Deirdre Roney desired a backup plan—somewhere to go in case her worst worries about the democratic system in the United States came true. From the time Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, the Los Angeles lawyer and voting rights and immigration activist has been concerned about the emergence of authoritarianism. This fear increased as the election this fall approached. Trump has promised a “bloodbath” if he loses and “retribution” if he wins. Despite claiming not to be a well-known activist, Roney worries that political persecution might happen. “I dare you to find someone as scared, depressed, and dark as I am,” she murmured. She therefore locked up her escape hatch for this summer.
In exchange for investing roughly $100,000 in a development fund, she and her spouse were granted dual citizenship in Antigua and Barbuda, giving them access to a barrier-free overseas sanctuary that she can utilize if she feels uncomfortable. She remarked, “I wanted us to have somewhere to go.” I desired a backup plan. A journalist’s count indicates that since the discussion, the New York Times has published 192 pieces, comprising 142 news pieces and 50 editorials. They created a resignation speech for him, published by The Washington Post, which has likewise gone for heavy coverage. The editor-in-chief of the New Yorker, wanting to be outdone, said that Biden’s continued presence “would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment” and asked a staff writer to propose that Democrats utilize the 25th amendment, which has never been used before.
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The concept of leaving one’s own country to oppose a political party or presidential government is not new; consider the Vietnam War or even the promises made to emigrate when President George W. Bush was re-elected. At one point, even Trump made a joke about leaving if Biden won. According to Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels, a migration scholar and expert on Americans abroad at the University of Kent, not many people who say they are going to leave do so.
But there are indications that Americans from all walks of life are paying closer attention to the exits this year as voter fear reaches critical levels ahead of a contentious race between Trump and President Joe Biden. Wish to depart from the United States? Here’s how an American can relocate to Canada, Mexico, or Europe. According to a Monmouth University survey conducted on March 26, 34% of American citizens said they would relocate overseas if given the opportunity, an increase from 12% since 1995. Monmouth polling officials said they think the spike was probably fueled by the recent political animosity. According to a former FBI director, threats to jail political opponents are making some current and former members of the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence community consider if they might have to leave to escape being detained illegally.
In the age of remote employment, these decisions may also be simpler for some people
Lesperance remarked, “What’s different today is people are acting on it,” adding that worries have been further escalated by the Supreme Court’s decision about presidential immunity. “They perceive a genuine threat.” It’s far from certain whether a sizable portion of Americans will relocate. The difficulties of getting a visa and leaving behind family responsibilities come with moving overseas. Furthermore, some see these feelings as an overreaction domestically while other nations are also experiencing fresh political unrest.
However, talk about this possibility is becoming more widespread, particularly in the wake of a presidential debate that sparked fresh concerns about Biden’s suitability and Trump’s pattern of fabrications. Some claimed that even before then, the desire to flee had prompted calls to friends who were living abroad asking for help. In 2020, 48-year-old Justin Knepper relocated to Portugal from California. At least 50% of our pals are thinking about moving, he claimed, with politics playing at least a role for the majority.
Relocating to South Africa: “We must leave this place”
Ted Baumann left both political parties last year after becoming estranged from both. The sixty-three-year-old, who lived in Decatur, Georgia, close to Atlanta, worked in nonprofit housing and financial publishing. He also had a daughter. His wife was a pre-K teacher. Ted Baumann, sixty-three, relocated to South Africa last year from the Atlanta region, partly due to his unhappiness with the political situation in the United States. He was concerned as he observed the rise in reactionary politics during the administration of President Barack Obama. When Senate Republicans defied convention and prevented Obama from appointing someone to the Supreme Court, he was taken aback. It appeared to be “Third-World style politics,” he claimed.
He was concerned about the ease with which people may justify such actions. Then Trump prevailed. He believed that political discourse had grown more acrimonious all around him. He recalled thinking, “We’ve got to get out of here,” when he woke up the following week. It would not be a challenging move. The wife of Baumann is a native of South Africa. Additionally, he already held dual citizenship and had lived abroad for a while. However, they had made their home in a Georgian neighborhood. Their daughter was going to high school, and they both had nice jobs. The epidemic then struck. Even though Biden had been narrowly elected by voters in 2020, the fact that almost half of Americans backed Trump’s policies, especially the theories of stolen elections that led to the attack on the US Capitol building on January 6, alarmed him. However, Baumann, who stated that he leans left but doesn’t identify with any party, wasn’t too fond of Democrats either. He felt that liberals paid too little attention to urgent economic and other issues and were unduly fixated on “identity politics, gender, race, and sexual orientation—all of which are important.” He eventually came to doubt that elected officials could resolve common problems.