Prepare for Post-Election America

“That’s the problem—you see—there’s no one in the middle, no purple, representing you and me.”

This was said to me over dinner at the Westgate Resort in Las Vegas last weekend, during International Living’s Ultimate Go Overseas Bootcamp. I was dining with several IL colleagues, as well as seven VIP subscribers. It was an intimate affair; Italian food and a few bottles of a fantastic Super Tuscan red and a Friulano white that I picked out for the group.

I’d made a comment about the Red/Blue divide in America and my sadness and frustration that the America I grew up in and love has been lost in a raging swirl of hate the two camps hold for each other.

Earlier in the day, I’d been chatting with a woman at the conference who shared a similar sentiment, telling me that she can’t even talk about supposedly safe topics with family members these days “because they find a way to turn it into a political fight. I don’t know what has happened to this country, but this is one of the reasons we want out.”

We’re days away from what will be the most consequential American election in at least the last century. No matter who wins, there will be anger.

Vitriol, too.

Claims of another stolen election? Massive vote fraud?

Seems possible—if not probable.

As I told someone at the poolside gathering before dinner, “I won’t be surprised if this is the last election in American history.”

I don’t mean that America will become a dictatorship.

Although maybe it will. Who knows?

I mean that this election is going to exacerbate America’s already unbridgeable social, political, economic, and religious divide like no other event since the Civil War. And several people I talked to said they’re seriously worried that’s where the country is headed.

They didn’t offer those words in conspiratorial tones. They weren’t wearing tinfoil hats.

These were sober-minded Americans.

Americans, like me—madly frustrated at their country.

“You know,” another attendee told me, “we used to be able to have disagreements about who was best to run the country. I’d say this, someone else would say that, and we’d agree to disagree, and we’d still be friends. Now, it’s just yelling and name-calling, and if I disagree with you, you want me to die or you cut me out of your life because I don’t believe the same things you do. It’s stupid. But that’s where we are and I don’t know if we go back.”

The Americans at the IL conference were asking me about countries with easy access to residence visas of some sort, either for digital nomads or retirees.

One couple already has their house on the market because “where America is today, we really don’t want to be part of what’s to come.”

Another owns several rental properties and wants to sell to move money out of the dollar because of where America’s finances are headed (hint: a big crisis).

People I talked to definitely seem determined to act, regardless of political color.

I had many a conversation in Vegas about why I own such a heavy percentage of Swiss francs and gold in my portfolio. You already know that answer so I won’t bore you with a rehash here.

Attendees wanted to know if I really think bitcoin will emerge as a haven if the dollar does indeed stumble into a debt-fueled crisis. Yes, I believe it definitely will.

The world isn’t going to rush into the dollar for safety when the dollar is the source of the crisis. People will reflexively look for something they can trust, and given the institutional acceptance of bitcoin these days—with bitcoin ETFs continuing to attract more and more major investors—the granddaddy of crypto (along with gold and francs) is pretty much the only option for a super-liquid asset that trades 24/7/365 and is as portable as dollars.

Clearly, what I say in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas.

Because I’m telling everyone who will listen to prepare now for post-election America…