Today I file my application for permanent residency in Australia.

[MrModerate]

It's not an act of desperation — although there's despair aplenty to go around — but one of practicality.

Elections have consequences. The likely consequences of this one are that Republicans and their brain-damaged Tea Party sidemen make effective government impossible, throwing sand and hand grenades into the works at every turn; that craven Democrats become even more craven, even when it's plain as day that they could have won the midterms if they'd been bolder; and that the nascent Brownshirts of the right will tell themselves that head-stomping really pays, and store that lesson away for another election season.

An endless round of Congressional subpoenas delivered to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? You betcha. War with Iran? Why not? Continued vampirism of the middle class by the Owners? A near certainty.

And the outcome? America gets smaller, and less able to compete, and meaner, and stupider, and more expensive, and cities deteriorate and die, surrounded by crumbling dreams.

Americans on the whole are a reasonable — let's say "sane" — people. But the inmates have seized control of the asylum and the moron-Americans and their handlers rule the day. Continued degradation of the American soul is inevitable.

I don't have the luxury of paying for the sins and nonfeasances of the political class. I have a family to look after.

Hence Australia. An imperfect society, to be sure, but with a crazies-per-thousand score waaaay below the US's. A place where my children are not surrounded by whack-jobs, god-botherers, and grundyites. A place where the military isn't going to invade *anybody* (having learned a lesson or two from Vietnam, East Timor, and Afghanistan). A place where they have this quaint notion that any full-time, adult job performed well should earn you the means to a dignified, if modest, living. Where falling ill doesn't automatically mean bankruptcy.

And where mealy-mouthed and snarling politicians are told to fuck off.

Permanent Australian residency doesn't relieve me of my tax responsibilities in the US — and that buys me my ticket to continuing to contribute (and complain). It won't make me any less of an American, despite not living in America anymore. But it will give me a sane alternative when I grow too old to work and my children have left home.

My kids are the lucky ones. Having been born in Hong Kong, they have the right of abode there, along with their US citizenship and (what will soon be) Australian residency. In times like these, multiple options are the only way to go.

I don't think they'll choose to live in the US, though. Too mean. Too crazy. Too corrupt.

[seabeyond]

1. good luck. they have their own whackos and righties and mess too. hard to get in

from what i hear.

but cool if you do.

not interested here.

[MrModerate]

4. There are crazies everywhere. In Oz, one gets much less mileage . . .

out of fanaticism. People are really into enjoying their "lucky country" and unbalanced opinions are such a buzzkill that folks just turn them off.

Again, a far-from-perfect society. The condition of indigenous peoples is a horror that is intractable to any sort of solution, or so it seems. Banks and Telcos bully the government and the people. It's insanely expensive. There are concerns about water supplies that the growing 21st century population is going to require.

And nuts are not unknown. You take the bad with the good, and it ends up being a question of balance.

However, not so hard to get into these days if you're not too old and if you have a technical skill (especially one applicable to engineering/construction in mines and LNG facilities).

[seabeyond]

5. i check it out a handful of years ago

not so much for political, more for hubby desire to live a certain way. he could probably get in because of education, money saved and techinical ability. i saw that.

canada too. more my climate.

[MrModerate]

6. I'm not much of a snow fan. I have worked in Canada, though . . .

And one of the two places I worked in was fantastic (Montreal). Northern Manitoba, not so much. And the sanity gradient is definitely favorable.

If not for the snow, I would have considered Canada years ago, but my company -- which has a major impact on where I live -- wanted me somewhere else.

[Patiod]

8. Or a skill that is extremely rare

A friend of mine repairs brass instruments. He left the US for Oz because, even though he was in incredible demand here, he couldn't make a go of it. Health care was unaffordable for he and his artist wife and new baby, taxes on his one-man business were out of hand (the same taxes that big corporations largely escape), and his customers were as hard-pressed as he was (orchestra and jazz musicians) so he couldn't raise prices.

He got a very nice offer to work near Melbourne, and his in-demand skill was the passport (although it took about a year to clear all the red tape and get out). He and his wife, both hard core Dems, are very happy there.

Hope you will be as well. Stay in touch with us, MrM, as we battle the crazies here.

[Patiod]

9. (posted in the wrong place)

[eilen]

11. Costa Rica? Somalia? nt

[Patiod]

14. Exactly - I'll pay for them to go to Somalia

Ah, the joys of limited government and no taxes!!

[MrModerate]

13. Self delete

[madmax]

2. Best of luck to you and your family.

I do hope you keep us informed of how it's working out. :hug:

[peace frog]

3. You have my undying envy

Best of luck and please keep us updated. Some of us may want to emulate your initiative in a year. Or sooner.

[NNN0LHI]

7. See ya

[Dappleganger]

10. You have to do what's best for your family...

kids come first. Good luck to all of you.

[Patiod]

12. Here's my question: Where would Tea Baggers go?

Remember all the wailing and gnashing of teeth when Obama was elected? The crazies were convinced their guns would be confiscated the next day.

Where could they go? What country on earth would have looser gun laws and lower taxes and less "socialism" than the US?

[MrModerate]

16. Suffice it to say, they wouldn't be welcome in Oz . . .

The lack of opposable thumbs that so many teabaggers suffer from would also limit their employment opportunities.

[Kalyke]

15. I want to immigrate to another country, but I can't

seem to find a job in one - that don't hire people from other countries like the United States does. How does one go about immigrating somewhere else? Is there like an ex-pat job board online? A list of American companies doing business in other countries, but who hire Americans? Something?

[MrModerate]

17. I see ads in the International Herald Tribune and the Economist all the time . . .

For international postings, and for services that help you look for international work. I haven't used them myself, but I know they're out there.

Of course, working and immigrating are two different things, but my experience (and I've spent half my adult life out of the US as an expat) is that, with the right employer, you can take advantage of both US citizenship (a shrinking benefit, I know) and the opportunities to live elsewhere and to develop an international perspective. And once you're in a country and working legally, all sorts of options open up.

Not all multinational corporations are fronts for the Legions of Mordor. See who works out of the US (and I don't mean "who ships entry-level jobs to India") and try to match their needs and your skills. International engineering-procurement-construction companies are as busy as they've ever been right now, because those countries that were not laid low by the GFC and who have substantial commodities are building major facilities at an insane pace.

[DireStrike]

18. I sure wouldn't have picked Aus. with their internet censorship

But I am looking at other countries.

[MrModerate]

20. A truly stupid policy . . . but one unlikely to survive much longer.

An old story -- a left-of-center government trying to appease moralists. Not very well received by anyone but the peckersniff contingent.

[eShirl]

19. Isn't that the country that spawned Rupert Murdoch?

maybe I've got that wrong

[MrModerate]

21. Oh yeah . . . but he's an American now! n/t

[silverojo]

22. Are you smoking crack?

The solution to a problem isn't running away. Fewer Democrats isn't going to take power away from Republicans.

Also, Australia has very powerful RW nutjobs, like our old pal Rupert Murdoch of NewsCorp/Fox News. Oz is passing laws to censor the internet, racial hatred for Aboriginals is soaring, and don't even get me started on the awful climate, horrible insects and venomous creatures you'd have to battle in everyday life, politics aside.

Mealy-mouthed politicians may be told to fuck off, but they're not listening, and they're voting the way THEY want to vote. So enjoy your censored internet while a 5" spider parks on the roll of toilet paper in your bathroom, and a poisonous snake takes up residence in the engine of your vehicle.

The whole "I'm running away because the election didn't go my way" meme sounds exactly like the Freepers, circa 2008. Stand and fight, for God's sake.

[MrModerate]

24. Actually, I like the snakes. They're the only thing that eats the cane toads.

And I've lived here for three years already -- I love the weather. The funnel-web spiders, not so much.

I've been an American abroad for half my adult life. I've seen 50 countries worse than the situation in the US is now or is likely to get. I've been in 4 or 5 more that beat the US hollow for civility, sustainability, and opportunity. Sadly, American exceptionalism is a thing of the past.

As I originally said, I don't have the luxury of letting my family's fate be determined by the nutjobs who are going to shut down the government for two years (or longer); who are going to paralyze civil society exactly when it needs wise and bold action to stave off economic disaster.

The storm is coming. I'm buying waders.

I'll continue to do my part, by which I mean pay my taxes, participate in political discussion in places like DU, vote, and donate to candidates and causes I believe in. That probably makes me more involved in improving the country than 80% of the people in the US.

But I'm also hedging my bets, making sure I've provided for my family and myself when I'm no longer able (or willing) to work. I have teenagers and only about 10-15 years of active working life left. I have no choice. Would I have made this choice *now* if the election had gone the other way? Maybe not. A different outcome would have allowed me to keep alive the dream that a gradually maturing American polity could be relied upon to govern itself sensibly enough that I could come home someday.

Even if (happy thought!) this is the last hurrah of the troglodytes, and the disastrous mistakes they are certain to make doom them to obscurity after 2012, I'm in no position to pay for the cleanout of the stables -- again.

I'm much more comfortable as a world citizen of American origin.

(PS: Your characterization of Aussie imperfections is exaggerated. Murdoch moved to America decades ago; the Internet filtering program shows every sign of withering away even before the new national broadband is rolled out; and the issue of the Aboriginal peoples is a hundred times more complicated -- and sadder -- than you paint it.)

[eridani]

23. Former chair of Health Care for All-WA got her Australian citizenship a few years ago

We lost the only MD psychiatrist in the state willing to take Medicaid patients. She did everything she could to stay. When reimbursements were cut, she gave up her car and moved to Pill Hill in Seattle closer to her workplace. Eventually, she could not afford health insurance for herself, and left for a place where they seem to be happy to pay for the health care of a useful professional.

[MrModerate]

25. Yep, doctors are very well respected here and make more than . . .

Just about any public sector employee. But most of them don't make a zillion dollars a year (or have to work 80-hour weeks). It balances out.

[WinkyDink]

26. Better you than me. Can't stand the accent! And a former penal colony?! With sharks?!

[Eryemil]

27. Wishing you luck from beautiful Vancouver. I managed to get out almost two years ago now and

couldn't be happier.

[area51]

28. Good for you,

at least you'll have a right to health care in Australia, which is a right this country will never achieve. This is one of the things that all the nay-sayers on DU never stop to think about -- health care is a life and death situation, and one single illness can bankrupt you here, or kill you if you have no way to pay for treatment.

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

What the DINOs in congress/DINO Obama gave us with the new law:
Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

"Any proposal that sticks with our current dependence on for-profit private insurers ... will not be sustainable. And the new law will not get us to universal coverage ...." -- T.R. Reid, The Healing of America