An American passport can get you into 174 countries around the world. In many of those countries it’s possible to become a legal resident—or just keep renewing a tourist visa.
There’s no rule saying you have to stay in the country of your birth year after year.
Imagine you woke up after a multi-year slumber and turned on CNN. You might not find it surprising that an ignorant bigot and a right-wing gun-loving Bible thumper are the leading candidates for president of the United States on the conservative side of the eventual ballot.
You probably would find it hard to believe that the guy who has gotten the most primary delegate votes overall has spray-on-tan skin, an orange dyed comb-over, has been through multiple divorces, and has filed for bankruptcy four times. That’s before we even get to the complete lack of knowledge about what goes on outside our borders and an open support of torture techniques prohibited by international law. We could talk about him for days, or if you’re an American 24-hour news network, for at least a year non-stop.
Even if he doesn’t win, what does this say about the volume of dense people that can crawl out from under a rock when it’s time to vote? Who knew there were that many? It’s like Idiocracy come to life, 10 years after its release.
His main opponent says the government is the enemy (while it pays him his salary and benefits). He thinks we should make law decisions based on rules from a translated anthology written 2,000 years ago (but only when convenient—not on that wimpy “help the poor” and “care for the needy” stuff).
Who knows how things will pan out, but I’m not too worried because I have a passport. I can go to Mexico for six months just on a tourist visa, then move on to somewhere else and do it again, or come back there for another six months. I could go spend a year in India, or Peru, or Cambodia. With a few visa runs I could do that in dozens of other countries or just keep moving.
The last big expatriate exodus was when Bush got reelected—I sure met a lot of them in my travels. Some came back when the tides turned and the economy improved under a new leader. Others like the slower pace and better spending power on the other side and made it permanent.
Will we see a replay?
Who knows.
But if you’re having thoughts of escape, I’ve got a book for you. And some coaching if you’d like. After all, if you’re going to escape from a scary situation, why not turn it to your advantage as well? Go to a place where you can live well on half of what you’re spending now and you’ve suddenly got… A Better Life for Half the Price .
When you get there, turn off the TV, mix a cocktail with fresh-squeezed juice, and take a nap in a hammock. Then do it again the next day.
Soon you might forget that you were once stressing about which nutjob or other was getting the most votes.
