Stay or Leave, what's a patriot to do?
Phew TAT readers… it’s finally Friday!
From family, friends, colleagues or other citizens that I run into in my daily life, I get one question more often than any other… “to stay in the US and fight, or to leave the country, in order to escape the cruelly lawless, Trump/ Republican coup.
There are few, more complex questions for Americans and those who legally reside here. Such a decision affects every tiny morsel of a person’s life and their actual identity, as an American. Today’s essay will take a minute to digest and ponder, and that’s the point. Our future as a functioning constitutional republic, depends on it.
Introduction
In my specialty of Narrative Warfare, the issue of identity is key to how individuals, groups, movements and in fact, nations, deal with challenges, crises, adversity and even joyful events. Our identity is the defining factor for how we make meaning out of all that we experience, and here’s the key point… everyone’s identity is different and has countless layers of identity traits, or markers.
Groups often share layers of identity, which is the reason why everyone from sports fans to political groups, often talk and act, in very similar ways, but they are not, precisely alike. This fact alone explains why today’s MAGA GOP, is no longer your grandparents’ GOP. What today’s Republicans believe in, has nothing at all to do with being a “conservative.” They are a far-right, domestic extremist movement and yes, due to my long career in CT/ Counterterrorism, I have the professional expertise to make this determination.
This matters to today’s discussion because, we’re talking about our family, friends and fellow citizens. Staying or leaving will not change who they are now, or rather… their identity.
As it pertains to a stay or go decision, there are no “winning” decisions. It is going to hurt, and likely will leave an emotional scar either way, for a very long time, maybe even generations. It can also be the foundation of strength for your identity, if you truly understand the threats we are experiencing and act on them via your view of American patriotism, rather than the fake-patriotism that propaganda outlets like FOX News have been pedaling for decades. FOX and their ilk, have been immorally conditioning American Republican voters for over three decades, and now have them fully believing the fake patriotism, roughly condensed into, God, Guns and Trump.
Like other generational national struggles, this coup will likely be the defining moment of our lifetime, even more so than the COVID pandemic. It was like this for my parent’s and grandparent’s generation who lived through the Great Depression, WW II, the Cold War, Vietnam, a pandemic, etc. The deeper the trauma, the deeper the impact on your identity and how you view the world around you. Whoever controls how one sees the world, for all intents and purposes, often can predictably control those unique audiences. This is an admittedly oversimplified explanation of Narrative Warfare, but will suffice for this essay.
Weighing stay vs. leave
First up: leaving.
Usually when I am asked about leaving, it comes in the form of, “where is safe” or “should I go now, or wait a little while longer?” Of course, there are plenty of peripheral questions as well, often involving visas, citizenship, right of return and so on. This shows just how complex that it could be to do something so seemingly simple, as getting on a plane or boat, and living somewhere else. It is far from simple. If this is the route you’re leaning towards, I suggest that you begin the process now, not later. All decision-making processes, should begin with research and fact-finding.
Here’s a simple article from USA TODAY, that will walk you through a handful of issues to ponder as you begin the process of deciding, choosing and jumping through all of the hoops to live legally in another country.
Below are a couple more links to more detailed insights:
The bottom line to leaving is that it is not only legally challenging to move abroad for an extended period of time or permanently, but also expensive. The benefits of adventure and to some extent safety, are obviously enticing but there are questions to whether or not adventure and safety will last, even in another country. I’ll get to this issue later in the essay.
Personally, I’m a bit of an adventurer too, and my entire life has been grounded in several different living experiences, in multiple states. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them and their people, as I acclimated to the new traditions, laws, customs and in some cases, languages. I have also been around the world, especially via military experiences and lived in combat zones, often. While that I found most people and traditions fascinating, I certainly would not have wanted to stay live permanently in any of those combat zones. I cannot yet say that I would have moved to any other nation, peaceful or otherwise, especially when my nation and yours, needs all the help it can get, under this regime. This is just me though and everyone must make their own decisions.
My friends, family, traditions, customs and laws are familiar and especially when it comes to my children and grandchildren. Sure, video chats are wonderful, but it is no substitute for laughing with and cheering on grandchildren in person. At a younger age, maybe things would have been different. We now have a world where far-off lands are easily accessible for work, study, adventure etc. The rewards can be life-changing, but this ignores the reasons that we are considering moving in the first place. This must be considered and with a lot more insights than can be found in a few articles online.
My professional assessment follows in the “stay and fight” section of today’s essay.
Staying and fighting to restore our republic
This is where things become far more complicated and yes, complication can mean danger under our current circumstances. Like any good problem-solving, facts and expert insights are required to make serious decisions. The nonsensical babble streaming relentlessly from the perpetually open mouths of political pundits, mostly GOP, has no role to play in such a serious decision. Step one in any reliable process to solve a problem is to first… define the problem. Here’s my take on that problem.
The problem or rather threat we are deciding to leave or stay about, is whether it will be safe and livable to remain in a United States under the MAGA GOP regime that is, intentionally and systematically dismantling our constitutional republic. - Cobaugh - 2025
The use of the word “constitutional” in my definition is key to decision-making and let’s take a quick look at why.
By law, everything that occurs in our nation is obligated by law, to occur exclusively within the limits of our laws. Those laws must always be within the constitutional guardrails established within our constitution, its amendments and the related USC, United States Code. To be blunt, if its not constitutional, it is not in the USC. Our personal, guaranteed rights are powerfully ensconced within our Bill of Rights. Since Inauguration Day, the new administration, with full GOP congressional support, has violated those rights and other laws, almost daily.
Cases appear on court dockets daily, with one example or another of gross violations of our laws and our civil rights. In fact, just today, in a 7-2 ruling, the US Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for his mass deportations. In fact, this law enacted under president John Adams, significantly diminished Adams’ presidential popularity and more importantly, the luster of his legacy among our founders.
What was that pesky Alien and Sedition Act?
"Passed in preparation for an anticipated war with France, the Alien and Sedition Acts tightened restrictions on foreign-born Americans and limited speech critical of the government. In 1798, the United States stood on the brink of war with France. The Federalist Party, which advocated for a strong central government, believed that Democratic-Republican criticism of Federalist policies was disloyal and feared that "aliens," or non-citizens, living in the United States would sympathize with the French during a war. As a result, a Federalist-controlled Congress passed four laws, known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These laws raised the residency requirements for citizenship from 5 to 14 years, authorized the president to deport "aliens," and permitted their arrest, imprisonment, and deportation during wartime. The Sedition Act made it a crime for American citizens to "print, utter, or publish...any false, scandalous, and malicious writing" about the government. The laws were directed against Democratic-Republicans, the party typically favored by new citizens. The only journalists prosecuted under the Sedition Act were editors of Democratic-Republican newspapers. Sedition Act trials, along with the Senate's use of its contempt powers to suppress dissent, set off a firestorm of criticism against the Federalists and contributed to their defeat in the election of 1800, after which the acts were repealed or allowed to expire. The controversies surrounding them, however, provided for some of the first tests of the limits of freedom of speech and press." - Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) - National Archives
How this short history lesson pertains to this essay is pretty simple, so long as the GOP-led Congress continues to enable this lawless administration, not one person living legally in our republic is safe. The Administration, especially our corrupt AG, Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel whose politically weaponized FBI, refuses to respect the decisions of the Supreme Court, regarding immigration issues. Neither of our top law enforcement cabinet positions, will enforce the law as directed by SCOTUS. The most high-profile case being Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Three primary agendas of this coup attempt are focused on DEI, severe abuse of public education and immigration issues, all of which are being prosecuted illegally and hence, also unconstitutionally. In fact, US citizens and asylum seekers are also being abused by the Trump/ GOP administration, hence the mountain of lawsuits on the books against this lawless administration.
Still, Mr. Garcia, is far from being the only non-guilty detainee being abused by this administration, and nary a Republican that will stand up for the constitution, the law and our co-equal branches of government. For the record, it is the Project 2025 agenda that fully undermines our constitutional government and yet, still silence from the GOP. Even worse, Republican voters are our family, friends and neighbors. This issue is near and dear to all who are considering leaving the country or staying.
Okay now, so yes, we no longer are guaranteed our constitutional rights, but what does this have to do with your decision to move to another country? That’s easy, as that this GOP regime, will ultimately support any and every administration act against US citizens and legal residents. In fact, they are increasingly acting against US citizens, businesses, organizations and public people. They have already nearly wiped out our First Amendment rights, when it gets in the way of their Project 2025 agenda. Violating our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, separation of church and state, as well as freedom to assemble are already well-established trademarks of today’s Republican coup. For the record, this is the GOP’s second coup attempt, with January 6th, 2021 being the first.
Previous background essays regarding the ongoing Republican Coup:
Trump, Musk and the MAGA GOP's, coup attempt: fighting back! Part II in a series
Part III in the Coup series: The clock is ticking on Trump’s coup
The Trump, Musk, Putin and GOP coup, is really cultural genocide for our nation.
The abuse and theft of our personal data by the likes of DOGE and Elon Musk’s Techbros, have already violated our Fourth Amendment right to unreasonable search and seizure. Well my friends, let’s move on as that it is already clear that this administration and the GOP at large, show no sign of abiding with their oath of office, “to protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.” Still at this stage, maybe folks are still thinking that they may still have enough time to check all the boxes required to move to another country. This window of opportunity, is closing faster than ever and will close exponentially faster, as we edge into the 2026 Midterms.
Now, to the big argument for whether to stay or go, is it going to be safe anywhere? Spoiler alert, the simple answer is no. It will not be safe in the long run anywhere, unless the current global wave of cruel, despotic, far-right violent extremism is not curtailed, within the new Axis of Evil. I wish to be as precisely clear about this point as possible. Allow me to explain.
First, moving to another country may provide some short-term relief, but without the US honoring its post WW II role as a global democratic leader, there is little hope that the rest of global democracies, can survive intact, for an extended time into the future. It is simply a matter of numbers, weapons and technology. That evil group of global despots, like Trump, Putin, Xi and Modi, are involved in a dance of sorts, to see who exactly will be worthy of Putin’s view on national sovereignty. I wrote about this back in March.
If and when, these far-right authoritarians are permitted to be free of the threat posed by the US contributing to the fight for democracy, there will be no more democracy. Both Putin and Xi’s narratives betray an intent to build a world where only a handful of nations, have full sovereignty, while all other nations have limited sovereign rights and must be beholden to the three or four fully sovereign emperors, Tsars, Rajs and Mafioso thugs like Trump. Any nation with full sovereign rights will operate as we are witnessing now, in the US under the GOP, as The Four Horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse, Autocracy, Oligarchy, Religious Nationalism and Political Violence. Should they succeed, in the long run, anywhere we go in the world we will be second class citizens, or basically serfs.
It would be difficult to predict, just how long it would take for those fully sovereign superpowers to acquire full control, but at worst I see one generation and maybe, far less than this. They have a strategy and are working quietly towards it while that most citizens are distracted by incessant culture wars. The only thing now standing in the way is the fact that most of humanity, will not willingly go backwards, and will fight to retain their human rights.
America was actually founded on the radically progressive views of the “woke” Scottish Enlightenment. One of the most prominent concepts in the Scottish Enlightenment’s philosophy, is the idea of equality and inalienable human rights. This is why such concepts are like the very blood running through the veins of real American patriots. Yes, our founders were radical progressives for their time, and other nations like France, immediately followed with their own democratic revolution. Soon, much of the world followed until the past three or so decades, where global democracy has been on the decline, in correlation to the rise in far-right authoritarianism.
The playing field is now really a minefield, especially here at home where most Americans have little to no understanding of the “big picture” that is extraordinarily dangerous for global human rights. The GOP, Russian, Chinese, Indian focus at the moment has no use for human rights. The GOP in the entire Trump era, has enabled the toxic, subjugation of the very “inalienable human rights” guaranteed to all Americans. In its place, they are imposing authoritarian oligarchism on most of the world. This can be easily seen in their fight to impoverish working people, deny them education, rights to freedom of assembly, speech and to demand redress from their own governments, when those governments impose injury onto the people.
The GOP’s recent assault on the 14th Amendment regarding Birthright Citizen, a pillar of what it means to be an American, is but one example of their utter disregard for our republic. Any party, movement or person committed to overthrowing any part of our constitution in an illegal manner, is by default, unworthy of their elected office. In our current congress run by the cowardly GOP, there are no Republicans worthy of their office.
Okay, okay, this is already long enough and it is very dense material as well. While that it is quite important that all US voters are as our founders expected, well and accurately informed, sometimes, it is really a lot to digest at one time.
The whole point of this essay was to help readers make a more informed decision as to whether they will be safer somewhere other than our currently subjugated America or if they should be part of the fight to restore our republic. Like most big decisions, there are always more things to consider than just, “leave or stay.” I don’t want to be the one that decides for anyone but do wish to help everyone better understand the pros and cons of such a fateful decision.
I understand the attraction of buying a few short years of more peace and normalcy, but to what end? At my advanced age, it just may work out for me to live just long enough to avoid the worst that will come, without intervention by the moral and courageous patriots that still believe in our founding values. I though will stay. It is family tradition to stand and fight when our nation is threatened. It is also family tradition to ensure that everyone has access to all of our constitutionally guaranteed rights. That is my call and no one else’s. I don’t condemn those who would leave and as they say, “live to fight another day.” It will be a fight though and there is no cavalry coming to save us. This job must be done by all of us willing to do the work and fight the battles.
Most of our allies know what it means to be occupied, fight a war on their home soil and to defend their rights to be free. Americans have been very fortunate and don’t know such turmoil. Most still struggle to realize the depth of our current threat, simply because it is not part of our DNA. Those who have gone to war to fight violent extremists, do recognize this threat clearly. I am one of those Veterans. My mission with TAT, Truth about Threats, is to help others truly understand our most pressing threats. At this point in our history, we are tragically more at threat as a constitutional republic, than at any other time in our history. These essays are to convey the truth that every honest patriot, must understand that this is an “all-hands-on-deck” moment in our history.
I certainly hope that this essay does not weigh down your beautiful Spring weekend but please, do consider these insights and maybe… even save this plea for active patriots in the ongoing civil war to save our republic.
Cheers,
Paul
It is a difficult decision. However, not all countries will accept Americans fleeing. So as time passes, the choices may be limited.
I too am staying. If I left, I would be unable to actually rest. I would be worried about what is happening to those I love, who stayed behind.
I’m both an optimist and a realist. I hope and truly believe that this will be a defining point in our country’s history, where we in the resistance can fulfill our commitment to build a more perfect union.
However, I know that with any resistance, revolution or war, there will be casualties.
If you stay, it is important than ever to start building communities to help each other through this ordeal.
There will also be people who are unaffected by the changes, they will adapt and comply. Their obedience to authority is so ingrained, that they will see those who are fighting as the enemy.
Be prepared to be betrayed, not everyone is on our side.
Sorry for the doom and gloom. But it needs to be addressed.
Much hope everyone
A veteran