Tuesday, November 1, 2016

HALLOWEEN IS OVER, BUT I'M STILL AFRAID

This is a nightmare that has extended past Halloween and will not be fully over after November 8. I'm a nervous wreck over many things, but the American election takes the cake. Although I am a proud permanent resident of Canada, I am still American-born and do have the right to vote in US Federal elections,
which I have already done by absentee ballot. 

I feel safe living here in this great country, but I worry about my native country that is a total mess right now and could go further down the hole if the con man representing the Republican Party is elected president. I come from a family of Roosevelt Democrats, although to be honest, my mother always voted for Dwight Eisenhower and my father always voted for Adlai Stevenson in the 1950s. We Democrats thought that the election of Nixon in 1968 and his re-election in 1972 was a very bad thing, but we all survived, even after Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment. We did not take any pleasure in seeing the presidency in shambles. Since then, we have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in the Oval Office. Still, the US carried on.

Now, I'm not so sure for the future of the US - even if Hillary Clinton is elected. Like the backlash (or should I say blacklash) against Barack Obama since his election in 2008, the opposition to the first woman to be elected president will be strong and violent - much more violent than even the opposition to Obama. If Trump wins, so will fascism, in my opinion. Trump will soon be replaced with homophobic Mike Pence, the vice presidential candidate who knows how to move the right wing agenda through the system. If Hillary wins, the Republicans will investigate her relentlessly as they have already done to no avail. But it will seriously damage her effectiveness as president.

So, we have a no win situation, regardless of who wins. A truly scary thought.

Porgey sent in a comment today that sums up what many Canadians see regarding the US election:

"Canadians may feel helpless with the machinations going on within the United States, as what happens there, impacts us as well, CBC news had an account of Canadians, volunteering to support Hilary Clintons campaign, it appears that there are no laws forbidding Canadian citizens from helping our neighbours from a fate,that we consider on par with national suicide. The report they covered took place in Kissamee close to Orlando Florida. The Republicans at their convention, dodged a constitutional crisis when they chose another candidate over Ted Cruz. Teds, parents were both Canadian citizens, also they had voted in Canadian elections which according to State Department rules at that time, meant that they lost any rights to have American citizenship on their children."

Seems like a century ago that Ted Cruz was a threat to the US. Meanwhile Cruz is probably hoping that Trump loses and is putting his next presidential campaign together. 

Be afraid; be very afraid.

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