How Tr*mp Reminds me How Much I Love America
& How Loving America is Our Best Tool to Beat Him
Trump has successfully reminded me how much I love America, but not in the way he inspires his followers. Trump reminds me how much I love America, in that, I am deeply concerned for America and do not want Trump to further erode the positive potential I see in America and the American people. Trump reminds me, in his divisive and violent rhetoric, that I just want to live peaceably and freely in America. I don’t want to get up and leave. I like living here. I choose to live here.
I speak 2 other languages, I have an advanced degree, I’m studious, I’m innovative, and I could arguably get a job in any country I wanted due to being an English speaker with a postgraduate degree. Surely, I love aspects about so many other places in the world. I have been to Japan, Germany, South Korea, Canada, and Israel/Palestine. I can very much appreciate why people love living in all of those places as well. However, I choose to live in the US. I made a very active decision in 2018-2019 to remain in the US. I had done extensive research into emigrating back to South Korea, reclaiming my citizenship, finding jobs, apartment rental systems, and had made marginal progress in learning Korean. However, when I really thought about it, I wanted to stay put. The trade offs that I would have compromised on would have been significant.
Transgender healthcare is more accessible to me here than in Korea or Japan. Anti-Asian racism exists in all of the non-Asian countries I’d consider moving to. Personal expression IS more welcome here than many places. Disagreement, although increasingly vitriolic, is at least expected here. There is a wider diversity of doctors I can choose to see (which is important to me as someone who is at a high risk of receiving poor medical care due to discrimination). Anti-black racism exists all over the entire world. Genocides are being participated in and actively pursued by more than just American and America’s allies. Non-Christian majority countries are just as homophobic (Japan!) and secular states still promote severe ideas of what family is supposed to be like, how to raise children, what gets taught in schools, etc.
America is not a uniquely bad place. America is not a uniquely good place. America is a place. It’s a place with significant flaws and significant benefits. I choose to live here because I enjoy it and I enjoy the life I am building for myself.
What many undecided and center right voters need from the Democratic party is for the party to stop being so allergic to strong leadership, definitive statements, and to loving this country. I never would have thought I’d have to make a post talking about how much I love this country. However, I do and ultimately MANY people want to be assured that their future president does too. Many people want to feel that the government is considering the development and growth of this country because they love it.
The Democratic Party has a similar challenge as many liberal mainline protestant denominations (and both are made up of many of the same people). Everyone who aligns with both of these entities has been so inundated with purely critical takes for so long, of Church & of State, that they want nothing to do with either. They are being led by wishy-washy, lukewarm leaders who are allergic to stand strong with an authoritative and meaningful message to rally behind. There is no energy.
Despite what the loudest hypercritical voices might have to say, people actually crave strength in leadership, clarity, direction, etc. which all comes from leaders who are willing to stand strong behind strong beliefs and make it actually matter.
We cannot be allergic to being American, for if we are, we leave space for the only way to “be American” to be one that is violent, hateful, restrictive, and deeply authoritarian.
