America’s Future

I’ve rarely had conversations about US politics while living abroad. People are just not as interested in America as Americans assume they are.

However…

Over the weekend, I stopped in for a languid, al fresco Saturday breakfast of iced latte and stracciatella on toast at a little bakery/eatery called Milkees here in Cascais, Portugal, where my wife and I now live.

An older guy sitting next to us overheard me talking and he leaned over to ask if I was American or British…

When I told him I was from the US, he said, “Ah, good! I’ve wanted to ask a real American what they think will come of this election in November.”

What a loaded question for a lazy Saturday breakfast…

I will tell you what I told him.

And to be clear, this is not political. I hope, rather, you’ll think of it as inspirational—as in, inspiring you to seriously consider putting a Plan B in motion.

The 2024 election will be the most consequential political moment in America in 100 years.

It doesn’t matter who wins, the losing side is going to be livid, and the 2024 election could well see America’s Big Rift morph into an unbridgeable chasm, as Red and Blue states begin the serious business of disassociating themselves from one another.

When I told that to the guy in the bakery, he said, “I’m sure this is just a moment. It will pass. Everything passes—no?”

Maybe… maybe not.

America is already a friends-and-enemies country. Lots of reasons exist for that—social, financial, political. I won’t dive into those. But just consider that Texas and numerous other states are flouting the Biden administration’s border policies and have sent their own National Guardsmen to help Texas stand against federal agents.

I’m not commenting here on who’s right or wrong. I’m only pointing out that we now have states actively revolting against D.C. Hmmm… does anyone else get 1861 Civil War vibes?

And we’re already seeing the implications of America’s political and social decay in her younger generations. A poll last year from Preply, a language-tutoring company, found that more than a third of Americans 18 to 26 want out of America permanently. That’s up four percentage points from a 2019 Gallup poll of 15 to 29 year olds.

Last summer, meanwhile, a Pew Research Center survey revealed that a measly 9% of Americans aged 18 to 29 agree that the US is the greatest country—a core tenet of Americanism we all grew up with.

Why is this important?

Well, we all know the trite truism that “the children are our future.”

What does it say about America’s future if more than a third of the younger generation wants to leave, and only one in 10 think their homeland is the best country?

It says the ties that bind Americans together have become frayed and weak. Many are broken.

If America’s youth begin leaving in greater numbers for a better life abroad, and if states begin the process of seceding from the union (or worse, break out into open warfare against the federal government) what becomes of America?

Will any of this actually come to pass?

Maybe not. But these are no longer crazy fantasies… They are very real possibilities talked about in polite society.

The idea of a second civil war in America is now plastered across news sites ranging from Politico to NPR to The Guardian. Boston University, Harvard, and the University of Chicago have all weighed in on this.

None of that would ever have been the case in the America I grew up in.

Ultimately, my message today is this: Begin building a Plan B into your life… just in case.

You might never need it.

But if you do ever need it…

Ask yourself a few key questions:

• Where would I want to go to get away from the madness at home? What kind of visa would I need to stay there?
• Should I begin that process now? If I wait, what documents should I have in a go-bag so that I can pursue residency in another country (and do those documents have an expiration date relative to a country’s residency process)?
• How do I shape my financial life for living abroad? How will I earn an income? Do I have the right bank accounts in America that will allow me easy access to my money if I move overseas? Should I open a bank account abroad now, just to have it in place?

(If you want help finding answers… my colleague, Ted Baumann, has a service that you will want to check out.)

No one wants to believe that their homeland could become unlivable… I don’t want to believe it.

But the worst happens all the time in life.

“If you really think this is America’s future,” the man at Milkees said, “it will be a sad day for the world if this happens.”

Yes. It will.

Maybe things won’t get that far…

But you need to be prepared if they do.