About two-thirds of Canadians surveyed this month said American democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump in the White House, and about half said the United States is on the way to becoming an authoritarian state, a poll released on Monday said.
The November U.S. election is likely to pit President Joe Biden against Trump, who is the clear frontrunner to win the Republican nomination as voting in the presidential primary race kicks off in Iowa on Monday.
Sixty-four percent of respondents in the Angus Reid Institute poll of 1,510 Canadians said they agreed with the statement: “U.S. democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump.” Twenty-eight percent disagreed.
The Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters seeking to block certification of Biden’s 2020 election win shocked many Canadians, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly blamed Trump for inciting the mob.
Many Americans worry too, Canada.
Not enough.
Tens of millions of Americans look at the choice between Biden and Trump and choose Trump. That’s insane.
It’s nearly half the US population that wants Trump in charge. That’s terrifying.
It’s also scary that a lot of the Americans who live in left-leaning states aren’t all that concerned. They somehow think that because their state is left-leaning and their neighbours share their political views, that somehow a second Trump presidency wouldn’t affect them much.
This is the death rattle of the most entitled, largest, generation in America. They do not care where America will be in 10 years because they won’t be alive and they think it’s hilarious. It’s a geriatric tantrum.
45-64 year olds only went for Biden by 1 percentage point in 2020, 49% for Trump, 50% for Biden. And for 30-44 year olds it was only 45% for Trump, 52% for Biden.
This isn’t just a problem with old people, even though they’re the only group that went for Trump overall. There are still a lot of younger people voting for Trump who won’t be dying off for decades. The people who voted for Trump are a slight minority and the minority will be getting smaller over time. But, many of them are hoping that the GOP will break the system so the minority can rule over the majority, even if that means no more democracy.
I think as long as there are two parties, elections in America will always be close. Add gerrymandering and violently polarizing rhetoric into the mix and you have our current situation. In regards to a solution, I don’t think there is one. America is a country founded on an unwavering belief in individualism. We often overlook the obviously correct decision instead deciding to take the “road less traveled” even if it makes zero sense to do so. Anything to be different! Americans also love to gamble and we view the obvious decision as having worse odds.
Canadians are also more clear than Americans that this isn’t a Trump problem. He’s just the symptom.
Canadians who are old enough remember the Bush II presidency, where Canada decided it wasn’t going to join the US on its adventure in Iraq, and Americans freaked out. Americans started boycotting Canadian goods, and saying that if Canada wasn’t siding with the US it was siding with the “terrists”.
The election of Obama restored some hope that maybe things were getting better, but the reaction to that with the whole Tea Party thing, and then the Trump presidency showed it wasn’t a blip, and that almost 50% of Americans were not rational people. Then there are things like the frequent government shutdowns, the constant gun massacres, the overtly political Supreme Court and its recent stance that precedent doesn’t matter.
Back when Reagan was in power, the US conservatives were making terrible decisions, but at least they had a coherent philosophy, they believed in democracy, and the conservative ideals were more or less shared by other conservatives around the world (Thatcher, Mulroney, etc.)
These days, the US right wing is an incoherent mess of conspiracy theories, religious extremism, and chaos. Conservatives want to ban or burn books, but they still claim to stand for freedom of expression and speech. They talk about passing laws banning non-heterosexuals from everything, while simultaneously wanting the government to get out of their lives.
And, with a nearly 9000 km shared border and massive social and economic ties between the two, whatever happens in the US will affect Canada. There’s no escaping that fact. Canadian democracy is almost irrelevant. If Trump comes to power again, there are no votes that Canadians can cast that will shield them from the chaos.
In case you’re here for the first time, reading this comment, and you blacked out from 2016-2020, Donald J. Trump is a fascist demagogue, who speaks directly to Russians about internal US affairs including classified info and has said that if re-elected, he will become a dictator. The GOP’s plan to dismantle the executive branch and replace staffers with Trump loyalists has been laid out and available for all to read, entitled “Project 2025”. His children admitted to meeting with Russian intelligence officials in Trump Tower to discuss undermining the 2016 election. He called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, was best friends with the world’s most famous pedophile, mocked a disabled reporter in front of thousands of people (and on national TV), he lied that he would lower taxes on the working class and instead raised them, he illegally demanded clandestine investigations into the Biden’s as blackmail for military aid to Ukraine (hmmmm I wonder what Donald learned from Putin during their hangouts…), and he let millions of Americans die of COVID by repeating lies that contradicted the real science of the pandemic. The laundry list is massive. He’s not fit to be president of anything and he belongs in jail.
Yes Trump will annihilate whatever semblance of democracy we have left in the United States. He plans on suspending congress, consolidating the courts, and expanding his ability of the executive branch without any checks and balances. He will begin to supercede democratic state governments, and the courts will rule in his favor or he will make them. He will sack any military official that doesn’t align with his agenda, and deploy them domestically, even if just to instill fear in dissidents. Furthermore he’ll transfer full control of the federal reserve to his office. Slowly eroding our constitutional rights and then he’ll even extend his presidential term by another ten years.
This is what you will get if you vote for Trump.
Regardless of the outcome of the US elections, I hope this makes the Canadian government realize that it needs take a more independent stance from the US in terms of its policies. Because right now our politicians don’t even want to change the daylight savings time policy without US states agreeing to it at the same time.
DST changes make sense. Why would Canada switch to a different clock system than our largest trading partner and neighbour? All hell would break loose.
Dear United States,
I hope this email finds you well. I couldn’t help but notice some unsettling developments in your life recently, and as your upstairs neighbor and friend, I felt the need to reach out.
It’s been hard to ignore the noise from your past relationship with that abusive ex-boyfriend. You were so brave to leave him four years ago, especially after that terrifying January 6 incident. But now, I’ve heard whispers that you might be considering getting back together with him. Is that true?
I remember how hard it was for you, and for all of us who care about you, when he was around. His actions and the chaos he brought into your life were not only harmful to you but also affected those around you, including us upstairs. We thought we had lost the warm, friendly neighbor we knew.
Please think carefully about this decision. We all want what’s best for you, and it’s painful to see you possibly walking back into a situation that caused so much hurt and turmoil. If you need someone to talk to, I’m always here.
Take care and stay safe.
Sincerely,
Canada
The amount of MAGA dipshits we have in alberta is uncomfortably high
What happened in the US could very easily happen here too. We’re not as immune from the misinformation as we think.
Turns out, explicitly shutting out any options other than mid-but-increasingly further right or furthest-and-now-saying-the-quiet-part-out-loud right wasn’t the healthiest decision for voters to be have a say in policy.
Everyone keeps telling me it’s my lefty ass’ fault we get fascism, but dems already did their fascism on me when Bernie won a primary and got told to eat a dick, then the dems went to court and told their voters to eat a dick.
But yep it’s MY fault I don’t vote dem.
Please take me as a refugee if/when this happens… I’ve got an engineering degree and I’m willing to learn French.
Canadians also worry that CANADIAN democracy cannot survive Trump’s return to the White House…
A fascist dictator annexing a relatively weak yet prosperous neighbor with a similar culture and shared history?
When has that ever happened?
Yeah there’s a good chance Trump will invade Canada eventually.
It’s not about invasion as much as it’s about the cultural shift/invasion.
Trudeau talking about democracy?
Lol
Poor yanks, having to choose between trump and biden
It’s a pretty obvious choice though. I’d really rather that the giant economy we’re involuntarily tied to at the hip doesn’t elect an authoritarian criminal.
That’s like saying you’d rather have a senile criminal over a criminal troll
It’s not an obvious choice
It’s equally shit both ways
Which democracy?, both parties are owned by the NWO, there is no democracy in the US since decades ago LMAO.
There is just the illusion of choice, people really think the president of the US can do whatever he want but they don’t understand there are powers behind him, the real powers who rule over anyone with a public figure.
The shareholders of the US.
Both sides are not the same.
At the end both parties follow the agenda, it’s just matter of time all politicians will take the same direction. I am not talking about if someone it’s red or blue, the powers behind them obey to the elite interests.
Anyway if you think you have some kind of influence by voting for whatever party you want it’s ok, It is called the American dream for a reason. It’s because you have to be asleep to believe it.
RIP George Carlin BTW.
US “democracy” will be fine. Russia is still technically a democracy. US can also have it both ways: have some sort of life long president staging sham elections and locking up political rivals at the same time. It will still be a ‘democracy’. Of course Supreme Court would not let that… oh wait, they’re all hand picked by the dictator, never mind. I wander if an average American would even notice any difference.
Mind your own business Canada. You’ve got way bigger problems to deal with than worrying about us
