Notebook of a Nomad

1/23/25

I suppose your birthday is a good time to reflect on the past year. I didn’t reflect on my year when I was running around Sydney on NYE. 37 was a year of disappointment for me. I went in with really high hopes. And those hopes didn’t pan out. I was hoping 37 would be a year of new beginnings. And I suppose I’m still trying to make that new beginning happen. Through the brunt force of packing up, leaving the US, and searching for a new home.

I was really hoping that America would calm down and come to its senses. Instead it elected a Nazi as president. Trump’s 2024 campaign removed all doubt of his status as a Nazi. His campaign ran further to the right than the Nazi party of 1932, the year of their last election. Nazis never campaigned on concentration camps. But Trump did. And if you voted for him, you voted for that. Elon Musk, a leader of the MAGA movement, performed a sieg heil during Trump’s inauguration. There is no plausible deniability left. The parallels were clear in 2016. And in 2025, if you don’t see them, it’s because you don’t want to see them. Or you see them, and like Trump, you think “Hitler did some good things.” So I’m left asking the question I’ve been asking since November 5th, “If you vote for a Nazi, are you a Nazi?”

If you vote for a Nazi, I think I have to classify you as a Nazi. You don’t have to murder millions of people before being called a Nazi. A lot of Nazi’s will be offended when I call them a Nazi but let’s look at the parallels between Hitler and Trump.

They both pushed an ideology of extreme white supremacy/nationalism. They both violently tried to overthrow the government. Then they both gained power through democratic means and began dismantling democracy and the constitution (a project republicans have been working on since they founded the Federalist Society in 1982). Trump quoted Hitler accusing immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our nation.” That’s the essence of nazism and if you’re quoting Hitler then you’re legitimizing Hitler and everything he did. And if quoting Hitler wasn’t enough, Trump promised to put latinos in concentration camps. If you voted for Trump, you almost certainly would have voted for Hitler.

In my life, there have been very few big decisions that have come easy for me. I’m indecisive when it comes to those big decisions. Leaving the United States and trying to escape Trump the best I can was an easy decision. It wasn’t without doubts but I lived through four years of Trump and they were a horrible four years. I don’t want to live another four years like that. I refuse to live another four years like that.

I really feel like the Republican Party has stolen my home from me and I don’t want to associate with people who have stolen my home. The three little pigs weren’t expected to sit down with the wolf while he was trying to blow down their houses. I thought America’s home, my home, was made of brick. But after Trump’s first term it looked more like a home of sticks. And now it seems like all that is left is a home of straw. If you don’t remember the story, the straw home doesn’t survive the big bad wolf and I don’t see America as we know it withstanding another Trump term.

So, I’m not feeling particularly happy on this birthday. I’m still furious at everyone who didn’t vote for Kamala Harris. America broke my heart and I’m still healing from that. I may forgive America at some point, but I don’t plan to forgive those who voted for Trump. I’ve tried to write this post 3 different times and each time all that comes out is anger and frustration and I blame them. Every one of them.

I suppose 38 will be like every other year. Filled with ups and downs. I have a lot of things to look forward to in the upcoming year. But today, I’m not particularly excited about any of that. I still feel like this project wasn’t really a choice for me. It felt more like I was being forced to take this action. I exhausted all other options and all that was left was escape. I don’t like escaping. I much prefer to stay and fight. But I just don’t have much faith in America anymore.