Posted on 09/23/2004 1:50:34 PM PDT by PaulaB
SALT LAKE CITY - Happiness and joy: What made a recent vacation perfect was the first sign of dour Democrats preparing to flee America at the prospect of President Bush’s re-election.
Having escaped Florida's dog days and Hurricane Frances, we were passing through lovely Utah when, to check a restaurant listing, we picked up something called City Weekly, one of those free left-wing yuppie tabloids that infest most sizable cities. Our heart soared when we took a gander at this item, even though we realize most limousine leftists will remain as firmly ensconced in America as Alec Baldwin:
Canada. Costa Rica. New Zealand. They’ve all come up in conversation as a variety of people ask the pressing question, "Where can we go?” They’re not talking about an idyllic vacation. They’re talking about an escape hatch, a Plan B in case the elections don’t go as they hope. It’s a question I hear asked frequently these days from people of various political persuasions. They aren’t the young and disillusioned with nothing to lose. They are mainstream, thoughtful, well-established people who own their homes, have good paying jobs, dutifully pay their taxes and vote in every election. But they’re nervous about what might happen come November and beyond.
"You know how Fortune comes out with the ‘10 Best Places to Live in America?’ Well, we need a list of the ‘10 Best Places for Disgusted Americans,’” a well-heeled gentleman who owns his own business told me over lunch. "Vancouver is too cold, but I don’t like the tropics. They make me too lazy. There must be a place like Oregon that’s outside the grasp of George Bush.”
Like most who toy with the idea, it’s doubtful he’ll move out of the country. He has too much invested in his life and career here, as do so many of his generation. Of those who have threatened to flee, I know of only one couple that has followed through. Charles and Marilyn, who asked that I not use their last names, have sold their East Bench home, given away expensive appliances, tools, and furniture, and found a place in western Canada outside the rain zone.
The two retired professionals say they have lost faith in the direction America is taking. "It’s not just Bush,” says Charles. "The wealthy and powerful have essentially bought the government, the Congress, the presidency for George Bush, the Supreme Court, and, in states where courts are elected, they’ve bought courts. They’ve bought legislatures in every state capital. And there’s no way that these people are going to go against business. It doesn’t matter if Kerry or Bush or Nader is elected. The courts will do what pleases business. The problem I have is that half the people in this country think that’s right. People are totally irrational.”
"I don’t understand why people aren’t rising up,” says Marilyn. "But the materialistic culture keeps people so busy acquiring stuff and taking care of stuff that they’re too busy to fight.”
"They’re inert,” adds Charles.
Worse than a materialistic culture too sated to respond to big business hijacking its government, Marilyn sees a culture in decline. She cites parallels to the way the Roman Empire fell: "Things are too far gone to be corrected. There’s going to be real unpleasantness.”
Their decision to leave has elicited a wide range of responses, from indignation and charges of paranoia to envy. "We’ve been approached by people who want to pick our brains on how to do it,” says Marilyn. "It’s not simple to pick up and leave. All the things you have to deal with in a measured way take some planning.”
The couple is still working out the details, but they plan to go into Canada as "seasonal visitors” and hold onto their U.S. citizenship for Medicare and Social Security purposes.
"You only get one shot at life,” says Marilyn, who has worked on many social causes. "People say we should stay and fight, but when you see the tide coming in, you move. You have to know when to hold and know when to fold.”
Marilyn and Charles have decided it’s time to fold.
'Made Me Puke'
After a great hiking trip in Idaho, Oregon and northern Utah, we passed through Salt Lake two weeks later and picked up another issue of City Weekly. Among the letters to the editor was this rib tickler:
Blowing Chunks in Their Trunks The story of Americans "Charles and Marilyn” fleeing to Canada because of problems here in the United States made me puke ["Flight From Bushland,” Voices, Sept. 2, City Weekly]. They have an "East Bench” home containing "expensive appliances, tools, and furniture,” yet they somehow condemn American culture for becoming too "materialistic.”
But the thing really causing me to blow chunks is Charles and Marilyn are gonna be hiding deep in a bunker in western Canada while still collecting Social Security and Medicare checks from good ole Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam will still be feeding and protecting Charles and Marilyn—just as he always has—and no matter how wrong-headed they have become.
Cuba would sink with the weight of all of them.
"They always SAY that they're going to leave, but they never DO it."
Of course not. Thirty years ago these same fools all wore fashionable jumpsuits--but they never jumped.
"This is the opposite of a brain drain."
Good point. If they all left the U.S. and moved to France, they'd raise the average IQ of both countries.
You know, I've been working in the trenches for a long time with the indigent and down and out. Most of them have sad stories and live with some terrible choices now from bad choices in their pasts.
The difference I see between the left and right is that the leftists are not in the trenches. They run the NGO's and PAC's and other legislative bullies. The money goes to the action committees and they endrun everyone else with all that cash and influence. They push socialist ideas through that help no one, but keep those in power, in power and powerful.
I don't see them in the trenches working one on one.
Marilyn sounds like a typical, spoiled whiner packing up her toys after trashing the country that gave her everything. She also sounds like some inflated egotist deriding those who take the culture back to some semblence of sanity.
How childish and silly she is to think that somehow her little pique and petulant move leaves the country diminished.
Cool. If enough of 'em leave i'm thinkin'....
* The reintroduction of the muscle car (w/ashtrays)
* Lawn darts
* The Tonight Show starring Laura Ingraham
* Conservative college profs.
* Ayn Rand Memorial libraries
* 99 cent/ Gal Anwar brand gasoline
* Dodgeball
* The CBS Evening News with Charles Krauthammer
I can dream can't I?
:o)
I highly recommend they move to Canada's Great White North and wait for global warming to make it the next Malibu.
Also the Netherlands would be good for these kinds of individuals because of the liberal euthanasia laws there.
Oh cool. What web site. Please tell me, I want to go play too...
"Democrats, Expecting Bush's Re-election, Prepare to Flee America"
I hope this isn't fiction designed to make Republicans overconfident.
...also:
* Tobacco shops on every corner instead of Starbucks (tm)
* Vouchers so parents can send kids to school of choice or homeschool
* 'Late Night with Michael Savage'
* Mandatory gun safety training in 6th grade
* Tax credits for stay-at-home moms
* 'Good Morning America with Ann Coulter'
* 'Heather Has A Mom and A Dad'
* BET News with Bill Cosby and JC Watts'
* The Mel Gibson Film Festival
* Pres. "Jeb" Bush 44 and VP Condoleeza Rice
* The Mullahs in Iran & Kim Jung Il in chains
* National Guard reformed along Swiss lines
But if they're going to France, they should buy their burkhas now--they will need them when they arrive in Eurabia.
These people are idiots.
Heard this in 2000.NOBODY left.
During the '60s and '70s the left had plenty of guns and bombs. Remember the Weathermen.
I remember a nice story about a couple who, forseeing the way the world was going in the early 1930's, decided to flee. They figured Europe would be hit by major war, and that the war would include much of Africa which at the time was a colony of various European powers. They nixed the US and much of south america, figuring that guerilla warfare would be widespread in the Southern continent and North america would be at war. They saw Japan spreading from China into India and Australia. So they carefully chose a nice isolated south pacific Island to flee to ...an island named Guadalcanal.
The first time, the pirates stole all valuables from the boat people. The second round of pirates stole everything else except the motor. The third round of pirates stole, you guessed it, the motor.
His people know who in America are their friends, and who worked against them.
You can guess why the MSM are not reporting on the political attitudes of Vietnamese Americans during this Vietnam revival lately. The Vietnamese American community are solidly for Bush.
Don't we always hear about how health care is so much better in Canada? Why wouldn't they want to have Canadian health care instead? Hypocrites.
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