The week after the 2000 presidential election was decided by the Supreme Court, I remember sitting uncomfortably in a political science class at Florida Atlantic University. The state of Florida, specifically Palm Beach County, was then at the centre of a controversial and lengthy recount process that was rather embarrassing. Whatever was in the lesson plan for that day was thrown to the wind; instead we spent the class arguing about butterfly ballots and the legal implications of letting the Supreme Court decide the outcome of a presidential election.

These arguments were not civil discussion, mind you, but the shouty kind of argument reserved for a loveless relationship soon to fall apart, and at one point, after a pointless side discussion about the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole during the Clinton presidency, the conversation turned specifically to me. “Hey you, Canadian guy. How easy is it to move to Canada? Why? Because f--- Bush, that’s why.”

Back then, I was equal parts amused and flattered that my classmates would even consider giving up the wealth and opportunities that came with an American passport to slum it up north. Keep in mind that this was before 9/11, and before the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. This was well before extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, “enhanced interrogation techniques” and drone bombings. Back then, I’d have been more than happy to show expatriate Americans a welcome respite from another Bush regime.

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Sixteen years later, with the threat of a Donald Trump presidency materializing from the fever swamps of white male aggrievement, I feel quite the opposite. If Trump should be elected the next president of the United States, I don’t much care where progressive Americans go, so long as they stay the hell out of Canada.

Not only has there been a spike in Google searches for “how to move to Canada,” but immigration lawyers in border cities such as Windsor have been fielding calls from Americans sketching out backup plans. One such lawyer in Windsor, Eddie Kadri, described a call he took from one would-be expat: "One of the people I spoke with is already taking initial preparations. He hired a real estate agent. He's buying property here.”

Ever since Trump announced his candidacy last June, a disturbing strain of ethnic nationalism, carrying the taint of fascism, has infected the Republican electorate. It’s evident in interviews with Trump supporters, who gleefully fantasize about building a wall to keep out migrants, deporting Muslims and killing the families of alleged terrorists. It’s even more evident at Trump rallies, where peaceful black protesters have not only been frog-marched out of venues by the Secret Service, but have been shoved around and even punched in the face by audience members. Trump’s public appearances have long departed the arena of political speech, and have become red-band preview trailers for an America returned to the age of pogroms and lynchings.

There’s a bizarre line of conservative thought that pins the blame for Trump’s rise on Obama, Democrats and the progressive left. It goes something like this: America’s white working class, a pastiche of socialist and conservative values, has gone underrepresented, underemployed and unheard for the last eight years. Blue-collar children of the New Deal, beneficiaries of America’s great socialist experiment who were raised on red-blooded Christian values and capitalist ethics, have watched, nearly helpless, as their jobs, if not outsourced to Indian and Chinese factories, were transferred to Latin American migrants. While the Republican elite owns some of the blame for catering to the billionaire class, this line of thinking continues, it was Democrats who betrayed Middle America altogether by standing up for illegal immigrants, gay marriage, abortion-on-demand, sharia law and black militancy gone amok.

While conservative columnists who blame progressives, if not Obama himself, for Trump’s nightmare candidacy are bordering on delusional, white progressives and even moderates are at least partially to blame, too.

When the Tea Party took to the streets demanding “their” country back, Democratic partisans were busy writing dismissive think pieces and chuckling at Jon Stewart’s latest skewering. When Trump took the myth of Obama’s foreign birth and ran with it, Democrats laughed him off as a sideshow, rather than attack the mindset of virulent racism that would call Obama’s birthplace into question. When midterm elections came around in 2010 and 2014, the newly cynical left, angered by endless wars and the failure to criminally punish the architects of the 2008 financial disaster, failed to show up at voter booths. In a few short years, Republicans not only recaptured majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate: their obstructionist tactics created a bizarre reality in America where a president can more efficiently kill people abroad than provide for the citizens of the country he represents.

In the intervening period, while the establishment left failed in both action and imagination, marginalized people across America have been busy mobilizing. After the explosive, anti-capitalist Occupy movement brought the phrases “income inequality” and “the one per cent” into everyday language, low-income Americans staged protests and job walkouts to demand a higher minimum wage. Undocumented young Americans, in support of the 2013 DREAM Act that would offer a path to permanent residency, organized marches, town halls and widespread political pressure to pass the bill. And, of course, after George Zimmerman was acquitted for killing Trayvon Martin, the seeds of the Black Lives Matter movement were scattered across North America.

These movements were not started by political science majors arguing in university classrooms, nor by political partisans unable to cope with their team’s loss. People lacking means, agency and the ears of politicians have, by dint of their own sweat, pulled together to create legitimate political movements.

And after eight years of watching marginalized people fight their own pitched battles for humanity, marching for black lives, for migrant amnesty, fair wages, and same-sex marriage, left-leaning Americans with the means to do so now believe that it’s time to turn in the passport? That a President Trump is so embarrassing, so contrary to their vision of America, that the answer is to flee rather than fight for the people whom Trump’s policies would endanger most?

When we accept refugees fleeing bombings from Syria, or escaping death at the hands of tribal warfare Eritrea, we are welcoming those who lack the power to vouch for their own safety. When we accept skilled workers from Nigeria, Jamaica, China and India, we are welcoming professionals seeking to add to Canadian productivity and our diverse tapestry of nations. But if we accept Americans unsettled by the thought of Donald Trump as Mr. President, it would accomplish little more than provide safe harbour for cowards. It would mean handing passports to those who had the social, financial and political capital to fight for their marginalized peers, but chose instead to flee and fend for themselves.

Are those values we really want to encourage in new Canadians?

My advice to my American peers: that’s quite the mess you have on your hands. Until you’ve cleaned it up, keep your feet and your carpet bags on your side of the border.

Andray Domise is a community activist and writer.