Well, in the words of John Oliver, Fuck 2016. This has truly been a terrible year, I think this video summarises the feeling of many people this year.
Tag: Trump
Trump wins…
Honestly, I don’t know how this happened. I mean I do, but it can’t be real. Mostly I am just glad that I live in Canada and for the time being things are ok. We have a decent Prime minister and he has managed to go one year without majorly screwing up the country.
This just proves that targeting the lowest common denominator can win you an election. This election has been dragged out around the world for more than a year and while this time last year it was still funny to think of trump as president, the reality of this actually happening is grim. Although it’s great to be in Canada and not in the direct line of fire, I am almost certain that we will feel the pain in some way or another. I feel like we are standing on a corner as a car drives past splashing mucky water at the American in front of us while flecks of mud manage to keep going and hit us in the head as well. What really worries me is that the last 8 years of change that the US has seen is about to get almost entirely flushed down the toilet by a misogynistic bigot who has no moral compass whatsoever and Hillary Clinton did not fight hard enough to keep him from doing it. I watched some of the debates that happened and I can see why things went this way, how do you debate with someone who refuses to let you speak? Or a person who will continue to point fingers in the same way a 9-year-old would if they felt they didn’t get their way. I mean really, this is a grown man with grown up (and equally ridiculous) children, how is this acceptable in any circumstance? Let me just suspend disbelief for the moment though and consider what led to this moment.
From a Canadian standpoint, I would say it comes down to a few key areas. Timing, Economics, Fear mongering, and in the words of Danny Bhoy “the rise of the idiots”. When Obama came into office in 2008 he was taking on a monstrous task involving the general cleanup of the shitshow that was Bush. That combined with the economic recession around the same time leading to a poorer and more disillusioned America. That is no shocker and Obama continued to go on to be reelected four years ago, which is great, he would get a real chance to improve things. But then along came Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump of all people. Both intent on winning, both somewhat unlikeable, but there is a clear difference between the two. Trump should never have made it this far, he trashed the Republican party, he abused democracy and he pushed the limit on what is socially acceptable adult behaviour. And yet, here we are Wednesday, November 9th,2016 a world reeling at the realisation that somehow he got elected.
But hey 2016 has been a ridiculous year for politics. Brexit happened! Yes, it did, and we were in shock. Even those guys who wanted it were shocked when it happened and quickly started to back off as reality set in. A huge part of me hopes Trump faces the same thing sometime in February, and that he sort of disappears from the public eye as he begins to realise that the US does not have a big enough budget for the wall he wants to build. I look forward to some kind of scandal while he is in office, I relish the hope that he will be found guilty of something completely unheard of and awful.
Keep this in mind because it just happened:
“The next wave of fascism will come not with cattle cars and camps. It will come with a friendly face.” – Bertram Gross, “Friendly Fascism”
Dice 