NY Times advice column ponders appropriateness of fleeing the country if 'wrong candidate' gets elected

The New York Times Magazine’s Ethicist columnist on Thursday answered a reader’s question about whether it is appropriate to leave the country if the "wrong" candidate becomes president. 

Without calling out former President Donald Trump by name, the reader, along with some friends have "no doubt that the U.S. would fall to some form of authoritarianism if the wrong candidate were elected."

"They, and I, are white, well educated, nonimmigrants and upper middle class, with a wide range of well-connected and financially stable friends," the reader said of themselves and their circle of friends. "Our demographic backgrounds are relevant to my question, which is on the ethics of leaving a country because its democratic institutions are failing."

"As members of some of the groups who most likely will retain many tangible privileges and are least likely to be negatively affected, do we have an ethical obligation to stay and help those who will be impacted more harshly than us, or is it ethically acceptable to leave the country? — Name Withheld" the question reads.

The headline for the advice column read: "Is It OK to Leave the U.S. if the Wrong Candidate Becomes President?" 

Ethicist columnist Kwame Anthony Appiah compared it to the G.K. Chesterton complaint that to say "my country, right or wrong," was like saying "my mother, drunk or sober."

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"By my lights, though, when genuine patriots say ‘my country, right or wrong,’ they mean that it’s their country whether or not they agree with what is done in its name," he wrote. "That’s the opposite of giving the country a free pass. It expresses a commitment to trying to help your country do what it should — which is how we should normally feel about our families too."

But, he argued that pride and shame in your country is about a concern for national honor and a shared responsibility for its fate. 

"Leaving your country because you think it has gone off the rails isn’t really consistent with this sense of shared responsibility or with a commitment to trying to make things better," he wrote.

While the columnist admitted "skedaddling does strike me as unpatriotic," it "doesn’t mean patriotic self-sacrifice is a duty. If you’re convinced that life here will be unbearable for you, you are morally free to go."

Appiah said he didn't share the reader's concern that the U.S. was on the brink of authoritarianism as he grew up under civilian and military dictatorships in Ghana, where his dad was a political prisoner. 

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"But if I did believe what you believe, I confess that, as a patriot, I would want to stick around and join with others to help bring us back from disaster," he concluded. 

The New York Times this week endorsed Kamala Harris for president and has endorsed every Democrat for president since John F. Kennedy in 1960. 

Liberal celebrities have, for years, threatened to flee the country if Donald Trump was elected commander-in-chief. 

Comedian Bill Maher called out the Hollywood stars in February over their previous vows to flee, but pointed out that they are "still here."

"And is it possible for a country to lose itself so much that leaving it is justified? Yes, but we're not there yet," Maher said. "Not by a long shot. And we don't need quitters. We need people who will stay and fix it." 

"Maybe the problem isn't that America isn't worth defending. Maybe the problem is that lots of people today are entitled whiners who have no perspective and no idea how good they have it," he continued. 

Maher recalled some of the celebrities who vowed they would leave the U.S. before Trump was elected president in 2016. 

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"Miley Cyrus once said 'I am moving if Trump is my president. I don't say things I don't mean," Maher said. "Here she is looking miserable having to endure America at the Grammys last Sunday. I guess she flew back from Tajkisistan." 

"In 2016, Eddie Griffin said, 'If Trump wins I'm moving to Africa' - apparently very slowly because in Trump's four years, he only got as far as Van Nuys," he continued. "George Lopez once said that if Trump won, he 'won't have to worry about immigration. We'll all go back.' George Lopez, still here. And it doesn't look like the migrant traffic is going back." 

Last month, Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, said he would leave the U.S. in the event of a second Trump term for fear of political retaliation after he cooperated with investigations into his former boss, publicly testifying against him during Alvin Bragg's hush money trial and becoming a vocal critic.

Cohen was asked, "What do you think happens to you if he wins?"

"Well, I'm out of here," Cohen said. 

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Fox News' Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.