- First, the rest of the world doesn't want us - unless you're retired. If you're retired and have money, then they'll talk.
- Political instability? Many, many countries in the world would envy our "political instability." Don't lose sight of that.
- Canada definitely doesn't want a huge influx of us Americans. I lived in Canada for a while working on a project. It's probably the worst of all worlds - so familiar, yet so different.
- Every generation of Americans have been called to stand and fight for America. Now it's our turn. We're letting them down if we flee now.
- Understand that America worships money above all else. Whichever party wins just understand they'll be working on behalf of our corporate overlords. It's pretty much been that way since the days of the Rockefellers.
- When you're really feeling down, just remember Thomas Jefferson thought the common man was too ignorant to be trusted in electing leadership. That's why he only got to elect a representative. The state legislature elected the state senators, and the electoral college elected the president. These days I'm thinking maybe ol' Tom knew what he was talking about? ;)
I think a lot of us have this broad, seemingly undefinable feeling of anxiety. I think part of that feeling comes from the algorithmically controlled feeds that bait our amygdala. Another part of that anxiety comes from consuming news that has nothing to do with our local lives. Political news stokes your fears because it makes your more likely to vote, so what you're experiencing is likely ads and "news" stories designed to stir up your emotion to encourage you to go to the polls.
In the past year, I have severely reduced most of my consumption of national news, instead focusing on local events... things that effect my life daily. I have noticed a significant reduction in my anxiety levels. I also deleted all social media except for messaging apps to talk with friends and families. That has been great too.
Every country/kingdom/empire eventually faces the crisis of financial inequality, where the rich become so obscenely rich and the poor so desperately poor that the majority lose faith in the system. This takes decades, sometimes centuries, but the slow drift towards inequality is a tidal force that requires periodic fixes in order to avoid a bad fate.
Some older societies engaged in pot latch or jubilees or other means of peaceful redistributions of wealth. Others suffered revolutions or civil wars after the people completely lost faith and engaged in mob rule to achieve their justice.
Sister comments talk about other places being politically unstable, but of the first world countries, America is currently the least stable by a wide margin. Next to America, France looks like a shining beacon of a functional system.
There are many places to live in that are calm and stable, and some of them even have decent economies to boot (I'd name a few, but then the local curmudgeons will seep out of the woodwork to wax poetic about their local storm-in-a-teacup).
So yes, there are options. The quickest test of stability is the rich-poor divide. The real question to ask yourself is: "Do I leave, or do I stay and try to fix things?"
FWIW, I grew up on Richard Scarry books and got de Tocqueville in school. For the vibe of the former in general, and the overlapping patchworks of multiple voluntary associations of the latter in particular, things are defo better here than my (caveat: twentieth-century) memories of the Old Country.