by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I was really shocked and saddened when David Rothkopf made it clear recently that if things get too hot in the United States he’s bouncing to Europe. I went so far as to do a Twitter video where I pinged him, which I think prompted him to mute me for just being too weird.
Anyway, this fact has rolled around in my mind and it seems obvious that Rothkopf will not be alone should the United States become an autocracy. In fact, that could be the new divide in America going forward — the wealthy center-Left intelligentsia will all flee the country while poor idiots like me have to face the wrath of the autocrat.
It’s the ability for people to just fucking leave the country, that is something I find myself mulling a lot whenever I run the two different scenarios of civil war or autocracy. That modern element of extreme mobility is something that really changes the dynamic when it comes to either autocracy or civil war. It definitely makes autocracy more likely to happen. If you can’t keep someone like Rothkopf to stay in the country to help be something of a Thomas Paine for the fight against tyranny, well, lulz, you’re fucked.
You just drift gradually at first then far faster into an Americanized version of Russia. And I don’t have any simple answer as to how to keep people like Rothkopf in the country when push comes to shove. This is an even more extreme problem if we go the civil war route. If things grow existential, we’re really going to need thinkers like Rothkopf figure out how Blue States might win a civil war.
Or, put another way, in the end, no matter what happens, autocracy or civil war, it’s going to be broke ass motherfuckers like me who will have to step up and figure out how to bring back liberty and democracy. It won’t be people who can afford to leave like David Rothkopf who found the Third Republic, it will be poor morons like me.
