As I boarded a plane from LAX to Norway on June 28, a faint thought crossed my mind that maybe, just maybe, I would be stuck on the other side of the Atlantic until the presidential election on November 5.
But today, as I know from a Hot ItalyThe United States is different from the country I went to: surprisingly different.
I flew to Norway the day after an elderly and sometimes incoherent candidate insulted him during a debate; but it was his slightly older, though more honest and humane, rival who sent his party into a long panic with him – unexpectedly! – nonsense and swearing. I thought it was perfect timing, because my Norwegian family would have questions. After all, they follow American politics more closely than many Americans.
Of course, when I landed at Oslo airport, my cousin’s husband couldn’t wait more than five minutes to ask a real Californian. I joked with him that maybe we should extend our stay.
Now, no more jokes.
Two days after we arrived in Norway, the U.S. Supreme Court found monarchical powers somewhere in the Constitution and granted them to the president, effectively placing the official’s “official acts” above the law. That’s right, I had just visited the Norwegian royal palace when I heard about it.
This time, relatives did not ask questions, only expressing concern and sympathy. One said he might delay his trip until the political situation “calms down,” and Americans will talk late about the problems of distant governments.
Not long ago, I visited the site of Julius Caesar’s execution in Rome and then read in disbelief that former President Trump was nearly assassinated and one of his rally attendees was was murdered – in Pennsylvania. Watching an assassination attempt in one’s own country creates a special kind of fear that can’t be described, only caused.
At this distance from home, one could be 100 years in the future reading part of an American history textbook about all the events that, in their minds, were clearly a long, dark period for our country.
But staying in Europe? Those jokes from last month are terrifying now. A return to stable social democracy in Norway? Hell no. Never in my life have I wanted to go home so much. Even knowing that, I threw the frog back into the boiling water.
It’s an unusual kind of inability to leave the house when it’s on fire. Perhaps the anxiety and fear increase with distance; I guess I’ll find out when I get back to Los Angeles soon and see the fires. literally and figurativelynear
But as for offering insight into the darkness of American policy towards its foreign relatives, after this bullet pierced the former president’s ear, I have no explanation. I am used to answering questions from angry Norwegians who are looking for some kind of logic in our chaotic political changes. There, political parties always share power, but not in a way that would bring about an American revolution. Its main conservative party, Correctnothing like the modern republican party.
The morning after the murder, the husband of the same cousin who picked me up at Oslo airport texted me: “WTactualF… did this just happen to Trump?”
While American pundits have been making sweeping statements about what this means for November, I can only offer this: “I have no idea. There are more guns than people in America, so this has been going on for a while.”
This is where my understanding ends. What I have is a fear and an insatiable desire to return home, even if home is somewhat different from the one I left.
