As Bush Exits, Expats Staying Put

Source: The Hartford Courant

Each time George W. Bush won the presidency, some people swore they would move to Canada.

Most of it was just talk. But there are those who actually made good on their threats. So now that Bush is leaving the White House, will the expats be coming home?

Kaitlin Duck Sherwood, now a computer programming consultant in Vancouver, was among those who moved north. When she was living in Palo Alto, Calif., Sherwood was vexed by Bush policies that she saw as eroding individual rights. When he beat John Kerry for a second term, she started applying to grad schools in Canada.

It wasn't just Bush, Sherwood says. She felt disillusioned by her fellow Americans.

Read more: http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-expats-1230,0,352937.story

the US needs to heal from these 8 horrific years of bush, and there isn't one place where his tentacles have not reached, the whole global economy is hurting, one thing on the agenda for the citizenry should be to hold these criminals accountable for their unspeakable crimes.

Another problem some don't realize is that it is not really all about "Bush", but rather, that which allowed someone like Bush to come into office and do what they do. Even with Obama, the US is years, if not decades, behind where I currently live now. Why would I throw away Universal Healthcare, an educated/aware population, sane fiscal and social policies, to come running into the US hoping it might catch up?

my wife and i applied in 2003, moved to toronto in aug 2005. we are not going back.

anyone who left the country did not do so solely because of bush.
if you really believed in the democrats, you'd ride it out.

after obama was elected, someone asked us if we were thinking about "going home".
we said "we are home."

A lot of countries that ex-pats moved to such as Canada, Sweden, Denmark, UK, France, etc, offer their citizens universal health care, free post-secondary education, REAL unemployment benefits, and generally an excellent social safety net. Their taxes are higher, but only marginally so in a lot of cases. What do we get for our tax money? Endless wars, welfare for large corporations. I would stay put too if I were them.

As long as America won't veer from it's lousy Reaganomic way of doing things, there will continue to be a diminished and unfruitful future (if any at all) for our young adults and children. I'm afraid that we'll continue to waste tax dollars on useless wars and handouts to people who least need it, we'll devolve into a two-class society with a giant canyon-size separator between them and 95% of us are going to be forced to work (whether we want to or not) until the day we all DIE.

There just isn't a FUTURE for this stupid way of life. You cannot expect America to prosper or recover when you waste tax dollars on useless crap designed to make rich people richer, make college unaccessible and unaffordable to even middle-class families, fire all of its citizens regardless of education and think that's just the way it should be and have China make every damned thing under the sun. Obama aside . . . I'm sorry, I just don't think America is collectively smart enough to correct this and it so desperately needs to.

. . . I was reading Michael Moore's new book about elections and he had an excellent point about taxes. When you think about it, we ARE paying higher "taxes" on health care, school, UI, etc . . . we just don't CALL them "taxes" because they aren't. That doesn't mean we don't pay, we just don't collectively and with a greater spread pay for everyone and end up getting crushed with massive individual debt in the process, unlike our European, Canadian and Scandanavian counterparts.

Also, how many people are qualified here to go to law school or medical school but cannot because the bills would be way beyond their price range?

I still like the idea of a guaranteed minimum income, a guaranteed maximum income and universal health care all at the same time. Each facet combined would put an end to poverty and the economy could keep going as it would no longer be necessary to rely on indentured servitude to a corporation for education, prosperity, enterprise and health care.

There isn't anything "free" or "brave" about exclusivity. Shielding off the fruits to anyone but the rich will turn this country into an oversized "Rust Belt".

Well, isn't that special.

So she runs away and she'll stay until everything is fixed to her liking. Sorry, but that's incredibly juvenile. Instead of staying here and working for change, she hightails it across the border and waits while everyone else does the heavy lifting while letting us all know "she told us so".

Anyone who ran away because the country doesn't conform to what they want should just stay away. They are part of the problem.

life is about options, the more the better.

... is when you have a rational chance of winning. In this case most American's are convinced that life is just hunky dory and that America doesn't need universal health care, access to decent education, or a living wage for people like regular workers, teachers, university professors, or even primary care doctors.

Until the majority or even a decent sized minority is in the fight with us, then what is the point. I will put my political energies ensewhere and if I had kids I would be out of here so fast ICE's head would spin off it's shoulders as I crossed the US/CAnada border. It's about change, but it is also about the future.

If someone wants the United States to be Canada, they're better off just moving to Canada.

And so is everyone who won't conform to their country's current ills. Fuck the pilgrims, fuck iraqi refugees, and fuck everyone who sought comfort and promise for their loved ones.

Fuck my children. I should of left them here in shit while I fought a heroic symbolic fight for the Goodness that may never come. Let them rot while I feel like a hero.

Some people don't get it.

And no, Im not comparing the plight of a US expat to a war torn refugee. It is in no way comparable in terms of degrees, but rather, the concept of fleeing vs fighting.