OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
A number of left-wing Hollywood celebrities have vowed to leave the United States, but they are curiously still here.
Following the recent Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong promised fans that he would renounce his U.S. citizenship. Ironically, Armstrong vows to live in the U.K. where abortion laws are more strict than in his home state of California.
“Don’t bet on it,” Simon Hankinson of Fox News writes, explaining that liberal celebrities are hardly ever true to their word.
Armstrong also “threatened” to leave the U.S. when President Trump was in charge, but that never happened, either.
Other “woke” celebrities who promised to leave the U.S. include Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson, Lena Dunham, Rosie O’Donnell, and Cher, to name but a few.
More on this story via Fox News:
Armstrong’s certainly entitled to renounce his citizenship. Several thousand Americans do so each year, albeit seldom for the reason(s) offered by the singer best known for “American Idiot.” But Armstrong would be swimming against the tide. In a typical year, more than 800,000 foreign-born people are happily sworn in as United States citizens. Many years ago, I was one of them.
Despite all the vagaries of the past 25 years—from 9/11, through wars, economic crashes, and pandemics, the desire to come to America has never dried up.
That’s because people overseas understand, even if not everyone at home does, that America is still a unique land of opportunity and hope, where personal industry is more likely to result in success and fulfillment than anywhere else.
But what about that well-publicized stampede of liberals eager to escape Trump’s “fascist state”? Newsweek debunked that myth nearly two years ago. Fact is, there is always a steady trickle of people wanting to renounce their citizenship.
Many of them are people who have lived abroad for years, even decades, and just haven’t gotten around to it before. The main obstacle is that appointments at U.S. consulates abroad are difficult to come by, and the process takes time and money.
Renouncing citizenship comes with a $2,350 fee, and those living abroad must handle the matter (which entails at least two personal interviews) at a U.S. Embassy in their country of residence. When the State Department prioritizes such appointments, the wait times quickly go down.
