Over the past handful of years, I have spoken with progressives across coffee tables or bar tops, and when talking about the state of affairs in the United States. Many of whom spoke about which countries were the best to emigrate to, which were the most ‘forward thinking’ or ‘accepting’ of their particular needs or political desires. Perhaps it is protections for trans persons, LGBTQ, the lack of a second amendment or the rise of right-wing extremism (there was a recent ‘Young Republicans’ chat group where some messages praised Adolf Hitler and made jokes about gas chambers). Regardless, there was no end of reasons why the progressive near me wanted to move away to a new country, imagining that the grass is greener there. Maybe – for a time – it will be.

A point to the progressives: the United States does seem worse off now than it was ten years ago.

Current Republicans who used to decry ‘hate speech’ (a leftist idea that conservatives made fun of for years) now do so around Charlie Kirk after his death – as per Pam Bondi:

“There is free speech and then there is hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society. We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

Unlike the current Republicans, I firmly believe in the First Amendment for everyone. The person that the Republicans have started their witch-hunts for, Charlie Kirk, even had something to say about so-called ‘hate-speech:’

“Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech, and all of it is protected by the First Amendment.”

For the sake of this essay: do not attest my constructive criticism towards the politically left as me agreeing with them, nor with agreeing with the politically right. Clearly, I am more conservative than they even are, as they have abandoned their belief in the sanctity of the First Amendment and have come to use the same silencing tools that the left did under Biden and Obama.

C.S. Lewis is quoted as writing: “When you use the devil’s tools to do God’s work, you soon find yourself doing the devil’s work with God’s tools.”

Which are the tools that we, as Americans, should be using?

With that said: for the politically left I argue that emigrating to another country is like slapping a band-aid to a leak in a dam (well, probably -lots- of leaks right now). The United States is currently the strongest country in the world. So much so that ‘Immigration and Customs Enforcement’ (ICE) has been given more money by this current administration than most countries’ military budgets ($27.7 billion, compared to Canada’s $25 billion). Let us assume that the worst fear of the progressives comes to pass as the conservatives hand away their once coveted democracy for a dictatorship… and the progressive thinks they will be safe in another country? …really?

The United States has long been the sole country pushing for democracy in other nations around the world. Before this nation the whole of the earth was covered with kingdoms and empires and their colonies and through us democracy was born and cultivated. But what if the United States becomes a hub of despotism (and worse nepotism)? Likely the financial (and thus political) pressure which would be applied to those nations that progressives are running to would turn away from being a “haven" of their ideological tenets. The politicians of other nations who believe in Trumpisms suddenly receive massive campaign donations and maybe political rivals die.

Emigrating to another country is running away from the problems around us, or simply put it is giving up on your political ideals, just slower. The earth has no more strange lands which are unaffected from civilizations. No “elusive end of the Nile River” to chase and seek and hide away in.

So, then the following question would be posed: “Mr. Writer Man, what can we do then?” Surely, I would recommend first not insulting or criticizing potential allies. As a centrist myself (and a white guy to boot) I often see comments on social media pages when I hunt for news articles that read something along the lines of: “Ugh, I hate white men." or in this exact, mocking typeface: "iM a CeNtRiSt, BotH siDes aRe thE SaMe!"

Ah yes. In the same mocking tone without the horrid inflections: that is how I speak and what I think. My sarcastic reply aside, my first suggestion is to be better about finding potential allies and shutting down those on the left who would either push “others" away or demand "education” for those potential allies. No one likes a lecture, even if it is believed to be needed.

Secondly, though you (progressives, liberals, and now I guess me, a lover of the First Amendment) are in a fight for the realization of your ideological tenets, it should not amount to screaming or physical violence. I recommended cool and levelheaded dialogues with as many people as will allow you time to do so, which would only keep happening if you were reasonable and levelheaded. Conservatives debating leftists on campuses was brilliant and brought many young (voting, and soon to be voting) men to their side.

Thirdly, a restructuring of the political left is needed -one which does not consume and spit out its own members for slightly, or not slightly differing ideologies. The “end" goal should be the aim, and it should be kept in focus as you develop those around you through “seeking dialogues” (conversations or debates, had or held with the aim to come to understandings and have the other party develop empathy for your idea. If done truly however, you would end up being open to being changed yourself).

Running away from a debate is only a temporary band-aid. Except running away to other countries has a long-term effect on not just your sanity and safety, but all of the world. And, though I don’t believe in many of the far-end progressive tenets – total and complete free speech should always be championed, which, I feel the progressives are just starting to understand while the Republicans have left it by the wayside.

But if you should enter into a dialogue with the intent to “win” then you have already lost. You cannot get others to open up if you yourself are not open.

In the meantime, I shall take up my side of this attempt at fixing this leaky dam by speaking to any conservative that I can, in the hope that I can affect change myself, through my own peaceful and respectful guidelines. An American icon of peace, Martin Luther King Jr. once roared in only the way he could,

“Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiples toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So, when Jesus says, “Love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies– or else?”

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

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