No Matter Who Wins the Election, You Will Be OK.

With this election cycle comes the wave after wave of people threatening to move if  >insert name< gets elected. Most commonly, it is Hillary or Donald, though a Sanders here or a Cruz there make their way in. The simple truth is that we live in a republic. If congress and the senate were suddenly overrun with new labor politicians and the president was Leon Trotsky incarnate, then people may, then, be on to something with this hysteria. However fortunately, this is not the case. The United States is built with an incredibly flawed but equivocally genius checks and balances system. The president has his/her power, sure, but this power is limited. The wonderful aspect of this system is that, if Trump or Hilary or >insert name< gets elected, they have to contend with congress, the senate, the Supreme Court, and we the people. Obviously, those who fear a Trump or Hillary or >insert name< presidency have a point. Having an incredibly powerful executive branch makes those possibilities scary.  Fortunately, the impact of that person (and his/her cabinet), again, is limited.

To go even further, it can be argued that your life may change very little. Hypothetically, if Trump is elected, the apocalypse will not reign supreme, and KKK members will not uproot from the ground to parade the banner of white supremacy. The fact that this hysteria is so present as to manifest itself in the form of various celebrities threatening to move to Canada is proof of the horrendous misunderstanding of the US political system. The politicians, of course, take advantage of this misunderstanding by offering to resolve issues that they haven't the power to address in the first place. Trump cannot deport all of the illegals, and Hillary cannot take all of your guns. This highlights another quite brilliant system devised for this nation: local autonomy. Many of these issues are controlled by state governments. State governments are far closer to the people and have much more influence over your life. This is an incredible thing because the politicians in your state know your situation better, they know their expectations better, and they fear you more. Nameless, faceless politicians in DC are unreachable by countless Americans, but you can charge right into your state capital after a few hours of driving or less. It is far easier to get in touch with your governor than with the president. This makes two reasons that the presidency is overrated.

The third reason that you have little to fear is that moving to another country will not solve your problems ever. All countries have terrible political atmospheres. Even when you think that you are moving to a paradise an ocean away, you will find yourself surrounded with all of the elements that you were desperate to escape. Every country is divided to an extent. True, the definition of left and right may blur across borders and oceans, but there will always be an ideology to hate and fear. There will always be someone who, if elected, will represent some major shift for the nation that scares you. Several Hollywood types have announced their plans to move to another country. Additionally, the number of google searches on how to move to Canada has exploded since Super Tuesday. It is not only the sensationalist, out-of-touch stars who have considered this. It is unfortunate that this bubble has to be broken for some, but Canada will not solve anybody's problems. The bottom line of this is that the president will not affect your success unless some rare, ultra-specific circumstance occurs. If your metric of personal success is affected once >insert name< becomes president, then you will have been the only factor. Of course, this would mean that you, yourself are to blame. It is time to stop this nonsense.