But that’s really just the straw that broke the camel’s back

I was most of the way through the second part of my deep dive on the American healthcare system, when someone forwarded me the link to the video of a shirtless U.S Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy working out with Kid Rock.

And, honestly, I thought: “What the hell is even the point?”

The United States is nowhere near enacting universal health coverage. It largely does not even want to.

Its top health official is a science-denying, snake-oil shilling, admitted former drug addict who thinks vaccines and sunscreen cause disease, but tanning beds are healthy.

To be clear, I do not think a past history of substance-use disorder automatically disqualifies someone from serving in any position, including the presidential cabinet. But boasting that you ‘aren’t worried about a germ [because you] used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats’ not only raises questions about his commitment to sobriety, but his general judgment, as well.

And for every person (like me) writing hand-wringing think pieces about this horrifically absurd sideshow, there are probably 100 people who think he’s right and everything is just fine.

So, I feel that I have to take a step back and disengage.

We are not there because we left the U.S. for good reason. (Many good reasons.)

When I decided to start blogging again after our move to Germany, I decided that I wouldn’t be one of those kind of expats who move abroad and then brag about how good they have it.

I wanted to write about the reality – warts and all – to counter both influencer hype and the MAGA disinformation.

I wanted to show that life here does have flaws and challenges, but Europe is not dying. In many ways, it is facing up to the challenges of the 21st century (technological upheaval, income inequality, climate change) much better than the United States.

And I still think there is hope for health care reform in the United States, just not at the federal level.

I think the hope, now, lies in cities and states launching their own initiatives – similar to the way that New York is working to implement universal child care and New York City implemented congestion pricing to improve air quality and snarled traffic.

Yes, this will exacerbate inequality nationwide and lead to the unnecessary and inefficient balkanization of resources.

But that is the current political reality. One that, for better or worse, I won’t be around to document or support.

I just have to step back from the back-and-forth of U.S. policy. I need to get out and live, and touch grass, and be more involved in my local community and not just my online one.

In truth, many things have led me to re-examine the sentiments I expressed in this previous essay.

Read: Still American – On Loving and Leaving the United States. Medium. July 13, 2024.

I have given a lot of time and money to the candidates and causes I believe are important to making the country the best – the most prosperous, inclusive, and peaceful – that it can be.

And I will continue to do so.

I have been feeling less and less loyalty to and identification with America as a country and more for just the majority of humanity – including most Americans – who are being manipulated and exploited by a greedy, unscrupulous, and obscenely wealthy elite whose membership spans the social and political spectrum.

Read: “The Epstein Class”: Anand Giridharadas on the Elite Network Around the Sexual Predator. Democracy Now. November 25, 2025.

I realize now that I need to stop thinking about myself as an American living ‘somewhere else’ and just as a human living somewhere and trying to live a safe, useful, and ethical life.

I will always feel American and care about America (both my home country and all Americas).

But my life is best spent focusing on where I am and not where I’m not.