Thanks for your kindness. We have an educational guff. In 1981 the amount of young illiterate students in TN graduating was an epidemic. We have a society where people can not read on a highschool level. Bring in the lack of understanding civics. I credit my folks who made damn sure if nothing else curiosity, travel, music and hundreds of books were available for me. When kids understand basics the tyranny will not catch fire as it is in this moment. Social media killed books.
I can speak with certainty that with regards to the level of literacy of Canadian high school students, and I might add in both official languages, is no different or very similar to American High school students.
After 30 years of cohabitation, living between the US and Canada and performing executive roles in both countries. I certainly agree that most Americans I have known would find it very difficult to support policies that have unfolded during this administration. I also have experienced many individuals in the US and have found most to be of generous spirit and kind hearted on a social level. Within their own communities. Most are quite distrustful of others, especially outside of their own community. I believe this fear of other is engrained and exaggerated by the propaganda machine that the American media is. l believe it’s the source of the term “American exceptionalism” a theme which most Americans of my acquaintance would defend vehemently.
The Tump regime represents a societal fault line that all Americans must acknowledge and work to correct . Not being a MAGA acolyte is not enough.if America is to be saved it will require a general acceptance that American greed and the self serving power dynamic is a weakness that undermines the very fabric of America.
America can be that beacon of light but not without significant evolution.
It's good to see the numbers re the polls, but I would like to know how it can be so difficult to remove him when he is so clearly has broken and is breaking so many laws. What happened to the "checks and balances"?
The designers of the constitution never anticipated abject moral cowardice: Congress can easily check Trump, indeed, that is its job. But Congress is controlled by Republicans who care more about re-election, which requires the support of the MAGA hardcore, than preserving the republic. The contrast with the Nixon era says everything: When it became clear what Nixon had done, Republican Congressmen went to Nixon and told him he would resign or they would impeach him.
Trump does worse than Nixon ever did every third day and Mike Johnson on smiles and holds his tongue.
As a former American diplomat who was so lucky to be posted in Ottawa, I still miss our many Canadian friends from our time living in Westboro. I feel such a sense of shame and despair when I see how the current regime is treating the best partner and allies we could hope for in Canada. I can only apologize on behalf of the 200+ million Americans who loath the current leader.
Great article. As Ian Fleming described Americans when he introduced Felix Leiter in the James Bond novels, "...there are no finer people than good Americans." Absolutely true, while at that same time in the 1950s, the concept of The Ugly American seemed to also resonate.
What I find particularly disturbing is how current political debate has become 'untethered to reality' as a judge described one of the Trump administration's legal arguments. The concept of alternate facts has taken hold and the actual truth, or I guess I should say the pursuit of truth has given way to the pursuit of an argument in support of a political agenda, no matter how factually inaccurate.
Proper debate is hard to come by, or maybe I am looking in the wrong places, but I have a hard time understanding how 27% of the American people, including a vast swath of very educated and influential people have such absolute faith in Donald Trump.
Categorizing any group of people by race, nationality, politics, religion, or gender is prejudice. Prejudice is judgement, not based on instinct, but is a learned behaviour. Society teaches it from the cradle to the grave. Right now, I'll confess, I am prejudiced against Americans.
Here's why:
Judgement itself is a human propensity built into our nervous systems to ensure our safety and ultimate survival. As in knowing what is harmful and what is not. It's part of the intellect that tells us, after our initial fight, flee, freeze response to a stimulus like a snarling lion, if we are in danger. Or not. And then, judgement helps us figure out what to do about it.
Pre-judgement, or prejudice, occurs based on previous experience or information learned from former direct experience or is based on anticipated experience learned from others. It flares when stimulated by triggers of either real or often simply imaginary perceived threats.
I suggest, Canadians like me, and millions of others, have been triggered by the tRumpian threats coming from the U.S. and we are activated and on high alert— some of us more so than others depending on the threat level we feel. Hence, our reaction to Americans. As a group. Even though rationally we know that as individuals, as family members, or as colleagues, they are okay and not harmful, we install the prejudice in self defense.
It's self-preservation. And it's not based on imagination.
I know this is true for me. I have unbreakable bonds in the U.S. — blood and umbilical relatives, as well as close friends and dear colleagues who are Americans. As do most of my friends, neighbours, and relatives. These bona fide Americans of ours are all okay, with a few exceptions— there are always "those folks" in every family, get- together, or workplace who are MAGA at some level. We communicate.
Individually, and some are even out marching today, my Americans are "nice". They are good people. They don't pose a personal threat to me, to my fellow Canadians, nor to my country. But collectively, they do pose a threat. And therein lies the crux.
Whichever way you slice it, these good Americans are part of the system that is attacking us, just as surely as bacterium can contain microbes that either harm, boost, or be inert to your immune system. Or are like the cells in a cancerous tumor. Sometimes, you can separate the good, the bad, and the neutral, but if you want to stop the harm from spreading, then most cures, or remedies, don't discriminate. You address them all with the same antidote. It's nature.
And often the cure is unpleasant. Believe me, I know, personally, from experience. 😥
So there is my 2 cents worth. Along with a final quote that I use a lot lately, from David Cochrane, which he made months ago, on POWER AND POLITICS, CBC's news show:
"America is not the way it is because of Trump. Trump is the way he is because of America."
72 million people voted for him, even after he claimed, on TV in front of the nation, “They’re eating the dogs!!! They’re eating the cats!!!”. Then millions more refused to vote AGAINST that.
I dunno, Dan. I would like to agree you, and in everyday dealings I would assume the best, but this seethes underneath the entire nation. I don’t have the volume of experience with Americans you have, but even among stalwart Democrats I would occasionally hear MAGA talking points peeking through in conversations. The entire American zeitgeist has shifted Trumpward.
Look, don't get me wrong: There is plenty going bad in currents of American culture and Donald Trump is a manifestation of that. Even a mere generation ago, the idea that between 15% and 20% would personally identify with a movement like MAGA was inconceivable. I am simply asking people to recognize that what is rotten and scary has infected only a minority of the population and so does not reflect "Americans" and should not be hung on all or even most Americans.
As for your statistic, do you know what the best predictor was -- by far -- of whether someone voted for Trump? Whether they were self-identified Republicans who had voted Republican in part elections. Read the section on "reasons why people vote the way they do" in that essay again. It's always more complicated than we think. There are reasonable grounds for faulting people who didn't vote to stop Trump, but we cannot reasonably say they are like Trump for that reason alone. Fact. And we need those people to help defeat MAGA and consign it to history.
I know. I did read that part, and in the whole I agree with everything you say. Disturbing is the fact that 72 million people could still vote for a guy who is as demonstrably deplorable as Trump is. I would say the bar was set low, but I don’t think there is a bar anymore. The devotion is absolute. If a Democrat did a fraction of what he’s done they’d flee in droves, and Republicans would be howling at them. In effect the Democrats who couldn’t stomach a vote for Harris tacitly approved of Trump. They knew the consequences of their (in)actions.
All that being said I would still treat any American with the same dignity and respect anyone deserves by default. I think it’s good you remind us of that need. In all honesty, having grown up in a border town, I think it’s fair to say whatever we’re seeing now has always been seething under the surface, and Trump merely tapped into it for his own gain. None of what we see now is a surprise to me.
Absolutely. Human beings -- not just Americans, but people everywhere -- have some inclinations which are low and dark and could lead to very bad places. The essence of good leadership is to appeal to people's "better angels" -- or at least avoid the darkest aspects of human nature and not play on them for power and profit.
For the most part, America's leaders have done that. The Republican Party always had the John Birch-sort of crazies, conspiracists, anti-intellectuals, nativists and bigots, but Republican leaders kept them at arm's length. Until Trump. Now we have, for really the first time in American history, a president whose whole persona and movement is built on appealing to what's worst in people and energizing the worst among us. And Republican leaders, rather than rallying to fight him, surrendered and embraced the darkness.
Donald Trump is what he is. It is people like Mike Johnson, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Mitch McConnell who are in for the worst contempt when their names are entered in history's books.
Yes…one can look at any part of the world and find atrocities being committed by people just like you and I.
I firmly believe the unleashing of this monster started well before Trump. For me, as a young adult, the defining moment was Reagan and his “welfare queen with a fleet of gold Cadillacs”. The Republican base of the time swallowed the story whole, and rather than question it, ran with. I knew then that they would punch down any time they could find a victim, and we were seeing the beginnings of the very same politics that arose in Weimar Germany under Hitler’s tutelage. Rather than keeping that on the sidelines, they amplified it, and it became their default basis for policies.
Then came 9/11, after which the Republicans were very quick to install state apparatus that they knew would make it easier to suppress opposition and dissent. And sure enough, Trump is now using ICE as his version of a private militia. I won’t labour you with anymore analogies to other examples of the 2th century. You know well enough who, when and where they exist(ed).
Quite right. To me, the key lies in the exceptions: Your Reagan example is perfect. When did he do that? During the campaign. Bush Sr. did something similar with the infamous Willie Horton ad. But then? Did they do this over and over while governing? Did they get cruder and blunter? Did they make this a centrepiece of their administration? No.
Trump's great innovation was to take the exception, used to win power, and make it SOP, in campaigns and in government.
What depresses me more is the state of the Democratic Party. Even with all this, they have lower approval ratings than Trump. And they continue to pander to The Groups, which lost them the last election.
They have buried their post-election autopsy and the moderate “Liberal Patriot” Substack has pulled pole because the powers that be is not listening. As someone who has voted consistently Conservative since I could vote, I would vote for a ham sandwich before I vote for a Republican in its current Christian nationalist form (were I a Yank). But it looks like I’m in a minority.
That's mostly a myth perpetrated by ReTrumplicans. They're the ones keeping it in the media, and the fact that Democrats subscribe to that myth, and choose to tacitly support Trump be withdrawing their support for Democrats, does shift some of the blame onto them for sure. The culprit from their end is the lack of critical thinking, and a touch of petulance, thinking that they don't want any more of that "Group" stuff, but are willing to let Trump have his way as a result. It's a narrow-minded and I think fair to say a not well attuned response to what is really not that big in comparison to what's happening now.
The reasons why people vote are complex, I agree. But more worrying than Trump’s share of the vote is his approval rating, which even now hovers near 40%. Yes, that’s still a minority, but it’s far from a rump. And I think it gives us reason to be concerned about the reliability of the USA as a partner well into the future.
Certainly. I've never argued otherwise. (Although most aggregations have it lower than that, around 37% or so.) The least we can say is more than a third of the American population looks at this parade of bigotry and madness and thinks, "OK" -- and that is plenty of reason for we foreigners to be much more cautious about relying on the United States ever again. Doesn't mean we have to be hostile. Doesn't mean we have to run shrieking from the room. Just more cautious -- and more independent.
Separating the Trump administration from everyday Americans hits home. I looked at our own 2022 Emergencies Act invocation over the Freedom Convoy. The parliamentary committee found police had not exhausted all options first. Oversight like that keeps things from tipping into tyranny. See the report here: https://www.parl.ca/documentviewer/en/44-1/DEDC/report-3.
A generous take on your dear dumb neighbors to the South. Don't disagree with anything you say, and see much the same thing in recent travels through the various parts of various states. That said, after the January 6 insurrection, hatched and captained by the current white house occupant, the curtain should have fallen there and then and forever on his political prospects. That it did not, and that 77 million Americans with eyes wide open elected such a figure him as president again, is inexcusable. None of the incoherent, self-defeating, possibly catastrophic- for-all-concerned nonsense that we see unfolding would have come to pass. That eternal stain and curse is on us; i.e., the American people. As are its consequences to everyone else.
I am very, very worried that there will be no November election. Or if there is, will it be fair, a true reflection of the voters’ desires? Trump and his sycophants are working hard to take away the voting rights of millions, as well as planning intimidation techniques on voting day—ICE agents at every polling station.
I found it easier to forgive the did-not-votes the first time he was elected. After the second time, I'm recalling a famous quote about "fool me once...".
You're more charitable than I am. The second time around, they kind of WERE Trump supporters. They had seen the goals, even if many weren't reached the first term. They had seen Project 2025. They had heard Trump speak, presumably. Yet they decided all of that was not enough to carry them to a voting booth. And the second time I don't think you can forgive them that "everyone thought the other person was going to win anyway."
Donald Trump is a symptom. The disease is MAGA. Represented by the MAGA Republicans that control Congress and enable Trump.
Whether the MAGA GoP could convince USA voters to elect a different candidate for president is unknown. But the MAGA GoP will not simply go away without Trump.
Thanks for your kindness. We have an educational guff. In 1981 the amount of young illiterate students in TN graduating was an epidemic. We have a society where people can not read on a highschool level. Bring in the lack of understanding civics. I credit my folks who made damn sure if nothing else curiosity, travel, music and hundreds of books were available for me. When kids understand basics the tyranny will not catch fire as it is in this moment. Social media killed books.
I can speak with certainty that with regards to the level of literacy of Canadian high school students, and I might add in both official languages, is no different or very similar to American High school students.
After 30 years of cohabitation, living between the US and Canada and performing executive roles in both countries. I certainly agree that most Americans I have known would find it very difficult to support policies that have unfolded during this administration. I also have experienced many individuals in the US and have found most to be of generous spirit and kind hearted on a social level. Within their own communities. Most are quite distrustful of others, especially outside of their own community. I believe this fear of other is engrained and exaggerated by the propaganda machine that the American media is. l believe it’s the source of the term “American exceptionalism” a theme which most Americans of my acquaintance would defend vehemently.
The Tump regime represents a societal fault line that all Americans must acknowledge and work to correct . Not being a MAGA acolyte is not enough.if America is to be saved it will require a general acceptance that American greed and the self serving power dynamic is a weakness that undermines the very fabric of America.
America can be that beacon of light but not without significant evolution.
It's good to see the numbers re the polls, but I would like to know how it can be so difficult to remove him when he is so clearly has broken and is breaking so many laws. What happened to the "checks and balances"?
The designers of the constitution never anticipated abject moral cowardice: Congress can easily check Trump, indeed, that is its job. But Congress is controlled by Republicans who care more about re-election, which requires the support of the MAGA hardcore, than preserving the republic. The contrast with the Nixon era says everything: When it became clear what Nixon had done, Republican Congressmen went to Nixon and told him he would resign or they would impeach him.
Trump does worse than Nixon ever did every third day and Mike Johnson on smiles and holds his tongue.
Dan,
Also, Republican Senators went to Nixon, and told him that he would NEVER survive an Impeachment Trial in the Senate.
Ronald A. McCallum
As a former American diplomat who was so lucky to be posted in Ottawa, I still miss our many Canadian friends from our time living in Westboro. I feel such a sense of shame and despair when I see how the current regime is treating the best partner and allies we could hope for in Canada. I can only apologize on behalf of the 200+ million Americans who loath the current leader.
Great article. As Ian Fleming described Americans when he introduced Felix Leiter in the James Bond novels, "...there are no finer people than good Americans." Absolutely true, while at that same time in the 1950s, the concept of The Ugly American seemed to also resonate.
What I find particularly disturbing is how current political debate has become 'untethered to reality' as a judge described one of the Trump administration's legal arguments. The concept of alternate facts has taken hold and the actual truth, or I guess I should say the pursuit of truth has given way to the pursuit of an argument in support of a political agenda, no matter how factually inaccurate.
Proper debate is hard to come by, or maybe I am looking in the wrong places, but I have a hard time understanding how 27% of the American people, including a vast swath of very educated and influential people have such absolute faith in Donald Trump.
Categorizing any group of people by race, nationality, politics, religion, or gender is prejudice. Prejudice is judgement, not based on instinct, but is a learned behaviour. Society teaches it from the cradle to the grave. Right now, I'll confess, I am prejudiced against Americans.
Here's why:
Judgement itself is a human propensity built into our nervous systems to ensure our safety and ultimate survival. As in knowing what is harmful and what is not. It's part of the intellect that tells us, after our initial fight, flee, freeze response to a stimulus like a snarling lion, if we are in danger. Or not. And then, judgement helps us figure out what to do about it.
Pre-judgement, or prejudice, occurs based on previous experience or information learned from former direct experience or is based on anticipated experience learned from others. It flares when stimulated by triggers of either real or often simply imaginary perceived threats.
I suggest, Canadians like me, and millions of others, have been triggered by the tRumpian threats coming from the U.S. and we are activated and on high alert— some of us more so than others depending on the threat level we feel. Hence, our reaction to Americans. As a group. Even though rationally we know that as individuals, as family members, or as colleagues, they are okay and not harmful, we install the prejudice in self defense.
It's self-preservation. And it's not based on imagination.
I know this is true for me. I have unbreakable bonds in the U.S. — blood and umbilical relatives, as well as close friends and dear colleagues who are Americans. As do most of my friends, neighbours, and relatives. These bona fide Americans of ours are all okay, with a few exceptions— there are always "those folks" in every family, get- together, or workplace who are MAGA at some level. We communicate.
Individually, and some are even out marching today, my Americans are "nice". They are good people. They don't pose a personal threat to me, to my fellow Canadians, nor to my country. But collectively, they do pose a threat. And therein lies the crux.
Whichever way you slice it, these good Americans are part of the system that is attacking us, just as surely as bacterium can contain microbes that either harm, boost, or be inert to your immune system. Or are like the cells in a cancerous tumor. Sometimes, you can separate the good, the bad, and the neutral, but if you want to stop the harm from spreading, then most cures, or remedies, don't discriminate. You address them all with the same antidote. It's nature.
And often the cure is unpleasant. Believe me, I know, personally, from experience. 😥
So there is my 2 cents worth. Along with a final quote that I use a lot lately, from David Cochrane, which he made months ago, on POWER AND POLITICS, CBC's news show:
"America is not the way it is because of Trump. Trump is the way he is because of America."
❤️🇨🇦
72 million people voted for him, even after he claimed, on TV in front of the nation, “They’re eating the dogs!!! They’re eating the cats!!!”. Then millions more refused to vote AGAINST that.
I dunno, Dan. I would like to agree you, and in everyday dealings I would assume the best, but this seethes underneath the entire nation. I don’t have the volume of experience with Americans you have, but even among stalwart Democrats I would occasionally hear MAGA talking points peeking through in conversations. The entire American zeitgeist has shifted Trumpward.
Look, don't get me wrong: There is plenty going bad in currents of American culture and Donald Trump is a manifestation of that. Even a mere generation ago, the idea that between 15% and 20% would personally identify with a movement like MAGA was inconceivable. I am simply asking people to recognize that what is rotten and scary has infected only a minority of the population and so does not reflect "Americans" and should not be hung on all or even most Americans.
As for your statistic, do you know what the best predictor was -- by far -- of whether someone voted for Trump? Whether they were self-identified Republicans who had voted Republican in part elections. Read the section on "reasons why people vote the way they do" in that essay again. It's always more complicated than we think. There are reasonable grounds for faulting people who didn't vote to stop Trump, but we cannot reasonably say they are like Trump for that reason alone. Fact. And we need those people to help defeat MAGA and consign it to history.
I know. I did read that part, and in the whole I agree with everything you say. Disturbing is the fact that 72 million people could still vote for a guy who is as demonstrably deplorable as Trump is. I would say the bar was set low, but I don’t think there is a bar anymore. The devotion is absolute. If a Democrat did a fraction of what he’s done they’d flee in droves, and Republicans would be howling at them. In effect the Democrats who couldn’t stomach a vote for Harris tacitly approved of Trump. They knew the consequences of their (in)actions.
All that being said I would still treat any American with the same dignity and respect anyone deserves by default. I think it’s good you remind us of that need. In all honesty, having grown up in a border town, I think it’s fair to say whatever we’re seeing now has always been seething under the surface, and Trump merely tapped into it for his own gain. None of what we see now is a surprise to me.
Absolutely. Human beings -- not just Americans, but people everywhere -- have some inclinations which are low and dark and could lead to very bad places. The essence of good leadership is to appeal to people's "better angels" -- or at least avoid the darkest aspects of human nature and not play on them for power and profit.
For the most part, America's leaders have done that. The Republican Party always had the John Birch-sort of crazies, conspiracists, anti-intellectuals, nativists and bigots, but Republican leaders kept them at arm's length. Until Trump. Now we have, for really the first time in American history, a president whose whole persona and movement is built on appealing to what's worst in people and energizing the worst among us. And Republican leaders, rather than rallying to fight him, surrendered and embraced the darkness.
Donald Trump is what he is. It is people like Mike Johnson, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Mitch McConnell who are in for the worst contempt when their names are entered in history's books.
Yes…one can look at any part of the world and find atrocities being committed by people just like you and I.
I firmly believe the unleashing of this monster started well before Trump. For me, as a young adult, the defining moment was Reagan and his “welfare queen with a fleet of gold Cadillacs”. The Republican base of the time swallowed the story whole, and rather than question it, ran with. I knew then that they would punch down any time they could find a victim, and we were seeing the beginnings of the very same politics that arose in Weimar Germany under Hitler’s tutelage. Rather than keeping that on the sidelines, they amplified it, and it became their default basis for policies.
Then came 9/11, after which the Republicans were very quick to install state apparatus that they knew would make it easier to suppress opposition and dissent. And sure enough, Trump is now using ICE as his version of a private militia. I won’t labour you with anymore analogies to other examples of the 2th century. You know well enough who, when and where they exist(ed).
Quite right. To me, the key lies in the exceptions: Your Reagan example is perfect. When did he do that? During the campaign. Bush Sr. did something similar with the infamous Willie Horton ad. But then? Did they do this over and over while governing? Did they get cruder and blunter? Did they make this a centrepiece of their administration? No.
Trump's great innovation was to take the exception, used to win power, and make it SOP, in campaigns and in government.
Great observation. The former presidents kept a lid on it, Trump put it on the hot plate and made it boil over. And now he’s got it turned to 11.
What depresses me more is the state of the Democratic Party. Even with all this, they have lower approval ratings than Trump. And they continue to pander to The Groups, which lost them the last election.
They have buried their post-election autopsy and the moderate “Liberal Patriot” Substack has pulled pole because the powers that be is not listening. As someone who has voted consistently Conservative since I could vote, I would vote for a ham sandwich before I vote for a Republican in its current Christian nationalist form (were I a Yank). But it looks like I’m in a minority.
"And they continue to pander to The Groups, "
That's mostly a myth perpetrated by ReTrumplicans. They're the ones keeping it in the media, and the fact that Democrats subscribe to that myth, and choose to tacitly support Trump be withdrawing their support for Democrats, does shift some of the blame onto them for sure. The culprit from their end is the lack of critical thinking, and a touch of petulance, thinking that they don't want any more of that "Group" stuff, but are willing to let Trump have his way as a result. It's a narrow-minded and I think fair to say a not well attuned response to what is really not that big in comparison to what's happening now.
The reasons why people vote are complex, I agree. But more worrying than Trump’s share of the vote is his approval rating, which even now hovers near 40%. Yes, that’s still a minority, but it’s far from a rump. And I think it gives us reason to be concerned about the reliability of the USA as a partner well into the future.
Certainly. I've never argued otherwise. (Although most aggregations have it lower than that, around 37% or so.) The least we can say is more than a third of the American population looks at this parade of bigotry and madness and thinks, "OK" -- and that is plenty of reason for we foreigners to be much more cautious about relying on the United States ever again. Doesn't mean we have to be hostile. Doesn't mean we have to run shrieking from the room. Just more cautious -- and more independent.
This article fits:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-192305747
Separating the Trump administration from everyday Americans hits home. I looked at our own 2022 Emergencies Act invocation over the Freedom Convoy. The parliamentary committee found police had not exhausted all options first. Oversight like that keeps things from tipping into tyranny. See the report here: https://www.parl.ca/documentviewer/en/44-1/DEDC/report-3.
A generous take on your dear dumb neighbors to the South. Don't disagree with anything you say, and see much the same thing in recent travels through the various parts of various states. That said, after the January 6 insurrection, hatched and captained by the current white house occupant, the curtain should have fallen there and then and forever on his political prospects. That it did not, and that 77 million Americans with eyes wide open elected such a figure him as president again, is inexcusable. None of the incoherent, self-defeating, possibly catastrophic- for-all-concerned nonsense that we see unfolding would have come to pass. That eternal stain and curse is on us; i.e., the American people. As are its consequences to everyone else.
I will have a quick question for you. Who in the democratic socialists party of America is fit to lead the US?
I am very, very worried that there will be no November election. Or if there is, will it be fair, a true reflection of the voters’ desires? Trump and his sycophants are working hard to take away the voting rights of millions, as well as planning intimidation techniques on voting day—ICE agents at every polling station.
I found it easier to forgive the did-not-votes the first time he was elected. After the second time, I'm recalling a famous quote about "fool me once...".
As I hope I made clear, I'm not suggesting they be "forgiven." I'm saying they should not be lumped in with Trump supporters.
You're more charitable than I am. The second time around, they kind of WERE Trump supporters. They had seen the goals, even if many weren't reached the first term. They had seen Project 2025. They had heard Trump speak, presumably. Yet they decided all of that was not enough to carry them to a voting booth. And the second time I don't think you can forgive them that "everyone thought the other person was going to win anyway."
Donald Trump is a symptom. The disease is MAGA. Represented by the MAGA Republicans that control Congress and enable Trump.
Whether the MAGA GoP could convince USA voters to elect a different candidate for president is unknown. But the MAGA GoP will not simply go away without Trump.
The hardcore members of the MAGA movement will go down with the ship before they ever admit they were wrong. It's an article of faith for them.
Trump is stuck in a war he can't get out of.
Well said. I completely agree.
Dave Love, Courtenay, BC
(retired RCN naval officer)