As an expat American living in Australia, it was beyond my wildest imagination that a crack-pot, vainglorious and hyperbolic US President, an incompetent Cabinet, a complicit Republican dominated Congress, and right-wing members of the Supreme Court all would be supporting a crypto-fascist agenda.

It is as if the US Federal government has been taken over by spoiled toddlers that believe if it is possible to say something and repeat it enough—it will be true or will at least be true until they change their minds or need to have their diapers changed. If it was only that simple.

This motley crew of truth-deniers appear to believe that they can turn back the clock, returning to a time when “men were men,” and as for the status of women, we can run Federal agencies and be frothing mouth pieces for the President but have no dominion over our own bodies with restrictions to abortion and reproductive rights.

In this situation, the idea of a “tyranny of distance” takes on a new meaning. The phrase was first coined in the 1960s to describe how Australia’s physical remoteness from Europe and the United States influenced the country’s economic and cultural development, and at a time when information was transmitted by wire.

Now thanks to the internet and social media, we can learn within minutes of a military campaign to send US troops to Portland, Oregon to quell an imaginary upraising or see a video of the President giving a delusional address to the United Nations. And then there are the arbitrary tariffs, which threaten to destabilize the economic prosperity of the United States and other countries.

Distance is no longer a tyrant in Australia with rapid-fire social media channels and the ability to board a plane and fly anywhere in the world within forty-two hours—but the notion of a geographic “tyranny of distance” is now being replaced by a psychological chasm stemming from the behavior and policies of the current US President and his cronies.

Trump’s pronouncements are impacting my home country. For instance, Trump wants to dictate to Australia how we should price pharmaceuticals, which are subsidized. My doctor here said to me, “I don’t appreciate Trump trying to interfere with our national policies.” But he will try because his arrogance has no limits physical or digital. Bullies can’t control their need to bully.

I have never fooled myself about the complexities of choosing to live overseas in Australia. It is a trade off. You are never quite at home, but I am still very grateful to be living in Australia because it is a kinder country with a national public health system and a recognition of the need to support the disabled and the elderly. And being an expat American is much easier now because everyone clearly can see why I would choose to live outside the country.

Still, this turbulent time somehow deepens my connection to the United State, despite not living within the country’s borders. I watch from a distance grief-stricken and often near tears during the news as respected US institutions are dismantled and the desecration of deeply held democratic values and constitutionally protected rights are eroded. My husband and I have voted by overseas ballot in each Presidential election since we moved back to Australia. It is a duty and a privilege. But I do wonder how my parent’s generation who risked their lives in Europe, the Pacific and North Africa to preserve democracy would respond to the chaotic, pompous and dangerous government.

And, unfortunately, I knew people who voted for Trump in the first election. Over dinner in Seattle, I asked a self-made, well-educated man why he would choose to vote for him? He responded, “Why not?” And his cavalier answer still echoes in my mind and chills my heart. He was prepared to gamble with the US democracy to ‘win’ a polemical argument, voting for someone who had no experience in government and who operated and continues to operate like the government is one of his failed businesses. Trump’s despicable behavior and attacks on our democracy have come as a direct result of this individual and others like him who voted for him in the first place.

Living overseas is a lesson in powerlessness in these circumstances. I can’t join the marches and I can’t work directly with the Democratic Party but I can donate to Democratic candidates who are running for Congress. And I can sign petitions. I have not lost faith in the ability of our country to rebound from this modern-day tyrant following on from our founding fathers desire to create “a more perfect union.”