The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
This short essay was initiated on Nov. 4 at 9:30 AM. I am not at all encouraged by the optimism of newscasters on CNN and MSNBC that Joe Biden may pull a rabbit out of an as-yet unseen hat. If he doesn’t, and if Donald Trump is again victorious, over the next four years hundreds of thousands of very bright young American scientists, engineers, MBAs, entrepreneurs, and innovators will leave the USA.
If the president is re-elected, our nation will very quickly become the equivalent of a giant banana republic. Donald Trump has campaigned for six years to Make America Great Again. He has had four years in the highest office in the land to make good on that slogan, but it should be evident even to the most casual of observers that the USA has lost its sense of direction under Trump’s disastrous leadership. His re-election, if it does occur, will transform us from a great nation that plummeted into a sleazy kleptocracy in an astonishingly short period of time.
For nearly two centuries America was a magnet for uniquely able people who emigrated here from other nations which were unable or unwilling to reward and utilize their talents. For a century they came mainly from Europe, but for the last seventy-five years many others have come from Japan, China, Viet Nam, India, the Middle East, Africa, and South and Central America. Now, with devastating swiftness, the brightest and best of our young adults will emigrate to stable and affluent democracies in Canada, Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and Australia.
In the next few months, foreign embassies in Washington will be flooded with inquiries about the necessary procedures to obtain work permits or immigrant visas. Not all the participants in the American Brain Drain will permanently leave our country, but we cannot afford to lose any of them. They are the people most necessary to put our nation back on a predictable, productive course.
However, because they are the brightest and the best, they may conclude that eight years of Donald Trump will do irreversible damage to the American body politic. The performance of the Republican Members of Congress during the past four years also will convince them that the long-term prospects for America have been shattered.
The democracies to which the American brains shall drain will be delighted to receive these motivated and intelligent people. After all, for twenty decades America has been luring away many of their most able young adults. Turn-about is fair play, as they say.
Nevertheless, it is tragic that the United States of America shall lose some of those who are the most pivotal in overcoming the corruption the president has brazenly inserted into American life during his tenure in the White House. But if the brains of very brainy people lead them to conclude that the glory days of the USA are past, many of them will leave, desiring to bring glory to other nations. Bright people are sufficiently bright to know the ship of state lacks both a rudder and a committed, capable, intelligent captain.
This is only November 4, and in a few days my prediction may prove to be totally incorrect. That would be an outstanding corrective! How long, O Lord; how long?
- November 4, 2020
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.