Fight or Flee?

An All-American Dilemma

Reading Karissa Chen’s Homeseeking, about a couple torn apart by the left-right war in post-WWII China, I question our own moment in the USA. Last night, I had a conversation I never thought I would have—a serious discussion with two friends about countries we could potentially live in if we are forced out of our own. We are all Natural Born American Citizens in our 40s, of various ethnic origins. We’ve never had any other Citizenship, never seriously wanted any other, and while we all travel internationally for vacation, other than a year abroad on an American study abroad program in the UK for me and a year in Ethiopia while in the Peace Corps for another, have never resided in any other country.

Yet ironically, this gives us far less options if we need to flee a genuine dictatorship, which unfortunately isn’t out of the realm of possibility given the record of this administration only a few months in. The best we could do is get work visas somewhere and hope to work towards permanent residency and possibly citizenship. Perhaps a retirement visa in Thailand, but I’m too young; maybe a “genius” visa in Australia, but who knows of that outcome. Could we seriously claim asylum somewhere—from what was only a few months ago the freest, and richest (at many levels) country on Earth? In my case, I could theoretically get Indian citizenship based on my ancestry, but then I would have to renounce my American citizenship, something that’s unthinkable and intolerable to me.

In fact, I would prefer not to flee, even in the worst circumstance. I’m proud to be American, always have been, or at least of the free, if imperfect, America. The one I was free to satirize and criticize, and which I reveled in defending abroad to all the America-haters. I would prefer to fight to regain the freedoms we once had. Unless I felt that I could do that more effectively abroad and/or in exile. And what of my literary work? Would I have to live abroad to continue to produce? Would that even be a benefit?

Funny that we are thinking like people who fled regimes in places like Iran, Cuba and Russia. But here we are.

Of course, you could say this is overblown, but I’m not so sure. I remember another natural born (multigenerational) American friend considering places she could go on FB after Trump’s win based on her various ancestries. People on either side of the political spectrum often say, “I’m going to move to Canada” after the other side wins here, so I didn’t take it so seriously, even though I was concerned as well. I told her “don’t run away!” “We might not have a choice,” she responded. It’s true, in this case, we might not.

I’ve been sharing a lot of other people’s posts on my page, almost universally Left, because I am very concerned about the detentions, kidnappings, and essentially disappearances by our new government. An executive branch that claims to have restored “free speech” and then detains and wants to deport people for writing an op-ed or attending a demonstration, things are clearly protected for all people within our borders, whether they are citizens or not. An executive branch that seems to hate our Bill of Rights and every Amendment of our Constitution, not to mention the Separation of Powers. But let’s not pretend the Left is blameless here either. In fact, it is their incompetence and excesses that got us back to Trump 2.0.

Strongmen aren’t elected in vacuums. People bring up Hitler, but more apt comparisons might be Bukele in El Salvador or more distantly Fujimori in Peru. Both faced far greater challenges (one of the worst gang problems in the world; the Shining Path insurgency in rural areas of Peru). Both defeated them by taking extraordinary measures, bucking civil liberties, and became enormously popular as a result, at least for a while.

Trump’s case is different because he constantly exaggerates our problems. We’ve hardly been “invaded” and despite enormous debt and inflation we weren’t in an economic crisis—unemployment was minimal, our salaries far exceeded those of European and Asian countries and the dollar was strong—but that doesn’t mean the problems didn’t exist, and that they weren’t created by the previous administration—-they were. South American gangs were committing crimes with abandon. There was migrant crime, although much lower than citizen crime. Repealing Remain in Mexico was a bad idea, resulting in an enormous wave of migrants at the border. And releasing people into America claiming asylum—most of whom were economic migrants who were lying, and with minimal screening, with major cities like NYC to put up the load—was also a bad idea. Did it help our economy? Almost certainly. It definitely helped me and my library. But it was done in such an incompetent and unstructured way that American citizens felt they were not valued, and so enough were willing to vote for a twice-impeached insurrectionist and sore loser who said repeatedly he would suspend the Constitution he swore to uphold.

And domestically, bail reform and criminal justice reform, especially in NYS, were done stupidly, and still have yet to be rescinded. Yes, the criminal justice system is biased and racist, and the prison-industrial complex is real and a threat, and of course we prefer to reform than condemn people, but it makes no sense to release violent recidivist criminals into society, or to put 15 year old murderers in family court, or to have mentally ill people crowding subways and harassing people on the streets. Or to have migrants begging for money and jobs on the street. All of these policies hurt people of color the most and ruined what was a 20+ year golden period in NYC, despite its problems which I’ve documented in my books.

Should we make more products in America? Definitely. I’ve seen first hand how relying on construction materials from abroad can create supply chain issues. We all felt it after the pandemic. And do we need more manufacturing in the Midwest and Rustbelt? Of course. I’ve seen the dark sides of Rochester, and Syracuse, and Cleveland, and Detroit. Someone has to do something, even if it’s a Marshall Plan of sorts.

But I also like buying my efficient Japanese cars and drinking my Brazilian Yerba mate. Choice is king and it’s a sign of wealth—that was true in 17th century Holland and 15th century Venice. All wealthy societies are open societies, with select laws and customs meant to balance it. In NYC we have both strong Unions and extensive School Choice. You really can have it all with the right blend—choice being the main ingredient.

But we need solutions with a scalpel, not with a hammer. All this President knows to do is use a sledgehammer, it seems. And he doesn’t understand his role is simply to execute the laws of Congress as upheld by the Courts—he’s hardly the only one, just the worst so far.

All saying—I hope I don’t have to flee. I don’t want to. I love my life, I love my job, I love my friends and family and I love Queens and NYC and even all of America and the world. This is all making my dark books seem even more prophetic, I know, but in a way I hope they don’t come to pass. But as I said, I’m not so sure…