Blog#111- 6/6/22
THOUGHTS OF EXPATRIATION
By Richard Davis
It usually happens when a president is elected. His politics are antithetical to mine and I wonder how my country could have elected such a person who will set the U.S. on a bad course. I harbor thoughts of leaving the U.S. and moving to a place that is more aligned with my vision for a better world.
But there are so many political, economic and social changes happening in this country now that I am feeling the same unease I felt when the Bushes and Trump were elected. It has nothing to do with Biden, although I would like to see better positions on a number of issues.
I have come to accept the fact that the U.S. political process is so broken that it will never be fixed in my lifetime or in the lifetime of many more generations.
When you have a bag full of rotting garbage that is starting to stink you need to throw it out, clean up and start over.
When an entire country’s political system is rotting, citizens have recourse at the ballot box and they can take to the streets to create some degree of bottom up change. People can also recognize the problem and create organizations that will take the long view and work to make change in incremental ways.
We have many such organizations in this country, but too many of them have been stymied over the decades because the forces they are up against are too rich and too powerful. In a rotten political system those with the most money always win and we have too many examples of that.
I put in more than 25 years to help establish a single payer health care system in Vermont working with the Vermont Citizens Campaign for Health. I was on the board of a national organization that tried to lay the groundwork for the kind of systemic change needed to move the U.S. toward a more universal health care system. Both of those organizations no longer exist.
There are other organizations that are carrying the same torch but the momentum for universal health care in this country has stalled. If not for people like Senator Bernie Sanders and the leaders of a few national organizations pushing for Medicare for All, the entire movement for universal health care might die a quick death.
I want to believe that Americans want a health care system that provides equal access and affordability for all but our political system will never allow that. Insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry will always rule and as long as they can move piles of money toward politicians we will never have a universal health care system in this country. We haven’t found a way to empty that rotten bin of garbage.
And then there is the Supreme Court. It is another reflection of a political system that is no longer capable of doing what is best for the majority of citizens. Instead, the court reflects the ability of devious manipulators to win the day for a small minority of extremists who hold 97% of this country’s wealth. Extremists who have found a way to take away women’s legal right to control their own bodies. When Roe v. Wade is overturned we will be given another example of the rot within.
I am not looking forward to the coming election season, either nationally or locally. People will do their usual pandering for a place in different palaces of power as they tell you their plans to make the world a better place. They may sound sincere but too many are in the rotten game to bolster their ego and their ambition.
All of this reflection makes me physically and emotionally sick and I once again look for a place in the world that can provide the kind of comfort I am looking for. When I weigh all of the pro’s and con’s I decide that the home my wife and I have created will protect us from the storms around us. I am reminded of the wisdom of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz when she said, “There’s no place like home.”
