Demanding More Of Our Democracy

There is always the debate in my little family: if things get really bad, should we move to the UK? What is the point we personally have to leave?

During the Trump administration, that onslaught of daily horror, my husband and I talked about this on a periodic basis. Checking in with each other—what’s our status now? How are we feeling about the lines in the sand we agreed on last time?

My dad, back in the UK, wanted to know if we had an emergency situation escape plan (we did). His sense of North American geography is pretty similar to mine before I moved here, so while we were living in Ann Arbor I promised we would indeed go to his sister in Vancouver if shit got really bad.

The question makes me reflect on what it means to be part of this country.

Specifically, why people here in the US expect so little of their democracy, and the danger of just cynically, sarcastically, and “pragmatically” assuming we are all powerless to stop our democratically elected representatives from doing whatever the hell they like.