More comments about why the Trump election happened, and how to (maybe) survive it:
Never forget that, regardless of what he wants to do or tries to do, Trump will be utterly incompetent at his job, and will hire incompetent people too:...There is a quadrennial tradition in American politics for the winning party to insist its victory amounts to an endorsement of its entire platform by the American public, while the opponents chalk the results up to personality or fleeting events.In part, the mandate talk reflects this familiar ritual. In the big picture, Trump won because literally every opposition party running for office anywhere in the world is winning right now. Every single governing party in the developed world that has stood for reelection in 2024 has lost, the Financial Times notes. This has never happened before in the 120 years of data it has followed.Trump exploited economic discontent and, just as he did eight years before, will almost certainly rebrand the economic recovery he inherits as a booming wonderland of prosperity. The program that Trump claims America voted to implement is a combination of promises Trump never had the slightest intention of fulfilling (no taxes on tips or overtime pay), promises Trump will probably try to implement in some form but would be catastrophic if carried out in full (funding the government through tariffs, deporting every illegal migrant or asylum seeker), and promises Trump rarely talks about but will almost certainly pursue (giving rich people a huge tax cut, reducing health-care subsidies for the poor and people with preexisting conditions). The mandate rhetoric is in part a traditional effort to gull the opposition party into withholding criticism and treating the enactment of the president’s plans as a natural outcome of the election.Yet the 2024 version of the mandate question has far more serious overtones because Trump’s highest priority has nothing to do with policy. Trump has made it plain that his highest priority in office is to take revenge upon his enemies and intimidate his critics. ...... It is both the nature of human life in general and democracy in particular that sometimes bad guys win. Winning does not make them cease to be bad.
Of course, being incompetent also makes it easier for the Bannons of the world to manipulate him. But still, at least this time the American media and civil service won't be giving him or his flying monkeys the benefit of the doubt. "Slow-walk" may well be the word of the next four years.I keep saying this to remind myself it's real, since not one person in the legacy media mentioned this at all in the past year, but HE QUIT ON THE JOB LAST TIME, he gave up on bumbling through thing after thing he couldn't handle, just wrote "EXECUTIVE TIME" on the calendar, and watched TV all day
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca.bsky.social) November 7, 2024 at 8:27 PM
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Medium Cooper Lund, The Low Trust Election
I don’t think there was anything that the Harris campaign could have done that would have changed the outcome of this election, I really don’t. Policy, GOTV, fundraising, none of it actually moved the needle given what we know now about the outcome. Instead, I think the major dynamic of 2024 was an issue of trust — trust in institutions, trust in information, trust in others. We’ve just lived through the Low-Trust Election and the change in dynamics it represents is going to make our heads spin for decades.The day-to-day experience of living in America is no longer just one of being bombarded with advertising, it’s morphed into wall to wall scams — the mobile ads claiming you can win cash playing solitaire, the sports ads filled with gambling to try to get you addicted, the health ads filled with supplements that don’t do anything. We all know they’re scams, but they’re so omnipresent that it’s easy to make yourself wonder if they aren’t. The media monoculture is dead, and it’s been replaced by a million talking heads that appear on your phone and tell you not to trust things. Not to trust your doctors, not to trust your teachers, not to trust the government. They appear on your phone no matter what you do because an algorithm has decided they’re the most likely thing to keep you watching so you can keep getting the ads. This constant buffeting of the psyche of each and every American by the winds of these forces has eroded them, and it’s taught us to no longer trust institutions, or each other. American minds are increasingly their own individual bedroom communities, paranoid and twisted, looking skeptically at the outside world.The Republican Party has been the party of the Low-Trust voter for a very long time. It’s the party that wants to get rid of institutions, of any of the bonds that connect us all together. The Democratic Party is the party of institutions, the party of Good Governance. It’s the party of trusting other Americans to make good choices for you. There is very little that the Democrats can do to appeal to the Low-Trust voter, and you saw what that means for the future of our politics last night. ........The future is going to be painful, and it’s going to be filled with more hardship than anyone thinks it will, and for much longer than we think it will be. The terrifying thought I keep returning to is that if the government’s decisions keep making people’s lives worse, as we know that Trump’s policies are going to do, won’t that just keep creating more Low-Trust voters? If we want to try to rebuild after what’s coming, we’re going to have to figure out a way to break that cycle. I don’t know how right now.
"It was a terrible night for everyone who voted against him, and guess what? It was a bad night for everyone who voted for him, too. You just don't realize it yet."
— John Law (@JohnLawMedia) November 7, 2024
- Jimmy Kimmel pic.twitter.com/4IYlvDkKS9
Will Canada rise to the challenge?They say we get the leaders we deserve.
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) November 6, 2024
Either that has just been disproven, or this is not the America we all thought we were living in.
I know the Liberals are just trying to get over the shock and work out a plan, but geez, guys, can you just stop babbling about how everything is fine, just FINE!
For one thing, I fully expect we will be seeing hundreds of thousands of desperate immigrants trying to cross the border this spring, to avoid Trump's concentration camps.
Two days later, Canada's reaction: cerebral (left) and heartfelt (right). #USElection2024result pic.twitter.com/GXWrtI6yly
— Doug Johnson 🇨🇦🇬🇪🇺🇦🌎🌩 (@SmiKooMan) November 8, 2024
And here's an interesting discussion about the impact on our defense strategy - Black Cloud Six Canada’s Defence Crossroads: Urgent Steps for National Security Under a Changing AmericaTrump's threat of mass deportation could lead to an increase in both asylum claims at official ports of entry and attempts to make clandestine crossings into Canada, an immigration policy expert says. https://t.co/IHLJAp3LKt
— CBC News (@CBCNews) November 7, 2024
...As the U.S. turns inward, we could face what Dan Gardner calls “gangster isolationism,” where a militarized America leverages its power for purely self-serving reasons. This “MAGA” mindset, amplified by the far right, has far-reaching implications for Canada, leaving us exposed to a U.S. that prioritizes its interests aggressively....Our leaders seem to believe that appealing to “American common sense” or “sunny ways” will address this reality. The Liberal government’s tendency to focus on economic issues over security and defence may be short-sighted, especially given that Trump’s administration will likely prioritize military and security issues that could directly impact Canada....The Liberal government is likely to respond with diplomacy, trying to persuade an administration in Washington that sees everything in transactional terms. However, the assumption that Trump can be convinced through rational appeal or that he is a predictable actor is dangerously flawed. His track record shows he does not respond well to negotiation unless it’s obsequious and deferential....The Conservatives, however, are no more prepared to handle these challenges. They might believe that shared conservative values give them an advantage with a Trump administration, but they overlook Trump’s purely transactional nature. Ideology aside, they also lack a coherent defence strategy and are telegraphing cuts to defence spending to fund tax and deficit reductions—an approach that could be disastrous in today’s geopolitical climate.Make no mistake: a Trump administration will likely prioritize U.S. defence and security as its core concerns, and they may view Canadian defence capabilities as a potential liability if not improved. The U.S. could demand that Canada bolster its military to better serve North American defence. Failing to meet these demands might prompt the U.S. to seek more direct influence over our security, possibly even proposing U.S. basing rights within Canadian territory, which would undermine our sovereignty....To be clear, I consider a Trump-led U.S. as an unreliable ally and a potential threat to Canada’s security and interests. We must approach this administration with caution, recognizing that their priorities are now even more narrowly American-centric. If they view Canada as a liability, the results could be severe for our sovereignty and security.This is a call to action: it’s time for Canada to take its defence seriously, for our political leaders to engage with experts, and for citizens to demand a coherent security strategy.
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