We named our Substack Escape Hatch, France for a reason. We have mentioned before that we were increasingly concerned about safety in the US (gun violence, far-right nationalism, growing inequality, climate change). Carolyn and I were intrigued this past week to discover an op-ed by Elizabeth Becker in the Washington Post describing the life of Jim McDermott, a former member of Congress who now resides in France.
The op-ed is short - you’ll read it in a few minutes, and it’s full of envy-inducing details about how Mr. McDermott fell in love with a French town and quickly bought an old stone cottage, how he struggles with learning French and has become part owner of a wine cooperative. But the parts of the article that really struck me were about safety and living in a healthy society.
Exactly. I’ve been voting all my life for politicians that would increase my taxes and make meaningful investments in universal healthcare, food safety, education, gun control, reproductive rights. Now I spend as much time as I can in a country that already values those things.
The author asked outright if McDermott worried that his move abroad would be perceived as unpatriotic. I have wrestled with this question myself, being the son of a career navy officer and having grown up on military bases and around military families, the idea of giving up on the US troubled me. Then I remember worrying about my dad’s safety. I remember growing up without him when duty put him on a ship for six months at a time, year after year. I remember him being gone before I got up in the morning and coming home long after business hours had ended for the civilian population. Commander Cipriano was the one at risk, but in a military family the spouse and the children also pay the dues. I’m sure it’s the same for members of Congress and their families.
McDermott has not given up on America (and neither have we!). He hasn’t renounced his citizenship; he’s still involved in politics as a voter and a financial contributor to candidates and issues he cares about. McDermott still owns his home in Washington state and he still visits every year.
It is chilling that the author of this article, Elizabeth Becker, is a former Washington Post correspondent who (in her early career) covered the war in Cambodia and the aftermath of Pol Pot’s murderous rule.
This is another concern of ours, the open calls for violence and increasing talk of civil war are desensitizing Americans to the idea of political violence (Carolyn and I just saw a disturbing movie preview for a new film, Civil War).
If you talk about it enough, when the violence finally happens it will seem like it was inevitable. People will have already chosen sides, people will have already conceded that sides even exist. Republican leaders in our home state of Texas are talking about the right to secede, they are being encouraged by Republican presidential candidates, they are bumping up against federal agents and overstepping into federal jurisdiction at the border, they are ignoring court orders they don’t like. We aren’t approaching a slippery slope, our shoes are muddy and we are sliding down. First it was okay to use violent language and imagery, then it was okay to shove somebody you disagreed with at a political rally, then punching that person was encouraged by the sitting president. The President tells his followers that in the old days we used to hurt people, he tells them maybe that’s the problem - Americans don’t hurt each other anymore.
Jim McDermott was in Montpellier in September at the invitation of the Montpellier chapter of Democrats Abroad. Great speaker and he gave me some hope for the situation in the US.
I share the concerns and worries that you and Jim McDermott, and countless other Americans who are tired of the hate and violence that are accepted and encouraged by many red-hat citizens (sadly, there are several of same in my family). We are seeking a better life and finding it in France.