News: Steaming Pile of Dump Re-elected | Crafting and Sewing in Canada

I Can Barely Believe It

I’m a naturally positive person and generally see the bright side of things and goodness in people. But not today.

2016

When he won in 2016, I looked at our neighbours to the south and thought, what the hell is going on? But, but how? How could anyone actually vote for that creepy old man? He is an international joke.

What I saw was clearly a foolish old bully who was handed money and privilege from birth which he often lost due to his ineptitude. He had no moral compass and was so wrong about nearly everything on which he loudly proclaimed an opinion. He is a misogynist who cheats on his pregnant wives and preys on women. He is gross and crass and it turns my stomach to look at him. He feeds on hate and fear and division. And honestly he doesn’t even seem to be very bright. This is the person they chose as their president, the person selected to lead them all. How??

Back then, in 2016, I had to try to understand such incomprehensible (to me) news. I read, researched, listened to podcasts, articles to try to understand.

State of their Union

So, these people who voted for him live in a country with no universal health care. They allow their children to be killed by the thousands year after year without seeming to even address the issue. They make laws specifically restricting health care for women but not men. They look away as racism runs rampant in their country and their trans/LGBQ family’s rights are attacked. They kill their own citizens directly and indirectly but then spend BILLIONS on their years-long political campaigns, while their politicians and judges are swimming in money and favours. So instead of making a plan to move the dial on any of these concerns, they choose a failed billionaire carpetbagging his way across the southern US and think what? HE will fix it? He will make THEM richer? Make America Great Again? News Flash: He is just out for himself.

2024

It is quite simply selfish and self-serving and uninformed to vote for him this time in 2024. They must know what he is. They can hear what he says and see his disdain for them. He mocks and belittles them. He divides and derides them. He take no responsibility for his mistakes. He is reckless and a pawn of dictators. He and his corrupt rich friends are laughing all the way to the bank. This time I simply don’t care how or why they voted that way.

Donald Trump is a nasty piece of work with no redeeming qualities and Americans gave him more power. It seems bullies do win.

Why Should I Care?

It seems as though many Americans tell themselves heroic stories about who they are. In truth, we can all see that they are not the only country with freedoms; they are not the only democracy; and they certainly are not even close to being the best on so many many metrics including their hallowed freedoms and democracy. They certainly don’t even appear to understand free speech if they think it is Elon Musk on twitter.

And yet there are so many of them and they have a lot of power, influence, money and armaments! What they do does has an impact outside their borders when their department of defense spends 1.94 Trillion. Further, they have an attitude of thinking they know what is best for the rest of the world. They don’t seem to even try to understand anyone else, they merely want to assimilate, exploit, manipulate or destroy. And now they elected to put a petulant man-child in charge.

I know that every country in the world can do better: We all need to further improve, update and evolve our governments, systems, processes and laws including Canada of course. But this news from the US negatively affects us all in Canada and elsewhere in the world.

I Care Because…

As a woman, I feel frustrated and angry that the right to bodily autonomy and health care is being reduced even more in the world ..
As a world citizen, I feel more concerned about climate change …
As a human, I feel camaraderie and sympathy for those who didn’t vote for him and are living inside that nightmare …
As an agnostic, I feel stupefied by the religious fervour, fanaticism and the ability to overlook his obvious “unChristian-like” behaviour …
As a grandmother, I feel worried for my grand-kids future shaped by these men on the world stage …
As a “decent” person, I am saddened to see hate, slurs, shaming and violence directed at others in the news so often …
As an ally, I mourn for a world where being gay or trans or any combination of the colours of the rainbow is not being supported, cherished and loved …
As a maker, I see some influencers in this space supporting a world view that is led by bullies, sycophants and rapists and it sickens me. (I need to go through a purge to find and unfollow these people) …

Are We Just Fooling Ourselves?

Taking off my rose coloured glasses and as a history buff, it seems clear that in reality crime does pay. What goes around does not “come around”. Bad guys often win in the end and others take advantage of those with a good work ethic. Selfishness begets more selfishness and the privileged simply don’t care and get more privileged. It is actually a dog-eat-dog world and many human beings including Americans display it shamelessly. This is not news to anyone I guess.

As a citizen, I have voted in every election for which I was eligible to vote in my entire adult life. Regardless of the outcome or choices, I believe it is imperative that every single person that can must vote. Decide what is most important to yourself and those around you and the kind of world you want to live in. Find the candidate with the best track record of embodying those values and vote.

Its Not a Game

I don’t think that an elected official necessarily needs to do exactly everything I personally deem best. To be fair, if I must, politics is a job for rather nasty people lying to each other for power. But it is also about finding a compromise to balance different needs, ideals and world views of a diverse electorate.

In the States especially, but elsewhere too it requires a lot of money to get and stay in power. From the moment of election and throughout their terms, elected officials are looking for support money in exchange for favours. Sometimes the electorate will also win in these negotiations, but certainly not always. Eventually the only goal is more money, more power. But they still need to get elected by doing some things they promised. Our job as citizens is to vote to balance the scales in our favour. We can’t get it all, but we can push it forward in dribs and drabs and shifting the Overton window.

However, if your calculation ends in voting for Donald Trump, then in my opinion either you have many millions of dollars or your priorities are corrupt, you are brainwashed and you are the problem.

I no longer want to understand Trump voters. They will never return the favour anyway or even think they should. If people are truly that awful then I feel much less safe and optimistic in this world, even if it was all just an illusion anyway.