Something that's always bothered me is that when things get bad here for progressives, people start talking of leaving the country. "I'll go to Canada," or "France is sounding good these days," is heard often.
This is used by the right-wing to suggest that liberals are "less patriotic."
I was thinking about this the other day and finally realized the truth. The truth is that the only reason the right-wing don't make similar comments is that there is no first-world nation out there to the right of the United States. Otherwise it'd be the first word out of Limbaugh's mouth every day.
Add to that one other factor - progressives in this country rarely attempt to infringe on the personal space of the right-wing; we fight for their right to say what they want, believe what they want, do what they want. They, in turn, try to infringe on us whenever they have power. Not, "it's our choice not to have an abortion," but "it's our choice that YOU can't have an abortion." Not, "it's your right as an American to protest our policies," but "you're not American if you don't support what your government does." Not, "we feel that our religion tells us not be be gay," but, "we want to throw gays in jail and add constitutional ammendments denying them equal rights." And at the very highest levels, it's not, "we will send our kids to war," but, "we will send your kids to war, and protect ours just like our rich parents protected us." Under these circumstances, it is even less surprising if progressives seek to escape.
Having said all this, my personal feeling is that progressives are not leaving but fighting. We are organizing, talking amongst ourselves, planning, putting our money and our time and our energy behind our feeling that something isn't right. We are, frankly, formulating a massive battle plan for taking our country back; many of us feel like this is a political war to protect our country. And this is as it should be. When a nation is threatened, its citizens have a responsibility to come together to its defense. It should be no different when the threat is an internal assault on our consitution, our standing in the world, our natural resources and our childrens' future.
Rather than being apathetic or making plans to move to Canada, we're taking a stand and fighting to keep this country the best place in the world to live, learn, and work.
For that, we should all be proud.
