This isn't a sex related question, so if you don't run it or respond, I'll understand. Over all the years I've been reading your column, you've become something of a trusted political commentator along the way, and I want to get your opinion.
In the run up to the most recent presidential election, a number of celebrities made comments along the lines of, "If Trump wins, I'm moving to Canada." Lena Dunham springs to mind, and Snoop Dogg made some reference as well once it was clear that Trump had won. But as I write this the world is staring down the barrel of Trump's inauguration, and I haven't heard of anyone notable packing their bags. I guess my question boils down to: why not?
Now, full disclosure—I'm Canadian. But after eight years of watching Obama's presidency make such mild or nonexistent progress on health care, LGBTQ rights, gun control, racism, sexism, environmental protection, equality, financial security for workers, etc., only for it to lead to such a blowback as to elect Trump and threaten to roll it all back or worse; to see the government solidly in the hands of plutocrats and alt-right nazis, I just don't understand. The US seems so incurably divided, and the division is getting worse.
By no means am I saying Canada is perfect. We're threatened by most of the same issues as in the US, and have some uniquely our own. PM Trudeau isn't as left-leaning as he's often made out to be in the American press, and some distinctly Trump-style voices are rising on the right. But when it comes to social progress important measures just seem so much more secure here, or pushed further down the field. And an influx of liberal ex-pat Americans would only make them more secure in elections of the future.
Emigrating is no trivial thing, I get that. But for people with the means—I don't just mean celebrities—what keeps them from doing it? Patriotism? Our climate? (It's not that bad, I swear!) I've (half) joked that the history of Russia is the history of human misery—after the first couple of hundred years, anyone who could leave should have done so if they had to walk. As the US faces down yet another decade of fighting not to move backwards, at what point do you say enough? At what point do you choose a battlefield you can win on?
Confused Liberal In Toronto
If Trump's inauguration was the barrel we were staring down... the trigger got pulled today at noon, EST. That's when Donald Trump placed his hand on Abraham Lincoln's bible, which somehow didn't burst into flames, and took the oaf of office, becoming the 45th President of the United States.
I had weeks to brace myself for this. But somehow I wasn't prepared. I can't imagine what was going through Hillary Clinton's mind as she sat up there watching that walking pile of circus peanut puke promise to protect and defend the Constitution.
Fuck, CLIT. Fuck. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
People possessed of courage, goodness, and love—the three virtues Trump said will guide our country going forward, each utterly alien to Orange Julius Caesar—watched this tire fire in horror today. We listened to Trump say he'll never let us down... and ten minutes later all mention of climate change and LGBT rights were scrubbed from the White House website, which now hosts pages that unethically (and perhaps illegally) pimp Melania Trump's jewelry line and brag about Donald Trump's "historic landslide." (Donald Trump did not win in a landslide, historic or otherwise.)
As sure as the look of disdain on Michelle Obama's face this morning (see below), you can bet that many, many, many, many Americans thought about running away, and abandoning this crass, reeling, and seemingly irredeemable country.
I'm SCREAMING she can't even hide it pic.twitter.com/AW3VB08SHu
— horace (@sounderemployed) January 20, 2017
But, as you said, CLIT, emigrating is no trivial thing. Liberal people with the means to flee—particularly those wealthy celebs—also tend to be people who value multiculturalism and democracy. (They're also, it has to be said, likely to be insulated from the worst abuses of Trump's misrule.) Our country and our planet are under threat, our values are being tested, our Constitution could be headed for the shredder, CLIT, and the flight of those on the left—rich and famous or poor and anonymous—would only make it easier for Trump to remake our country in his own disgusting image. So we're going to stick around, even those who threatened to leave, if only to remind Trump daily that he does not have and has never had the support of a majority of the American people.
That asshole couldn't even win the support of a majority of the Rockettes.
So, yeah. We're going to stay and we're going to fight. Lena and Snoop Dogg too. And we're going to march and we're going to resist and we're going to win. The American experiment isn't dead. It's bleeding, yes, but it ain't dead. All of us together—all of us liberals and progressives and feminists and immigrants and queers and scientists and sex workers—can stop the bleeding, if we try, and restore our country to some semblance of health. Because we outnumber this lecherous, lying scumbag and his cabinet of horrors and his delusional supporters and his shitty kids. Check it:
Obama v Trump Crowds #TrumpInauguration #Inauguration pic.twitter.com/VqzCuJceHw
— Matt Hildreth (@mhildreth) January 20, 2017
That being said, CLIT, thanks for the offer. We hardly deserve it.