“If You Don’t Like It Here Then Leave,” an Unamerican Argument in American Politics

A common argument that has been presented online, usually by those right of the aisle, is that if the person advocating for change doesn’t like the way things work here in the United States, usually when it comes to healthcare, that they can always leave. Foundationally, this principle goes against everything that the United States is supposed to stand for, and this short paper will give a quick overview of why that is.

Logistics

           For starters, to renounce your United States citizenship is no cheap or easy task. The renunciation alone costs over $2,000[1] and requires you to travel to a U.S. Consular office[2] in the country you have already gone through immigration proceedings[3] in, which is yet another long and costly process.[4] There are then the added additional costs such as plane tickets, passport/visa costs, taxes, etc. Additionally, a person will unlikely be willing to move to another country away from their family, job, possessions, etc. just to find a more hospitable political environment unless they’re being persecuted or tortured for their views in their home country. Most importantly though, this doesn’t even begin to answer the question at hand; why should a person who seeks change in the United States have to leave?

States’ Rights

           I have asked before[5] whether the states’ rights argument has ever been used for something other than discrimination[6], luckily, whenever it comes to politics, the answer is yes. Throughout the history of our nation it has generally been recognized that states, or even cities, can be areas of economic and social experimentation[7]. Therefore, it is a right of the citizens to try new political experiments in their states until a time in which those experiments are deemed successful enough to be implemented nation-wide. To tell someone that if they don’t like how the state is functioning that they can leave is to deprive them of their right to participate in the political process and to deny the state or city the right to run the social or economic experiment. Without said experiments, our country as a whole will fail to move forward. Slavery[8] and LGBTQ marriage[9] both started out as state experimentations that were implemented nation-wide, and now medical/recreational marijuana[10] hopes to continue that trend. To deny them is to prevent progress.

Historical

           The most compelling area, however, is the historical argument. Americans have never just accepted that this is the way things are and not voiced or lobbied for their views. From the Founding Fathers[11], to pro-slave states[12], to the Civil Rights Movement[13] and Anti-War Protesters[14], Americans have always voiced, organized, and lobbied for their view to be implemented by our Representatives in Congress, they did not simply leave the country. To tell those that voice a need or a want for change to leave the country instead of hearing them out goes against the very principles enshrined in the First Amendment[15].

           Even if the argument is that something is implemented in other countries, from gun reform to healthcare, is not grounds to remove their voice from the discussion. Many countries have borrowed from the United States, and the United States has borrowed from other countries in their founding documents[16], and often a model that works elsewhere[17] will simply replace the state or city experimentation phase discussed in the previous section. Discussing our concerns outwardly with peers and representatives is the entire foundation of our political system, after all, what is a representative democracy if we the people cannot voice our opinions to those that represent us?

[1] 1040 Abroad, Frequently Asked Questions, https://1040abroad.com/faq/renouncing-u-s-citizenship/# (accessed Apr. 12, 2020, 2:49 PM).

[2] United States Bureau of Consular Affairs, Renunciation of U.S. Nationality Abroad, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/us-citizenship/Renunciation-US-Nationality-Abroad.html (accessed Apr. 12, 2020, 2:51 PM).

[3] This section is simply an overview and therefore does not cover stateless peoples at all.

[4] Olivia Young, 5 of the Easiest Countries to Become a Citizen, Business Insider (Sept. 14, 2018, 10:12 AM), https://www.businessinsider.com/5-of-the-easiest-countries-to-become-a-citizen-2018-9

[5] Samuel Saul Richardson (@Saul_Says), Twitter (Apr. 12, 2020, 12:22 PM), https://twitter.com/Saul_Says/status/1249387443368976385

[6] See generally Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967); Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003);

[7] See generally Equality Found. v. City of Cincinnati, 1998 U.S. App. LEXIS 1765, 3-4 (6th Cir. 1998) (Boggs, J., concurring); New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262, 311 (1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting); Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1, 42 (2005) (O’Connor, J., dissenting).

[8] J. Gordon Hylton, Before There Were “Red” and “Blue” States, There Were “Free” States and “Slave” States, Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog (Dec. 20, 2012), https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2012/12/before-there-were-red-and-blue-states-there-were-free-states-and-slave-states/  

[9] Edith Honan, Factbox: List of States that Legalized Gay Marriage, Reuters (June 26, 2013, 12:08 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-gaymarriage-states/factbox-list-of-states-that-legalized-gay-marriage-idUSBRE95P07A20130626

[10] Christina Ng, Abby Phillips, and Clayton Sandell, Colorado, Washington Become First States to Legalize Recreational Marijuana, ABC News (Nov. 6, 2012, 10:49 AM), https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/colorado-washington-states-legalize-recreational-marijuana/story?id=17652774

[11] See generally History.com Editors, Revolutionary War, History (Oct. 29, 2009), https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/american-revolution-history

[12] See generally Jennifer L. Weber & Warren W. Hassler, American Civil War, Britannica (Apr. 5, 2020), https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Civil-War

[13] See generally History.com Editors, Civil Rights Movement, History (Oct. 27, 2009), https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement

[14] See generally History.com Editors, Vietnam War Protests, History (Feb. 22, 2010), https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-protests

[15] U.S. Const. amd. I

[16] See generally A Brief History of Human Rights, https://www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/ (accessed Apr. 12, 2020, 3:49 PM).

[17] Samuel Saul Richardson, The Need for Change, and Not Obama’s: Where the Affordable Care Act Went Wrong. A Comparison of the German System to the American System (Aug. 10, 2019), https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/need-change-obamas-where-affordable-care-act-went-wrong-richardson/