Donald Trump

As a Canadian I look to American politics with a sense of awe and confusion.  Here in Canada we just experienced one of our longest election cycles, all of about three months from beginning to end.  We elected Justin Trudeau, who will run a deficit, legalize pot and revitalize Canada's role in the world as a peace keeper, all things good Americans might fear, but they pretty well fear everything these days.

Our American friends can make an election into a torment lasting two years, or easily make a short story long.  Never has America been so divided, confused and full of fear and who better than to feed this frenzy of ignorance than Republican Donald Trump.  He has been compared to Hitler, usually I would see that kind of comparison as ridiculous, but sadly in this case I can see the parallels.

Obviously on some levels the man must have intelligence if one judges by his wealth.  I think he earned it the American way with aggression, greed, risk, the right amount of corruption, off shore accounts and many tax loop holes.  All the normal stuff.  He was a TV personality for a time and married beautiful women, all immigrants. He is a master at finding the fear, the raw nerve and saying what foolish people admire, the outlandish.  He is a cowboy and this election is a frontier and it can't get much more American than that.  It could actually happen that this wizard of ignorance will entice poor, stupid frightened Americans to vote a billionaire into power to make America great again.

When I hear that phrase "Make America Great Again."  I have to ask what this phrase actually means.  I believe if this man Trump is elected his version of great would be a war within the first six months, or less, from the beginning of his term, to begin racist policies that would divide the country to the breaking point, to deport Hispanics and Islamics, feed religious intolerance, reduce the middle class to nothing and to propagate the wealthy class to untouchable levels.  Great, for the 1%, but what of the other 99%

 Are Americans that stupid, or fearful or racist...or all of the above. The answer is yes many are and believe Trump to be the messiah.

He makes speeches without facts.  His logic is mindless.  His reasoning is hateful.  He is a despicable man. Yet he has a strong foothold in this election process and is gaining momentum.  What does this say about the values in America.  If this ignorant version of a candidate can garner so much momentum with the American electorate I believe the country is on a collision course with disaster that has no measure.

Looking at the diametrical opposite version of Trump is the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders.  Yet many Americans fear him as a socialist or worst label him a communist.  While realistically if one were to drop Sanders in the European political spectrum he would probably fall somewhere right of center.  I think he must be a Canadian at the very least or is that Senator Cruz, this is a confusing time.

 Many Americans, mainly Republicans, believe that government is the enemy and the more power government has the greater peril and jeopardy the citizens face.  A government that offers free tuition and universal health care, for example, is bigger and therefore a threat to true American liberties and freedoms.  This of course is exactly what Bernie Sanders would like to do, but this to so many is Un-American.

By this definition of Un-American one must accept the fact that an elite will dominate a diminished middle class that will become progressively under-educated and more accepting of the wealthy ruling class. This progression is most like a negative feed back loop, that is, less government, fewer universal programs such as health care and education, an under educated population following a Trump-like leader who will actual support the demise of the middle class and the support of a power elite of the 1%, or more people like Trump.  Billionaire rule of an ignorant working class.  Minimum wage workers versus CEO's who make millions yearly.  The gap between rich and poor is growing ever wider.  Historically, this is when revolutions usually happen.

 In other words Americans, or some, are willing to give up liberties or rights such as health care and education in able to reduce government control and allow the "American Dream" to live on through the building of infrastructure such as walls, more military spending, more out sourcing of jobs.  The rich will get richer because the electorate will allow it to happen, Trump tells it like it is and based on the nurturing of fears, he is truly smart enough to convince the stupid.

I think if we speak of fear we might wish to address the issue, what if Donald Trump became the next president of the United States of America.  What would that really look like.

...Donald Trump will never win the election

...President Trump would never drop all those nukes

...There's no way I'm taking orders from those apes