For all of us, the seed of our anger and determination to fight back, each in our own way, is the sense of betrayal by the very country that we once thought was the source and embodiment of the values we hold dear, of the truths we hold as self-evident. We are angry because we carry those values within us, no matter where we live. So you see, those values, those truths are not dead. They live in us.
That is what I thought a month ago as I walked away from the US embassy in Toronto, having applied to renew my US passport. It is what I will think in the months ahead when I send in my 1040 by registered mail, and when I waive my own Fifth Amendment rights by submitting the FBAR document. It is what I will think when I cast my vote in November for President of the United States. And I will think the same thing every time I rejoice with each of you who renounce or relinquish.
The American ideals aren’t American anymore. They never were, because they are a product of the human spirit, and we, the American expats, have carried them to the ends of the earth.
@foxylady — Very cool; you are right!
Beautifully said, foxyladyhawk…
We have all crossed our “Rubicon” in having to endure and in continuing to endure this. Each of us individually and collectively, and we will never be the same for it.
Bless us all and fare thee well…
Yes, I am going through this hell. In 2009 when I first learned about FBARS I thought that as a dual citizen I would be treated fairly, an American value. I did not believe what I found. In 30 years living and working in the USA I had never felt that I was not treated with respect and fairness. But now I am not sure. It shook me up. I was literally trapped and to this day I am not sure what will happen to me. What they called amnesty was a trap. I will think that this will be corrected but I am losing hope.
This is beautifully stated. I always figured that the way to deal with the anti-American bias one comes up against so often, was to simply be the best example of a human, expressed in the “American” way. How ironic that now, it seems those in other countries are receptive to this whereas our fellow citizens largely view us with disdain. On top of the betrayal, this is what hurts.
And to think that when I wrote the Representative of the State I lived in the USA about my problems with the IRS and he sent my message to them (without my name) they answered advising “me” to renounce the citizenship that up to recently I was most proud of having. Is this the America I came to in 1958 full of hopes and where I was accepted? A fair Country that I often defended abroad?
What is happening to the US is not complicated.
America is now a society governed by procedural law and it’s convery belt justice system (prosecutors don’t even want the annoyance of trials anymore). You either plea bargain to a lesser charge or face many years in prison (or a multitude of lesser crimes that add up to extended sentences) if you dare to cause “the system” the inconvienence of a trial. The US legal system also outlaws everything so the chances of being “tripped up” and becoming a criminal are vastly increased.
Homelanders are blind to this except in low income black neighbourhoods where it’s almost become a rite of passage to be locked up in prison. There is a serious disconnect between the people writing the law and handing out the punishments vs the people on the receiving end of this justice.
This is the mentality that drives the FBAR and FATCA compliance, with its harsh penalities and fines. As the America’s role in the world diminishes, so will the value of a US passport. Only the poor or middle class will have to bear Levin’s abuse of power, the rich, mobile, and well-connected will continue to renounce in greater numbers. The US Treasury will not collect the revenue Levin says, dual citizens abroad will not pay FATCA’s fines or penalities and making them de-fatco renunciations in practice. All the anger and resentment that FATCA stirs up in return for “drop in the bucket” revenues to the US Treasury is suppose to benefit America. I wonder.
I hope the world calls Leven’s bluff and reduces its holdings of US securities so he’s called to the dock to explain FATCA’s negative impact on the US economy or will Levin blame foreign governments for America’s woes and not America itself.
My view of what it means to be American is certainly changing because of all of this. I feel the American people by and large want to know the truth, to be fair, but many are fearful and feel impotent. I am beginning to feel more and more grateful for the day my mother moved me to Canada. It’s like watching a train-wreck in slow motion…….