Donald Trump’s first election as President of the United States in 2016 wasn’t the only reason we decided to leave America and become digital nomads.

We’d always talked about doing long-term travel “eventually,” and we’d also always disliked certain aspects of American life: the car culture, the consumerism, and what seemed to us like too much jingoism.

But that election did push us over the edge. Within months, we’d sold our house and were making arrangements to indefinitely travel the world.

We were upset by Trump’s crudeness and cruelty, and his bigotry and ignorance, but what concerned us most was how much he was already sounding like an authoritarian.

For us, it seemed like disaster was inevitable.

But while Trump’s first presidency was often terrible, it wasn’t as bad as we expected.

Trump (mostly) surrounded himself with conventional Republicans, and the guardrails of our government (mostly) kept him in check. He didn’t destroy the economy, the rule of law (mostly) held. And despite Trump’s efforts to overturn the following presidential election, America remained a democracy.

When Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election, it felt like America’s system of checks and balances had “worked.” Disaster had been averted.

We couldn’t help but ask ourselves: Had we overreacted by leaving the country?

If we were honest, the answer was: Well, yeah, kinda. But we were both so happy with our new lives as nomads that it didn’t really matter.

Also, in spite of everything, we still loved America; we were glad that the country hadn’t fallen to fascism.

That was then.

Now, just over 100 days into Trump’s second presidency, everything we feared the first time around is coming true with a vengeance.

We both lean left, but we’ve always been strongly for open dialogue and reaching across the political divide. That said, fundamental American values — like the rule of law, due process, pluralism, and democracy — shouldn't be up for debate.

The good news is that America finally seems to be waking up to the reality of what’s happening within its borders.

Meanwhile, the two of us continue our lives as nomads. And since we’re openly putting our lives and opinions out into the world, it’s completely understandable when others sometimes have opinions about us.

Not long ago, we received an email from a reader who agreed with our politics but chastised us for the choices we’ve made:

“You are not here in the USA so I don’t think you get it. Wake up! Come home and fight for our rights. It’s time to stop traveling around doing nothing.”

On one hand, we’re not doing “nothing.” Last month, when we were briefly back in the U.S., we eagerly participated in the protests.

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We’re also speaking out on social media and in this newsletter. By writing the article you’re reading right now, we know we’re going to piss off some readers — and lose money when some folks unsubscribe.

Given how things are going back in America, we might also risk being questioned by the authorities upon returning home.

But a few months ago, a meme floated around social media:

“If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done in 1930s Germany, congratulations: you’re doing it now.”

Between this meme and that email, we’ve been asking ourselves: Are we doing enough to stop what’s happening in America? Are we bad people for continuing to travel the world while our country hurtles toward fascism?

Also, were we cowards to leave in the first place? In 1934, would we have left Nazi Germany to go live in a bungalow on a Thailand beach?

Look, neither of us is a saint. We have not yet wholly devoted our lives to stopping Trump.

At the same time, we’ve spent most of our lives doing activism — working for various kinds of change.

That’s partly why we left the country in 2017: it felt like we’d spent our entire lives warning against exactly what was happening, but people hadn’t listened.

Too many right-leaning folks refused to acknowledge the genuine darkness festering within their own movement. But we were almost as frustrated by all the left-leaning folks who stubbornly insisted that anything other than their version of political perfection was essentially just as bad as all the things Trump was promising to do.

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It seemed to us that too many people couldn’t see that opposing Trump was very obviously an All-Hands-On-Deck situation. Differences on specific political issues might have to wait.

So in 2016, we concluded: Why should we sacrifice the life we’ve built to stay and suffer the exact consequences we warned about?

Was that selfish? Maybe.

But hey, everyone has a right to decide how best to live their lives. Personal happiness and security are reasonable considerations.

Looking back, we can also see that leaving America was fairly naïve. Now that everything we worried about in 2016 is finally coming true, we realize you can’t escape American fascism simply by leaving the country.

America as a liberal democracy is — was? — too critical to the existing world order. Now that that’s changing, it’s causing the rest of the world to change too. Already, dictators are emboldened, eager to take full advantage of America’s moral implosion.

Plus, practically speaking, most of our money and assets are still in America. If America’s economic system goes down — or is even seriously degraded — our net worth will go down along with it.

Which isn’t to say we’re completely pessimistic about the future.

Trump is currently the least popular U.S. President at this point in his term since polling began. And last week’s shocking electoral upsets by liberals in both Canada and Australia prove that the rest of the free, democratic world may be uniting against an isolationist, authoritarian America.

We plan on continuing to be part of that fight. Then again, we think every American is already a part of that fight, whether they admit it or not — whether they’re in America or not.

We’re just not all on the same side.

In the end, maybe we aren’t Profiles in Courage. But we don’t see ourselves as cowards either.

For the time being, we’re comfortable with the choices we’ve made.

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Message Michael Jensen

Michael Jensen is a novelist and editor. For my newsletter with more of my photos, visit me at www.MichaelJensen.com.

Brent Hartinger is a screenwriter and author. Check out my new newsletter about my books and movies at BrentHartinger.com.