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Audacity of Truth
On hating America enough to leave
I read this article in which actress Gwyneth Paltrow expressed her disgust with US policy and the President. She also said she "didn’t want to" live here as a result.
I didn’t start this post to ridicule Paltrow specifically, but instead to express my opinion on people in general who get disgusted with a policy or politician to the point they claim they want to leave the country.
We all remember shortly before the elections how some people were saying they would leave the country if Bush was re-elected. The number saying they would leave increased big time after the elections. I don’t understand this mindset. I had so many problems with the Clinton adminstration that I lost count after a while. But not one time did I ever consider leaving this country. Now, I have joked that if Hillary Clinton were ever to be elected president, I would move to Canada but it was just that: a joke. Most people who talk about moving after an election are serious, even if nine times out of ten they don’t follow through with it, which suggests that it was just hot air – more than anything else – on their part. But the very idea in and of itself, whether acted on or not, stinks.
If you have an issue with the way this country is being run, you don’t leave it! You stay and try to change it through your votes, your letters to your congressmen, and using other ways to make your opinion known (like utilizing the blogosphere). Leaving this country because you disagree with the election outcome suggests that you didn’t care that much about it to begin with. Because of you did, you’d think it was worth living in and fighting for. Running away suggests that the runner has given up – when in all likelihood the person running away has hardly given the fight their all.
Bottom line: this country is worth fighting for. If you disagree with the policies of an administration, don’t run away from them. Stay and fight by using the tools at your disposal (your vote, letters, etc). I’ll take it even further and say that if you’ve left this country because you don’t care for the policies of the administration, and don’t feel it’s worth battling to change, then I hope you don’t come back. Great men and women fought and died for your right to express yourself and your displeasure with policies and/or politicians you don’t like. Exercise your rights and fight for what you think is right. Don’t abandon your country. It makes you look like an unworthy American when you do.
(the above references to "you" are a general reference and not directed to anyone specifically)
-Linking up with OTB’s Traffic Jam and Mudville Gazette’s open post-
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Paltrow would likely say the country isn’t worth fighting to remake as she wishes it to be. However, if she does leave, I would bet she will not renounce citizenship, and will keep the USA as her official residence. Why? For the very reason many high income people do it. Taxes are significantly lower here than in UK (and other European nations). Principles, you see, have monetary limits, even for actors.
I think it’s time for a national strike against the leftwing of the entertainment and recording industry.
That is a heck of good idea for a blog, in fact!
Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out Gywneth. Good riddance you sunshine patriot.
I wonder how old Gywneth’s movies will do from here on out. I’ll watch her as often as I do Bill Maher.
I won’t forget.
The fact is that people complain about these bombastic threats to leave by celebs yet continue to watch their movies/shows. If people would quit flocing to go see “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (I will, however, give Johnny Depp some credit for at least leaving after he said he would), “Meet the Fokkers” or buying the box set of “Roseanne, the [fill in ordinal number]Season” they might get the message and stop thinking we believe in what they think.
These hypocrites keep saying how bad it is here but they never leave do they? I think she should go to some towelhead country, wear a burkha and marry some smelly 50 yr old guy with rotten teeth who gives her a daily beating for not bowing properly. Oh and BTW, no toilet paper!
She’s not going anywhere.
Yup, I intensely disliked Clinton, but never even considered leaving the US because of him. Nor, for that matter, did I call (or even wish) for his assassination, or complain that he was getting favorable ratings because the economy was doing well, or wish that the economy would tank so he’d get blamed for it, or cheer military casualities during his term because he could be blamed personally for them…
All things that various luminaries on the left have done regarding Bush. So am I a better person, or just not passionate enough, or maybe simply not narcissistic?
I’d allow myself some smugness for not behaving like a hyterical pants wetting ninny but I just can’t muster the requisite concern. So you hate this nation enough to renounce it? Go, then. Just go. Shut up and go.
I’ve seen a lot of liberals comment that Bush is “anti-environment”. Does anyone know where they get that opinion? Is it because he wants to drill on ANWAR?
The only places I see the statements are where I cannot post a comment, so I can’t ask them directly.
Yep. Every liberal environmental think tank grades Bush an “F” on the environment because they disagree with his “energy” policies.
Look up “New Source Review”
It is basically Bush’s policy to allow energy producing companies to modernize (which would create more energy and pollute less) without all of the red tape that has been keeping energy companies from making ANY changes for years. The smallest changes would’ve required so many years of red tape and studies that companies have just stood still with current pollution amounts and NO modernization.
However, as usual, the liberals ascribe motives to Bush as if they know what is in Bush’s head and give the plan failing grades and say it is Bush’s attempt at allowing energy companies to profit more and pollute more.
Is this bickering good for our country? No. But it continues with no end in sight because liberals won’t believe that conservatives have good motives.
Conservatives know that liberals (rank and file ones) have good intentions but the results of their policies aren’t good. Conservatives know it is better to teach a man to fish than give him fish.
Bak, you mean you didn’t know it was the President’s intent to poison the air with so many chemicals that there will be hardly anyone left to vote once all is said and done?
Ohhhh. Now I know…