Conservatives threaten to move to France Costa Rica:
Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher may have to fly to Costa Rica if he wants to see some of his friends.
In one of his recent blogs, Dreher told of multiple people discussing potential moves to Costa Rica if things go downhill. These aren’t people who are eager to join Paulville. Rather, these are normal, middle-class conservatives who are considering moving to Costa Rica if the country goes downhill under President Obama.
One of the commenters on Dreher’s blog asked if this was not unlike liberals throwing a fit in 2004 and threatening to leave if Bush won. Not exactly. The left’s threat was always more of a threat to hold its breath if it didn’t get its way. The concerns of Dreher’s friends seem to have little to do with the election and far more to do with the results of Obama’s policies. So all this talk of leaving doesn’t remind me of Alec Baldwin’s threat to deprive our nation of his presence. Instead, it reminds me of a white Zimbabwean I recently met at a writer’s conference. She spoke with a longing for home, a love of a place thousands of miles away that she could only picture in her memories. Zimbabwe is not a place where one is able to prosper and thrive. At this time, many people wonder if the same thing could happen in America.
Until you show me the tens of thousands of applications for Costa Rican citizenship, this is right up there with “going Galt” and is exactly like those who threatened to move to France in 2004.
valdivia
why are these people threatening to move to my part of the hemisphere? and you have to wonder–Why CR? Might it be because it has the best retirement taxation for Americans?
Is *that* going Galt?
valdivia
and this just shows you the ignorance–CR has elections next year with a very good chance of the *not* center left wing party winning the election. Then they will get a taste of real socialism. See if they come running back to the US.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
The left’s threat was always more of a threat to hold its breath if it didn’t get its way.
Which is completely unlike the conservatives’ reasoning. Got it.
ETA – oh, I see. It’s not that the cons are threatening to leave if they don’t get their way, it’s that they’re threatening to leave because they haven’t already gotten their way. Which is way more freedomy and mature.
Roger Harrison
What is with the obnoxious flashing blue box on the side of the site… it’s going to send people into an epileptic shock. Ads are ads, but please tell them to tone it down.
Ron Beasley
I won’t miss them – goodbye – don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Skippy-san
Conservatives won’t like Costa Rica too much-women actually like sex there.
4tehlulz
DO IT OR STFU
Also,
"white Zimbabwean I recently met at a writer’s conference. She spoke with a longing for home, a love of a place thousands of miles away that she could only picture in her memories when it was called Rhodesia"
Fixed
Pudentilla
As I recall, I threatened to move to Canada. Francophone Canada, but Canada.
joe from Lowell
Do it! Do it! Do it! Do t!
Jump! Juuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmp!
valdivia
the Zimbabwe comparison was started by Rush and I see it is taking hold in these circles. Pretty insidious and racist. These people have no sense of history, no decency.
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
Conservatives threaten to move?
I’ve been trying to get them out of my country for years. They are a clear and present danger to the American Experiment.
Can we put up a Pay Pal link to donate money to move them?
Count me in.
Good riddance.
Dennis-SGMM
Guess it’s not enough that they’ve already sent their money overseas to avoid paying taxes. If they were to move en masse the national IQ would go up at least ten points.
El Cid
Hasn’t Central America suffered enough from conservative U.S. policies? Death squads and coups weren’t enough, now we have to fill up their towns with right wing jackoffs?
demkat620
Do they need any help packing?
Dave
Costa Rica? The same Costa Rica that has a social welfare system built along Scandinavian lines?
Conservatives can’t even throw a hissy fit correctly…
Zach
I thought that was the exact definition of going Galt? Also, Stephen Baldwin threatened to leave the country if Obama won last summer. And beyond that, at least one liberal did follow through on bailing the country after 2000: Pierre Salinger
Herb
I’d discount this as an isolated case. I’ve had conservative friends ponder retiring in Costa Rica, not because of the balmy clime but because their meager bankroll will allow them to live like kings. These guys are probably the same lot, just moving it up a bit.
Hey, living like a king is living like a king.
forked tongue
I wouldn’t wish it on Costa Rica. Costa Rica seems nice. I think they should all go to Alaska and sign on with Todd Palin and the secessionists. With sufficient numbers, they can win this thing.
GSD
What this asshat is doing is blowing the dog whistle really fucking hard.
Yes, under President Obama, whites will now have all of their possessions taken away and given to teh Blacks who will fritter all of that hard earned white wealth on bling-bling, low riders and gin and juice.
Besides, don’t these war mongering neo-nutzies know that Costa Rica has no military? How will they get their Viagra induced evening erections without military parades and manly threats of weekly bombing raids against their percieved enemies?
Then again, wasn’t Milton Friedman living out his Randian retirement in the epicenter of American liberal-fascist-communist-Marxism? San Francisco.
Logic, it’s just not their thing.
-GSD
bcinaz
Can we help them pack?
Tom
Buh-bye! Enjoy your life in, uh, Costa Rica, pining wistfully, sadly, tragically, for your forsaken homeland far, far away, while us commie pinkos tear up the joint while we’re redistributing the wealth into socialized medicine and communal roads and highways and wasteful hurricane monitoring systems. Don’t let the door hitcha! Y’all drop a postcard now and then, y’hear?
On another note, via @roadkillrefugee twitter feed, the Citizens for Tax Justice has issued a report on the House GOP Leaders’ Budget Plan. Get the PDF here at Washington Independent. WARNING!!!one!! It has NUMBERS in it!!!eleven!1!
Major conclusions:
#Over a fourth of taxpayers, mostly low-income families, would pay more in taxes under the House GOP plan than they would under the President’s plan.
#The richest one percent of taxpayers would pay $100,000 less, on average, under the
House GOP plan than they would under the President’s plan.
#The income tax proposals in the House GOP plan, which is presented as a fiscally
responsible alternative to the President’s plan, would cost over $300 billion more than
the Obama income tax cuts in 2011 alone.
Brilliant.
Comrade Stuck
@Dave:
Exactly, Costa Rica is a peace loving liberal wienee paradise. They should consider the thuggish right wing Guatemala. Guatemala is likely about fed up with the namby pamby liberal democracy experiment, and may be ready for another murderous right wing Junta they’re famous for.
An American wingnut’s wet dream.
kay
I never considered leaving. I wouldn’t dream of letting conservatives chase me out. I’d have stuck around if I were the last remaining liberal, actually. It hasn’t been easy, either.
Conservatives are pouting. It’s not at all appealing. They’re remarkably thin-skinned and whiny when they’re in a minority.
I think this middle-aged group are shocked that they might have to defend these ideas, and rely on their actual record. They’re still operating under the assumption that there is no record of conservative governance. But there is. Now there is, and it isn’t fabulous. It’s not 1980. It’s not just a theory. We saw it in practice. They have to address what happened, not what was supposed to happen.
JD Rhoades
Well, their support of Bush/Cheney shows that what they really have wanted to live in all along is a banana republic.
Having failed at turning the US into one, they’ll just head for a real one.
iluvsummr
Costa Rica? I thought the do-it-yourself movement in Somalia would be more to their liking. There’s no government in Somalia to interfere with things and ruin their lives, no taxes, no restrictions on arms they can carry (they can walk around with their personal rocket-propelled grenade launchers). There they can build their own homes and roads, start new airlines without regulations or interference (Somalia only has two airlines, Jubba Airways and Inter-Somalia and certainly needs more), or join the Somali pirate trade (a lucrative $150 million a year business that’s never taxed!!!). I guess the main problem for them would be the overabundance of beardos.
Tom
(sorry, I’m still trying to master your html code. That Blockquote seems to strip away the List tags. Plus blockquote automatically closes after a paragraph. NOT what I want. Anyone? Help?)
Zach
@GSD: Friedman was safe behind the walls of the Hoover Institution.
I don’t understand why folks worried about what Obama would bring to America would flee to Costa Rica with its nationalized health care, nationalized banks, nationalized insurance, nationalized utilities, and higher tax rates (if you include the high social security tax and sales tax). Perhaps they also want the United States to stop taxing foreign income and cause an unparalleled flow of wealth out of the country? What patriots!
Davis X. Machina
An American wingnut’s wet dream.
Yeah, but they speak Spanish in Guatemala, or worse, some old Mayan relic.
What they’re looking for is a Central American country where English is the official language. No wonder they were pissed about the Canal Zone.
Perhaps if Costa Rica were to adopt Spanish and speaking-English-loudly-and-slowly-with-exasperated-hand-gestures as co-official languages
The Moar You Know
Rush Limbaugh, little boys, penile enhancing drugs.
I think we know why they’re moving.
AnotherBruce
These people don’t deserve Costa Rica. Hell, Mars is too good for them.
Tom
I have a buddy who is into flipping real estate and has his eye on Costa Rica as well. I guess there is already a big expat population of wingnuts down there, according to him.
JD Rhoades
I have an on-line acquaintance who describes himself as an "Anarchist" and who I often suspect of jerking off to his portrait of Ludwig von Mises (who he can quote, verbatim, at excruciating length). He argues, apparently with a straight face, that Somalia is the perfect example of why an anarchist society works. The reason? You can get cheap cell phones there.
Why are you laughing!? It’s based on actual science!
DecidedFenceSitter
Canada actually for most of us liberals. Seriously considered it – but the restrictions on emigration were enough that we doubted we could get all of us across.
Blackbeard
In a related story, kidnapping Americans is projected as a large growth industry in Costa Rica for the next several years. Be sure an program your phone with that I.C.E. number to make things quicker for the ransom negotiator!
kay
@Tom:
So. It became more difficult to make big piles of money on speculative ventures that involve trading leveraged paper and they’re bailing?
They’re moving to Costa Rica to defend the bed-rock principle of making big piles of money on reckless and ultimately unproductive schemes? Schemes that just failed in their home country? Now they’re going to leave us with this big mess to clean up?
I guess that’s one approach.
harlana pepper
Shit, people of means talk about moving to Costa Rica or at least buying property there all the time. But they can’t help themselves, I suppose, from pretending that now this is some kind of "statement." Fuck these fucking fuck-turds.
And, oh yeah, GO, GO! Please, get the fuck outta here!
Eastriver
Two branding suggestions:
Going Tico.
Or, my favorite
Going Dora.
valdivia
@Comrade Stuck:
except they had elections and the moderate leftish guy won. same in El Salvador. Maybe Panama? Except the president there is Torrijos, son of the guy who took the canal back from the US.
I know! Colombia!
Edit—CR has been a long time destination for the American retiree community because of the taxation of retirees which is different from that of immigrants (just ask the big population of nicaraguan immigrants there). Real estate is very expensive though precisely because of the influx of americans buying up land.
Cerberus
Yeah, see, I actually did move to Denmark (took me about four years) so I could learn how they did more effective protests against the government and how they mainstreamed positive leftist ideas. Then immediately after I arrived, Obama laid the smackdown and the gay community actually did some genuine work with meaningful effective protest techniques.
I’m rather hoping irony falls in a different direction when these screw-ups go Galt so I can laugh at them when I’ve finished my schooling here.
harlana pepper
@El Cid:
Eh, gehd, you are right. Well, whatever to serve the superior beings who have created this paradise in which we now find ourselves. Now if the local populace was clued in and decided to pay them a visit, well . . .
Laura W
@Eastriver:
Perfection.
Hyperion
@Tom:
he’s a little late to the party IMO.
five years ago, maybe.
and your blockquote comment indicates that you have the same problem here. ;=)
you’d think there would be a FAQ or link to the many discussions of how blockquote is funky at B-J. even though posts are now editable, folks still screw up the formatting and then just leave it that way. it makes following the "conversation" difficult. oh, well.
Leelee for Obama
Isn’t this kind of similar to the Nazis relocating to Argentina?
Why do these reactionary ass_____ constantly want to inflict themselves on Central and South America? Haven’t they suffered enough?
That being said, I’ll help them pack.
Comrade Stuck
@valdivia:
Which is why the Oligarchs and their military patrons are likely getting fed up with the democracy stuff. Especially when it gives power to the poor majority indigineus mountain folk.
I know you are much more knowledgeable than me on Central and South America. So please correct if I’m wrong, so I can learn more about an area I’m interested in.:)
John H. Farr
There are ALREADY tons of very conservative American ex-pats living in Costa Rica. This has been going on for years. From what I hear, Costa Rica is a very decent place, but recent newcomers have killed the inexpensive real estate, and as usual, when you run into ex-pats abroad, they tend to be wildly extremist on one side of the spectrum or the other.
It also appears from anecdotal evidence that the main problem in both Costa Rica and northern New Mexico is too many Texans. Austin notwithstanding, we need to find a way to radically reduce the population of the state. Perhaps they would like to move to North Dakota, which for the moment has more water.
(Disclosure: I was born in Texas, went to jr. high school in Abilene, and attended the best university in the entire world, U.T. Austin, during the glory days.)
kay
@Leelee for Obama:
I’d look at it like the renter who trashes the rental and then moves to another state, skipping on the repair bill.
Who did they imagine was going to pay for this? They thought there would be no consequences?
Leelee for Obama
That was genius! I shouldn’t have laughed, but I’m presently cleaning tea off my monitor!
Leelee for Obama
These people do not understand the concept of consequences. I mentioned this in another thread, but Pres. Frat Boy was bailed out every time he screwed someone’s pooch, so failing upward was a career trajectory.
OriGuy
After the Civil War, about ten thousand Southerners moved to Brazil. They’re called the Confederados. But they had lost a war, with all that implies. The current crop of Johnny Reb wannabes lost an election and their feelings are hurt.
Tom
@kay and @Hyperion
I guess that was the idea, yeah, though it hasn’t worked out all that well for my bud. I just watch and listen, cause he has enough other good qualities to make him worth knowing.
Re: blockquote — okay as long as I’m not the only one screwing up. I DO like a tidy comment though. I found that typing the BQ works better than the buttons, you don’t get that huge bolded font. But they promise LIST and I don’t get list. I’m resentful about that. Bitter, even.
Tom
@John H. Farr:
I’m with you on Texas (as an ex-Tejano myself.) I think we should go ahead and let them be their own "Whole Other Country."
Phaedrus
John Cole, "and is exactly like those who threatened to move to France in 2004"
Hmmm, hadn’t Bush started and screwed up two wars, defiled our constitution, instituted Gitmo and been illegally spying on our citizens by then?
Yeah, wanting to leave that is exactly like disagreeing with Obama’s financial policy.
Comrade Stuck
@John H. Farr:
Absolutely goddamn right. Down here in Grant County, we get too many coming to shoot up the Gila and run their ATV’s over everything. But the DFH’s outnumber the rascals about 3 to 1, so they don’t give us much lip.
kay
@Leelee for Obama:
The consequences are a small change in marginal tax rates, re-regulation of financial markets, and a period of heavy deficit spending.
They can’t bear up under that onerous burden? It will be impossible for them to prosper under those conditions?
How did their parents and grandparents pull it off?
Less whiny and hysterical, perhaps?
wilfred
I stopped reading after ‘multiple people’.
We, we, we
are mul-ti-ple peeeeple.
Good riddance.
Leelee for Obama
@kay:
Their parents and grandparents wouldn’t recognize most of these anti-tax dips____. They may have hated paying taxes, but they paid a boatload more than these selfish, self-important Galt wannabees ever have. There’s a really good reason we have such deficits. Government has obligations to it’s citizens, wars (good or bad) to wage, salries to pay, and these people have bought into the idea that they shouldn’t have to pay their fair share of that expense, but they should be able to buy the Government they want with their "free speech" money.
I’m reminded of Monty Python…."brave Sir Robin, bravely ran away."
If they actually had to work for a living, they’d probably burst blood vessels.
valdivia
@Comrade Stuck:
One or two points–during the ‘good old days’ of the Oligarchic/Military alliance the relationship was almost always backwards–the oligarchs were the patrons and the military was doing their bidding. This is true as far back as the 19th century. The paramilitary were under the wing of the military but always doing the bidding for the Oligarchs (which were the big land owning coffee producing families in the country).
As far as democracy goes. The problem is that Guatemala may have had elections but it has not done a lot of the work of actual governance that makes a democracy last. The judiciary is still very corrupt, the military has not been under the strict civilian governmental control they need to be under (actually they should have no military but that is a different conversation). so to say they have had a democratic experiment is a bit of a misnomer. Because the only reason the US ever cared about Guatemala was land (United Fruit Company circa 54) or Communism (civil war circa 1980s) now that both issues are irrelevant (the winner of the election is a moderate leftist not associated with any of the guerrilla groups from the 80s) I really doubt the US will give any aid to any faction in the oligarchy that may want to make the country more unlivable. And because the present government is really in the center there is no issue there about making an outright coup. Given that the party that was in charge before utterly failed at governing, reigning in the violence, corruption and the elites int he country were not gaining anything it was a good bet for them to support this guy.
The country to watch is not Guatemala but El salvador where the FMLN just won the elections with a non FMLN candidate. The wingnuts will be making lots of noise about that. Just wait and see.
Anton Sirius
This is a terrible analogy. If Baldwin had left the country, we’d have been deprived of his brilliant performance on 30 Rock.
These posers would deprive us of nothing but the opportunity to laugh at…
Oh, wait, it is exactly the same. Carry on.
Hyperion
@John H. Farr:
a universal problem IMO.
and i was born in Austin…in the 50s…NOT the glory days.
Comrade Stuck
@valdivia:
LOL, Thank You. This is what I meant, but my proper word use is sometimes lacking,
Looks like they picked the right guy for presnit. I stand corrected. Sounds like democracy is doing OK for the time being.
That little factoid will go right over your average wingnut head. All they will see is COMMIES in charge, and commence to weave tales of the Obamunist’s long Marxist reach.
valdivia
@Comrade Stuck:
even better–they already declared him a puppet of the communists. but indeed they will be screaming left and right. Not taking into account that one party rule for over 20 years (by the right wing party ARENA, which had links to the paramilitary during the war in the 80s) is not good for democracy. A democracy is a system were parties lose elections and accept it, not just one party wins them all the time.
Tom
Hmmmm, lots of refugees here from the great state of Texas, A Whole Other Country.
Woody
I must beg the forgiveness of the assembled body: I gave Rod Dreher passing grades in two classes I taught at LSU in the mid ’80s.
Had I but known what a total douchebag he’d turn into, I could have flunked him, and possibly prevented his prosaic excrescences from polluting the nation’s consciousness.
Mea maxima culpa…
Woody
Angel Fire, NM, 30 miles from Taos, is the western-most suburb of Plano…
Hob
Living in coastal northern California, I know a few… dozen… people who at one time or another talked about moving to Costa Rica during the Bush years. They were very clear about why: because they thought the country was going to become literally fascist, and that people like them would be harassed or killed. I mostly didn’t think that was going to happen, and in my worst nightmares I imagined that I would probably end up staying anyway, but it really wasn’t hard to see what they were talking about.
So to Mr. Adam Graham, who describes this as the left "threat[ening] to hold its breath if it didn’t get its way," I would like to say: you snotty fucking shitbrain motherfucker, fuck you to fucking fuck.
Mike in NC
In these tough times, maybe they could buy up that abandoned Canal Zone real estate for next to nothing. Build gated communities patrolled by ex-Blackwater mercenaries. Invite John McCain to give up his Senate seat to be their benevolent dictator. (He was born in the Zone, after all.) Glenn Beck should devote an entire show to this topic.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Great, C.R. will be so pleased when fat glistening mounds of U.S. garbage washes up on its shore. However, we all know things will never go "downhill" enough to get those wankers off U.S. soil.
The Raven
Costa Rica is just about the only place in Central and South America with a fairly sane government. It’s really nice. Be a shame if the wingnuts took it over.
Nice country you have there…
trollhattan
Have at it, sissies. They won’t last; here’s what they have to look forward to:
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1717399.html
Phoenician in a time of Romans
Feel free to show us precisely where “mandatory service” is actually in the Bill.
I love the bit of the story referenced where they mentioning escaping Obama’s odious socialism by moving to places such as… New Zealand.
Not too clear on the subject, there.
Bulworth
Can’t understand why conservatives like Dreher even say these kinds of things in print. Like going around wearing a "kick me" sign.
But I’d be more than happy to see them go.
Bulworth
This whole "going galt" and moving to Costa Rica business reminds me of the Jerry Seinfeld quip about the breakfast cereal Count Chocula. "What’s the deal with Count Chocula? I mean, are we supposed to be AFRAID of this guy?!
Are we supposed to be AFRAID of people like Reynolds, and people Dreher knows, dropping out?
Dennis-SGMM
@trollhattan:
A lot of these folks are probably ignorant of the fact that not everywhere in the world is the same as the USA in terms of goods, services and amenities. I’d bet that they aren’t even considering learning a bit of Spanish either.
James F. Elliott
Should be interesting for Dreher, since Costa Rica’s religious political interest groups — dominated by the Catholics — are allied with the Communists there.
magisterludi
I wouldn’t wish these dolts on the Costa Ricans. Anyway, I thought the cons had their hearts set on San Salvador once upon a time. Fickle buzzards,eh?
valdivia
btw–according to the CR press Biden is coming there the next few days. Maybe he is arranging a wingut exchange program?
L. Ron Obama
@trollhattan:
Thank you for the laugh, even better when you read the backstory. That guy is the biggest fucking idiot ever. It is like Costa Rica was his rebound girl after the divorce, he’s madly in love for the honeymoon period and she can do no wrong, and then suddenly he hits the brick wall of reality.
Numerous Onion articles could have been written about that experience and maybe that is where he should try to sell his next freelance story. In fact the episode with the cheese-seller reminded me of this article.
Matt
Exactly, Costa Rica is a peace loving liberal wienee paradise.
Which is precisely why they want to go there, so they can benefit from it while decrying it all at the same time. They’re a pack of frauds and hypocrites.
I can’t believe that the rest of the world puts up with us when we really only have two exports: explode-y things, and right-wing assholes.
James
Hey, please don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out…
Mnemosyne
Spanish is the official language of Costa Rica. But don’t tell the wingnuts.
Michael
That’s a shame. Costa Rica is awesome (great food, nice people, gorgeous scenery), with a number of industries in the hands of government run cooperatives.
I think utilities and dairies are state controlled enterprises. That won’t make the wingnuts happy, at all.
bombiranforchrist
Hey, let’s take a collection and buy them all tickets. We don’t have to stay under the $2000 political contribution limit and we can make a difference in next year’s election.
nylund
As I recall, I threatened to move to Canada, and I did move to Canada. I may even have stayed had my visa not expired. I was torn in many ways. I am, and will always be, an American. My friends and family are here, and I want to do my part to make it a better place.
That being said, I got way too used to living with free/cheap healthcare, and living in a practically gun-free place with very little violent crime. I totally lost my sense of constant vigilance while on the street at night and withing 2 weeks of being back in the US, I had a gun pointing at my face demanding my money. A few weeks later, I went to see my doctor about an ongoing medical condition. Even with "good" insurance, it was $150 for that short visit (which involved some minor tests), whereas in Canada, $600 a year bought me into a system that covered any and every medical cost that came my way. I’m already slipping back into the mindframe that going to the doctor is only something that should be done when I feel death is imminent.
Anyway, good to be home in many ways, but also very sad in others. We have much to fix yet too many people still refuse to believe that there are better ways than the current American ways.
MNPundit
I want these white, mcmansion living suburban racist xenophobic conservative religious people out of this country. If they do this voluntarily so much the better.
Go Galt and Get Out! Now.
Zuzu's Petals
Dear ignorant Pajamas blogger:
Uhm, the reason people threatened to move away if GWB won the 2004 election was precisely because of the results of his policies.
As in, not just "threatening to hold their breath if they didn’t get their way," but for the same reasons those "normal, middle class" conservatives you find so reasonable do.
And they too thought of their country with love and longing and sadness for the memory of what it once was.
vacuumslayer
I absolutely LOVE the idea of getting rid of these people. I love the collection idea. I will pay to get moron conservatives out of this country. I will pay. In a heartbeat. The more "intellectual" ones can stay if they keep their ramblings to a whisper.
bago
@Zach: And look at our economy now. It’s shit. Who knew Pierre Salinger going Galt would drive us to this.
Mike in NC
An actual anti-immigration letter to the editor in the local newspaper yesterday ended with, "If English was good enough for Shakespeare, the Bible, and Jesus, then it’s good enough for me!" I contemplated banging my head on the kitchen table over that bit of astuteness.
Ram111
/late/
Didn’t Robert Vesco do that?
Wile E. Quixote
@trollhattan
Jesus this guy is a fucking douchebag. He admits to doing no research on Costa Rica before moving there and then is surprised by how it turned out. Of course when you read this it’s no surprise:
No wonder, it turns out that Mark Drolette is a hack bureaucrat for one of the most useless bureaucracies in Excremento, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which is to insuring that children get a quality education what Moodys and Standard and Poor’s are to insuring that those bonds you bought from AIG really are AAA rated investments. Educational bureaucrats such as Drolette are every bit as willfully stupid and benighted as any wingnut conservative and like the wingnut conservatives suffer from a massive sense of entitlement.
It gets better though, sure Drolette left America because he was disgusted with how fascistic it had become, but he didn’t renounce his citizenship, he didn’t even quit his job, instead he took a leave of absence. If you go look at this retard’s blog where he posted about his brave experiences as a brave expatriate fighting the man, by well, leaving the country, you find the following entry:
Of course in the article he wrote for the SacBee he bitched about how his roof leaked and he didn’t have a phone or electricity, oh, and he made this wonderfully racist comment as well:
It’s kind of refreshing to read about Mark Drolette, why, because given eight years of overpowering and omnipresent Republican douchebaggery it’s easy to forget that the left has its own share of self-righteous, self-absorbed, utterly useless douchebags who have DQs (douchebag quotients) every bit as high as those of any "Obama is a Muslim with a fake birth certificate" right wing conservative.
PanAmerican
This would be going "William Walker".
Dennis-SGMM
@Mike in NC:
Well everybody knows that Jesus was a tall white guy. What other language would he speak?
valdivia
@PanAmerican:
FTW.
JWW
Flying to Costa Rica would make far more sense than flying to your place. At least he will get a truthful answer and a man to back it up.
AnneLaurie
The reactionary ass____ want to be within easy travelling reach of the U.S.A. First, because they intend to drop back in at regular intervals to stock up on life’s "necessities", such as preferred brands of processed food-products and large festive gatherings of other reactionary ass____. Second, because of that quaint archaic folk belief known as the ‘Monroe Doctrine’, when a political meteor shows up on the event horizon, it’s assumed that American citizens are more likely to be rescued from Costa Rica (or Brazil or Paraguay, helloooo Dubya) than from the ex-Soviet states or Thailand or Australia.
Of course, the Next Great Escape has been ‘spoilt’ once the peons start commuting. I’ve lived in New England for 20 years, after living in Michigan for the previous 15, so I’ve spent my entire adult political life dealing with a subset of "snowbirds" demanding top-quality public services but NOT at the cost of paying for them — and threatening to decamp permanently if they didn’t get exactly what they want, immediately. Very, very few of the loudmouths have ever gone so far as to implement this dire threat, although they have managed to fubar minor issues like public education and infrastructure maintenance. Now they’re trickling back from Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, whining that their happy retirements have been ROOOONT! by the collapse of the great financial shell game they’ve been applauding since St. Ronnie was anointed president, and howcum us homebody loosers aren’t more grateful to have their input now? The fReichtard Costa Rica Dream probably won’t get nearly the same traction… not least because the GOPer Triumvirate (fReichtards/Talibangelicals/Robber Barons) have looted the American treasury so effectively that "we" just aren’t going to be able to afford the kind of Blackwater-quality security any gated expat community is liable to require over the next few turbulent decades.
Calouste
@Dennis-SGMM:
Dutch?
El Cid
@PanAmerican: That was damn good.
ErnestPayne
What did democratic socialist Costa Rica do to deserve a wave of ignorant americans? Considering the level of knowledge of Republicans they are in for a terrible shock if they do move there. That and they will have to learn Spanish.
joe from Lowell
That comment thread is fantastic.
Sweet, sweet wingnut tears. Really, some grade A blubbering.
Awww…so sad! :-(
Mmmm, yummy yummy wingnut tears. Mmm. How I love them so.
AC
joe from Lowell wrote "Do it! Do it! Do it! Do t!
Jump! Juuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmp!"
What is wrong with you people? Can’t you see these poor peasants need help?
Anger pitchfork carrying mob chants "Push them! Push Them!! PUSH THEM!!!"
HinTN
First, I have not read the comments. Second, I have a friend living in CR and he wants to move to Nicaragua because CR is becoming too expensive to live. He’s an ex pat and has been there long enough to know. If all these clowns take their $$$ there they will thoroughly trash what is already almost trashed. Land is out of sight. Help and groceries are still tenable in an ex pat kind of way but it’s fast becoming the 51st state. So, let ’em go. The wife and I came back from a 3 week visit with a deep appreciation of how damn good it is in this here 1st world country and we are gonna hunker down here for the long haul. Too many fukkers want to take their big wallets south and become little Hitlers (I mean kings) in some sort of illusory paradise.
HinTN
And, yes, they WILL have to learn Spanish! bwahahahahahah
world citizen
You idiots, how many of you have actually travelled outside the U.S. and been to Costa Rica or other countries that are much more free than the U.S?
The U.S. has the second highest corporate tax rate and some of the highest personal tax rates in the world. The U.S. government is bankrupt as of today. There is no chance the Treasury can not default or cause inflation through printing money. Even though the entire history of the world proves that socialism puts its people in poverty (North Korea vs South Korea, East Germany vs West Germany, etc.) you don’t have the brains of a 10 year old to read Hayek or Friedman. No one is allowed to comment here again on Obama and Socialism until you do, or else you will have proved to be a fool.
Badtux
I hate to tell these tighty righties, but Costa Rica doesn’t want them. They’re tired of gringos coming in and trashing up the place, they’re enforcing visa requirements more and more severely, and their bureaucracy makes U.S. bureaucracy look efficient when it comes to immigration. When a pushy gringo with an overweening sense of entitlement comes in, Costa Rican bureaucrats turn Franz Kafka, imposing nonsensical requirements, losing paperwork and requiring you to go back to the United States and get new official documents translated and certified at the Costa Rican consulate there, etc., and are very effective at keeping out gringos they don’t like (and I don’t know how anybody could like these tighty righties).
Furthermore, Costa Rica’s politics are far to the left of anything that is possible in the United States. Let’s put it this way, the biggest discussion in health care in Costa Rica is whether to nationalize the health insurance companies and private hospitals into the overall national health care system that already exists or not… crap, the U.S. doesn’t even have a national health care system, much less debates over whether or not to outlaw private health care too. Conservatives in Costa Rica would be aghast if you suggested eliminating their "socialist medicine" health care system… it simply isn’t an acceptable notion in their society, which is far more collectivist-oriented than U.S. society despite the business orientation of much of the upper classes.
So good luck to these tighty righties. I expect they’ll finally manage to make their way through the Costa Rican bureaucracy to get their immigration visas somewhere around, oh, 2080 or so :-).
Btw, for the guy talking about oligarchs, Costa Rica has no army, no military of any kind. They do have a national police force that is relatively well armed, but the policia doesn’t have the sort of centralized management or cultural underpinnings necessary to do juntas. The last attempt by Americans to invade Costa Rica and impose a military junta — William Walker’s — didn’t turn out too well, he and his merry band of mercenaries got their butt kicked by Costa Rican cops and volunteers who took up arms and send the Americans packing.
AhabTRuler
Comprehension of competing economic/political systems FAIL.
Jen R
You know, I am really goddamn tired of this meme that people’s hatred of Bush had nothing to do with his policies. When a person accuses liberals of "Bush Derangement Syndrome," what they’re really saying is, "I see nothing wrong with wars of aggression, torture, the government spying on its citizens, and the destruction of the economy." I mean, I guess it’s nice to have such a handy way of identifying people who feel that way, but it’s kind of galling to have them project their mental problems onto the rest of us.
Bukko in Australia
I’m one of those left-wing Americans who threatened to emigrate in 2004 if realPresident Cheney and his monkey puppet got another four years to misrule. I said it so often I reckoned I’d look like a fool if I didn’t do it. (Plus I didn’t want to keep paying taxes for what I thought would be a nuclear attack on Iran.) I didn’t just hold my breath — my wife and I left. Selling our house at the peak of the housing bubble and cashing out our retirement accounts before the economic crash made the deal sweeter.
Good luck to those reich-wingers. Even in a country as similar to the U.S. as Australia is, and even with my good-paying job as a hospital nurse, the transition hasn’t been totally smooth. (At least not for my wife — I LUUUUUV it here!) I doubt that 0.1% of the crypto-facsists will even buy a plane ticket for Costa Rica. I know that none of our left-wing big-talking potential country-leavers ever took a step, and they had much better reasons to go. Lotsa loud-talkers on both sides.
Heya BadTux — odd to see you in a different comment section.
Jim
I’m sure Costa Mesa has to be real happy about this…
Mnemosyne
Finally, a new parody troll!
chopper
@John H. Farr:
yeah, last time i went to costa rica i was in a van with two ex-pats. one was seriously texan, and was yelling into the phone in peggy-hill spanish: "NO NO, EL OCHO NO ES BUENO! OCHO MAL! OCHO MAL!"
great, there goes belize.
Sirkowski
As long as they don’t come to Canada.
prospero
Well this is a pickle. I’ve always wanted to move to Costa Rica too, but not if all the assholes get there first.