Please Leave.

I was reading Laura Ingraham’s book The Obama Diaries today over lunch. I read the following quote and wanted to expound upon it.

“[Textbooks and teachers] also teach young people that it’s perfectly acceptable to loathe America while taking full advantage of all the benefits of living here.”

This reminded me of a belief that I’ve never fully thought through and has always sat on the “back burner” of my mind, so to speak. But I’ve thought it through now and say, with confidence, that if you don’t like America, LEAVE.

Seriously.

If you don’t like it, go find some place else that will allow you all the freedoms and opportunities you have here while somehow also fitting into whatever world view you’ve concocted. And good luck.

The reason, I think, that I’ve subconsciously rejected the idea of actually speaking this out loud is that it’s really harsh. And, believe it or not, I’m not a mean person. Plus, isn’t America supposed to be a “melting pot” of people and culture and ideas?

Yes! My idea doesn’t run counter to that, even if it seems to on the surface. But look deeper.

Wanting America to advance, wanting to fix problems and improve even more on this great society is not only okay but laudable. It’s those who seek to transform our country, to make it something that it’s not, to subvert the very intuitions that made our country exceptional: it’s those people with whom I have a problem.

I’ve stayed in quite a few hotels. If I have a problem with the hotel I’m staying in, what do I do (well, first I talk to the manager…my metaphor isn’t perfect. Stick with me.)? Do I demand that the hotel fix its backwards, unprogressive ways? Do I lead the staff in a complimentary-toiletry-armed workers’ revolution? Do I eat as much food as I could possibly stomach at the continental breakfast to try to “hit them where it hurts?” No. I leave.

I go to the hotel across the street. Besides, they have a pool.

But the fact of the matter is, there is no place as good as America. You could go to Canada or Western Europe for your free healthcare but you’d better be ready to get taxed to death.

You could go to China for your wealth redistribution but you’d better get ready to give up any opinion that isn’t endorsed by the state…if you want to live, that is.

Perhaps you’d like to move to Cuba: the socialist “paradise” that people are risking their very lives to flee every day. The good news is, you wouldn’t have to worry about any other boat traffic in that direction. You might see a lot of people with empty oil barrels strapped to their ’58 Chevy heading back the other way.

There’s always the option of moving to Latin America. I know a good bulletproof vest manufacturer I’d be happy to recommend.

Finally, there’s the most difficult option of all: perhaps you could take a look around you and consider the idea the America isn’t such a bad place after all and that attempting to impose your will on your neighbors isn’t fair.

After all, Constitutional governance isn’t about the imposition of anyone’s will on anyone else. Rather, it is a system by which we maintain the Civil Society for our posterity.

Join with us to help build a stronger America for ourselves and our children.

Or don’t. And find some other place to screw up.