Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
“Love it or leave it” was a slogan used by those in favor of the Vietnam War challenging those protesting. Pro-War advocates assumed that those protesting did not love their country, so they should leave. Today, there are approximately nine million American citizens living outside the United States. Do they love their country? They certainly recognize that being outside the U.S. separates them from the hard-core, America First, MAGA Trump followers. Many expats are angry, disappointed, and alienated from the Trump/Musk takeover. They are also perplexed: How to relate to what is taking place in Washington from abroad? What does it mean to be an American expat today?
Can one be a “globalist” and an American at the same time? What does it mean to be loyal to the United States from an overseas perspective while strongly opposed to the Trump administration?
Citizenship is an obvious tie between expats and the U.S. Although some of the nine million overseas Americans have taken up permanent residence status and others foreign citizenship, many maintain their U.S. citizenship. A small number have relinquished their passports, only 5,000 in 2024.
Whatever their status, each American abroad has cultural attachments to the U.S. This boy from the Bronx, even after five decades living overseas and two citizenships, still roots for the New York Yankees, the New York Knicks and the New York Giants. He continues to read The New York Times, The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books (The New York Post is only for its Sports page.). Still a sports fan, he does not have the same loyalty towards the local teams that he has to his beloved New York favorites. It is not simple to renounce one’s background completely, just as it is not simple to lose one’s heavy New York accent when speaking French.
Loyalty and attachment to Uncle Sam are getting more and more difficult these days. Watching television highlights of the audience at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside Washington was like watching footage of aliens. “Who are these people?” I asked myself. “Are they the reason I left and don’t want to return living there?” I wondered; “How can I possibly relate to them as fellow Americans?”
In his ground-breaking treatise, Exit, Voice and Loyalty, the German economist and social scientist Albert O. Hirschman posited that when a business or country no longer satisfies its customers or citizens, they can either voice disagreement and call for change or withdraw. Hirschman gave two options for this dissatisfaction; protest or leave.
As far as protest, since overseas Americans have no representation in Congress, it is not evident to voice disagreement with the current administration politically. Expats vote in their last official residence in the United States. The protest/voice option is limited. Nine million people divided into many states has little voice for change.
As far as exit is concerned, not only do expats not have a united political voice, but Trump would not react if all the nine million overseas joined to threaten to exit together or even boycott. Having physically left, we don’t count in the Beltway, although we have the approximate populations of New Jersey or Virginia. The MAGA followers brand us “globalists,” very far from true Americans and easily dismissed.
Historically, exit is an American tradition. As Hirschman points out, “The United States owes its very existence and growth to millions of decisions favoring exit over voice.” But the small number of Americans renouncing their citizenship shows that a political exit is not a major option taken today. The Pilgrims moved; frontier men and women moved; but today’s Americans who criticize the government would rather stay and protest rather than exit. Moreover, the millions who try to enter the U.S. far outnumber the small number leaving. The ratio between entering or trying to enter and leaving is overwhelming. So, why leave a country where so many desperately want to become citizens?
Where does loyalty stand in terms of exit and voice? Hirschman proposes a rule that “loyalty holds exit at bay and activates voice.” How to be loyal to the United States here in Geneva when Trump’s freeze on foreign aid spending has already had horrific consequences for humanitarian aid organizations based here with catastrophic effects on the vulnerable around the world? The UNAIDS agency, for example, estimates that over six million people will die of HIV and AIDS in the next four years as a consequence of the U.S. humanitarian cuts, an unnecessary 400% increase in deaths.
How to be loyal to the United States watching the U.S. join Russia, Iran, Belarus and North Korea opposing a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Moscow’s war against Ukraine? That diplomatic turnaround brought back memories of the U.N.’s Security Council when Adlai Stevenson said he would wait till Hell freezes over until the Soviet representative denied missiles in Cuba. The United States now on the same side as the Ukrainian invaders? Talk about a 180˚ switch. The U.S. voting with autocracies like North Korea, Iran and Belarus against European democracies? Whose side are we on anyway?
Many overseas Americans have a specific reason for continuing to be loyal to a country that has become more and more unrecognizable. “Love it or leave it,” like all binary propositions, excludes the middle or any nuances. “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” Edward R. Murrow famously said during the McCarthy era. While one can have a physical separation from the U.S., one can still believe that the United States has been and can be better than Trump and his MAGA followers.
We can exit by our physical separation and vigorously protest but still be attached. An ideal mix of exit and voice is not simple to find. Hirschman has no magic formula. As he wrote, “[C]onditions are seldom favorable for the emergence of any stable and optimally effective mix of exit and voice.”
“Love it or leave it”? Can one do both? Instead of dismissing us “globalists,” one could ask: Do expats actually help the United States? For as Hirschman concludes; “Finally, an awareness of the inborn tendencies towards instability of any optimal mix may be helpful in improving the design of institutions that need both exit and voice to be maintained in good health.” The United States needs expats’ exit and voice to be in good health. One can love it and leave it at the same time.
Source: Counter Punch
