign based on what the Left has to offer, not on why the opposition sucks and the personality of an uncharismatic leader.

"I'm With Her" is only a compelling slogan if you like "Her", and most people didn't. You can hate people for not being Hillary fans if you like, but it isn't going to win any elections.

Except, to repeat myself again and again, because you guys can't seem to look at these problems with clear eyes, Hillary Won.
Yes she lost the dishonest and undemocratic EC, but she won the most votes. And in most democracies around the world, that counts.
In America, not so much.

So to cut this eternal bitching at each other, when you think of the election just think, Hillary Won.
Then all this misplaced rage at each other, might start to move the slow wheels towards constitutional change re the EC.

@59- No, Hillary lost. Because we are in America and the stupid electoral college is still there and if the Democrats strategy for next election works out the same way we can probably get 4 or 5 million more votes and still lose. We need to learn from the last election, and the Electoral College (which gave us W and Trump) sure as shit isn't going to change while the GOP holds the legislature, executive branch, and most of the state houses, so we need to learn how to win the Electoral College. We need to win Rust Belt states.

My rage at Dan Savage, Judepsychic, and the rest of the Democrats who refuse to learn from their mistakes isn't misplaced. If you were playing soccer with someone who insisted on committing a handball every time you passed to them despite have the rules explained to them repeatedly and the other team capitalizing on their mistakes over and over, you really ought to get mad at them. And that is what the Democratic leadership has been doing for the past couple decades. They barely passed a healthcare reform which, frankly, kinda sucked for a lot of people (being required to get coverage that is too expensive to use is not cool.) They lost the state legislatures just before a redistricting, didn't notice or effectively fight the epic gerrymandering that happened, causing the House to get locked into the GOP. The Democratic primary voters picked Hillary Clinton and she lost the election (if not the popular vote) and dragged a couple Democratic Senate elections down with her.

The Democratic Party needs to change course. Savage and Judepsychic refuse to acknowledge that and pretend all we need to do is "resist" and somehow magically the next election will be different. It won't. Things need to change, and pretending somehow the Greens or the Bernie Bros (who voted for Hillary, virtually all of them) are the problem is actually just making things worse.

So I'm mad, and saying "Hillary won" is wrong. She lost. We lost. America lost. And the Electoral College isn't going away until the Congress is solidly Democratic, which won't happen until after the next redistricting if at all.

It's hilarious. The Slog trolls are whinging about the Electoral College and pretending that is the reason why America rejected their politics and their horrible candidate.

@62: I was directing my comment to Dan as well.
Yes I get it that changing the EC is not going to be easy. It's going to be a lot harder if it's not pointed to, repeatedly, as a big big problem.
Along with gerrymanders and voter suppression. Structural problems of US democracy has already cost you guys two Presidents in sixteen years.
Be involved in pushing the Democratic Party along, as well.

Damn straight.

(Also, the most inspiring piece of Savage work I've read in years.)

Liked your piece. Glad you like Graz, it's my hometown and we emigrated from there to the US when I was 7 y.o. back in the late 60's, eventually ending up in Seattle 11 years ago. During my most recent visit to Graz last summer my uncle took me to a place you might like checking out (perhaps you already have), namely Flo & Maggie's Leberkas Stadl, unless you are a vegetarian. Try the Pferdeleberkas (horsemeat leberkas), along with some beer of course, Prost! www.graz-leberkas.at (in the Zentrum)

Passion for Fascism

Dan, if you are looking for a reprieve from Herr Trump you went to the wrong place, as did I. Yeah, the torts and coffee are great. And the opera, but don't kid yourself. You are on the set of the film where a million people grabbed an ax. My father liked those things as well. Born and raised in Vienna, he thought of himself as a Viennese, part of one of the great cultures. He loved Austria. Austria tried to kill him. The last time there were a bunch of socialists and gays in Vienna they cooked them.

I escaped to Buenos Aires, another beautiful city haunted by bad dreams, but dreams of things that actually occurred, where white Europeans have worked to control and exterminate the locals. There was a time when BA extended open arms to immigrants, including building a 3,000 room hotel for them, and their economy soared. Now they blame their bleeding economy on the immigrants, just like everybody else. The grass may look greener in far away places. Better to turn off the radio and sing praises to the fact that we can write this stuff without looking over our shoulder. In most places it isn't allowed.

Will somebody ask Dan if he thinks Hillary would have a chance to win the prime ministership in Austria? ( if she were a citizen. -- https://www.politicalcompass.org/test ).