Trumpland

Haters, Broken Souls and Republicans

M has lost her faith that most people are empathetic and progressive. The Trump win in the US seems to show her that there is a strong group of racists, misogynist, and ‘only think of themselves’ types out there. I think she is right, anyone who voted for Trump either didn’t watch the news or attend Trump speeches, or agree with his hate speech, or don’t care and want what they want. However the Clinton group did not offer any great relief for the unwashed US millions.

Most Republican voters are just that, and will not change no matter who is presented as a candidate. Some of the Trump folks are not about to have an openly power hungry woman as president, others are just sick of their area of the country being ignored, by politicians (will trump in the end be different?). Some are sad and broken folks who are addled by various life destroying events and just want something anything different and the fact that it is obnoxious and rude is appealing. Their ignorant, selfish opinions and Trump’s ignorant, selfish opinions are just as valuable as science and social justice advocacy.

Front Row Seat

When you were a kid did you ever find an ant hill where the ants were working away for the greater good of all, a mini society oblivious to the world in which you live? There you are this god like figure watching the ant populace engaged if fruitful labour while you hold their destiny in your hands or boot. You are inquisitive and bored so you decide to introduce an obstacle to their success. You grab a stick from a few metres away you clean it up and test its strength, back to the ant hill. You sit with the stick and observe, which ant hole is the busiest, which one seems most important to the ant society? After some consideration you plunge your stick into the likely hole and begin to repeatedly plunge it in and out and twist and stir the soil repeatedly. This is in the interest of boyhood science of course so after a few moments you stop to observe the result. The ants don’t know what the stick is, or from where it came, they flow toward the stick they climb it, they bite it they begin to move there ant eggs from the area the stick inhabits to safety. You have injected mayhem into the ant society and the ants respond as ants do in protecting of their labours, their prodigy from the catastrophe you have wrought upon them. You have done this before and the response has been similar, good science done.

There is a stick stuck in the ant hill called USA that stick is Donald Trump. It may seem strange but for all the fear I feel for the future of democracy and the safety of the people of the USA (and Canada/the world), I have a live ringside seat for history. What will happen, what will the next four years be like?

Rhyme or Reason?

On the weekend my son presented the quote “History does not repeat itself it rhymes” this quote is often attributed to Mark Twain but the jury is definitely out on that. Trump’s presidency will not be a copy of any other presidency or political time in history. The pundits were so wrong in their prediction of the election, we can’t even begin to trust their comment on how ‘Trumpland’ will be. I will not begin to suggest outcomes. I hope the American political structure and the basic ethics of most of the leadership prevails. I hope the next 4 years is a dull conservative toppling of some of Obama’s legacy and a series of attempted trade deal failures. If it is more Trumpish, messier, scarier! While I am fearful I will also try to record some of what I am seeing to the south.