All the andrew tate fanboys screaming your body my choice is a tad much but fully expected… I mean you did vote in a rapist…
Either administration would have opposed our existential interests and those of our descendants.
I have a lot of thoughts on it, mostly unhappy thoughts.
Two things stand out:
First, I’m having a hard time with the voting turnout numbers. More people showed up to boot Trump out of office (voting for Biden), than every before. If you look at the numbers, the Republicans have gone up and up in vote count, albeit, not by a lot. While the Democratic vote count varies wildly year over year. It tells me that if people, specifically democratic voting people, show up, they win. When they don’t, then the GOP wins. It is clear to me that they didn’t show up.
Clearly, more people believed he was a threat to the country in 2020 and turned up in droves to drive him out, but in 2024 when we needed all of those people to turn up again, and keep him out, they just, didn’t bother. I’m sure, a nontrivial amount of the voters flipped between Dem and Rep… Or vice versa… But the total votes when Biden won, were simply a lot more.
So I’m having trouble reconciling that fewer people turned up to vote and keep the orange one out of office, than the number that showed up to kick him out of office to begin with. I don’t understand why they thought they needed to show up in 2020, but felt that they didn’t need to in 2024. I just don’t get it.
The second thing is centered around project 2025. Holy shit that entire plan is cursed. I feel bad for every American that isn’t a straight white male right now. You’re all going to get fucked over in some way, shape, or form. Even if you are a straight white male, you’re probably still fucked because of all the fucked up things that Trump is going to do to the economy that will benefit his billionaire friends (at your expense). You’ll get fucked slightly less than everyone else, but you’ll still get fucked.
The only solace I have in this, is that Trump is done. He cannot run for a third term. Assuming that he isn’t successful in dismantling the democracy at the heart of what the US is, it will only be four years and they can start the very long journey to repairing all the damage that this clown is about to do.
I have no illusions, that even if America survives his second term, they will be fucked for decades to come.
Domestically, they made their bed, they can sleep in it. Yeah, I feel sorry for a lot of Americans, who will certainly suffer but then I also feel sorry for lots of people around the world who are suffering. In the US, they have a democracy, even if flawed and imperfect. At the end of the day, this was the will of the people. Maybe not so much that they wanted Trump (many certainly do) but rather enough people weren’t bothered enough to care.
Unfortunately, this is a central Russian propaganda aim in democracies. Why bother voting? Politicians are all crooks. Mainstream media is all lies. Just give up, don’t engage, just… surrender. Why even try? It’s found fertile ground in an increasingly disillusioned public, and you don’t need to convince everyone to sit out the election, just enough.
Not to stress you out, but have you considered a Trump dynasty? What if Trump endorsed one of his children? This could go on long past this Presidency without even amending the constitution.
In a word…
FUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!
The outcome is not good for Canada and is deeply bad for several issues I care deeply about.
I do hope this drives introspection here about how our working class feels and has been struggling, and that it drives political change before we see a sweeping conservative majority in the next election.
I’m a dual citizen from the UK/Canada.
I feel the same way after Brexit. I felt a huge sense of dread and my coworker said to me, “we work in a high paying position and we’re men, we’re mostly going to be okay. The people that voted for Brexit have just f*cked themselves and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
I do feel a lot of animosity to any Trump supporter and I feel that’s warranted. I don’t care to elaborate further. I’m thinking of dropping social media for the next six months because there’s a lot of shit going on that I have no control over and I can’t change.
I’m thinking of dropping social media for the next six months because there’s a lot of shit going on that I have no control over and I can’t change.
That was pretty much my exact thought. I still log in (obviously). But I used to doom-watch the news after work leading up to the election. And for the last couple of nights I’ve been watching reruns of Quantum Leap on Pluto TV instead.
Feels good.
A lot has been said about how shocking and awful the results are, and I do agree with them. I definitely do not condone any of the far-right parties, their representatives, or their policies.
But what hasn’t been said (and might be a bit controversial) is the fact that liberal parties are the biggest problem that the world is facing right now. It’s the parties that pretend to be an opposition force, but in reality they just keep shitting on voters, making broken promises, and saying “it’ll be better next time, just one more term!” They keep trying to convince people that the system works and that iterative changes will make things better. But in reality, things have actually been getting worse for 10, 15, maybe even 20 years… (the exact number depends on where you live and what you do for a living).
After a while, people stop believing in those broken promises. And the longer they refuse to put up any real opposition, the more and more they empower the far right.
In Canada, Trudeau needs to implement proportional representation NOW. If he doesn’t want to do that, he might as well just come out and endorse Poilievre, because he damn well knows what will happen if he doesn’t give people a real alternative (even he can’t pretend it’s any other way at this point). And no, ranked choice voting is not the answer here.
In the US, I have to be honest: it’s not a country anymore. It’s several countries, all jammed into one, and half of whom hate each other with no limit. And to be honest, this is how it’s supposed to work!!! This is how the constitution is framed! Federal government is supposed to be weak and state governments are supposed to fill that void, but the States refuse to actually work that way and keep looking to control a Federal government in a way that they’ll never be able to.
The USA really ought to break into constituent countries. The West Coast is a country. The Northeast is at least one country, maybe 3-4. And you can slice up the red states however you like - I honestly don’t care. Maybe this way, they can finally actually get shit done in a way that starts making people happy, because there’s far too much animosity between different and disparate parts of the “country” in its current form. It’s definitely not going to come from the Federal government.
I know that none of these things are going to happen, so things will just continue getting worse and worse over the next decade or two. Fair warning to everyone: we’re not even close to rock bottom yet.
OMG this. The worst thing too is that liberal parties block actual left parties (helped by our first-past-the-post voting system) that want to do more than incremental change while empowering the far right. Ultimately a lot of elite liberals would rather the far right win than a genuine left party. One of the MSNBC talking heads accidentally let that slip when he said he’d sooner vote for Trump than Bernie Sanders before being forced to retract by one of the other hosts.
The turnout in the states says a lot. no one is happy. Even trump lost total votes; the Dems failed the mobilize their vote… which screams of people not thinking anything will change no matter what vote they place. It is a mirror for what is going on up here… In all likelihood the libs are out and its the cost of living and scarce jobs to blame for it. If they actually wanted to win the next election, they have already shown they could change things with a stroke of a pen and DON’T.
I feel like we’re going to see an increase in this hate-filled, scapegoating rhetoric that the Republican party won votes with. All we can do now though is try to fight this kind of stuff here in Canada and try to avoid becoming the atates
OH SHIT OH FUCK
Tired. Numb.
Ukraine is fucked. Palenstine is fucked. Taiwan is fucked.
Climate is turbo fucked.
And the brain rot heads north
Bracing for impact on Canadian elections.
Upon hearing the news, I felt despondent and a pit in my stomach… I went to do a bit of karaoke and my mood has recovered from that at least.
Clearly political con-artistry is effective. Ford, Smith, Moe, Poilievre and any wannabe dictators of Canada who may emerge in the future, are all taking down notes.
Empathy at what my American friends are going through, and dread about our own incoming conservative wave.
Shocked, saddened here.
I can’t believe Trump did so well. He’ll be the first Republican to win the popular vote since 2004. He’s a racist, sexist, transphobic, fascist, anti-science rapist, convicted felon, climate change-denier, and champion of the uber wealthy.
I guess there are many more deeply racist and sexist people than I wish to believe. It’s BS how first-past-the-post and the electoral college systems work - it’s so very easy to manipulate the system when you know the precious few key areas in advance to try to influence. Control of mainstream news and social media by the billionaire gives dis-, misinformation, and other bias so much reach to undermine democracy and voters’ rational self-interest.
I guess there are many more deeply racist and sexist people than I wish to believe.
This. I knew that there was a great deal of racism and misogyny in the USA but the extent of it is horrifying. Having lived almost my whole life there in various states, it still took me by surprise. I dont understand it and never will. Nor do I understand how people can fall for simplistic rhetoric and scapegoating. But clearly it works.
Numb. Sad. Mostly numb.
I was cheering for Kamala. I wanted the US to succeed. She had the big rallies, the celebrity endorsements, the polls were saying it was neck-and-neck. It looked like sanity was going to prevail. Then Trump just basically sweeps it and it’s like…oh. It’s easy to call the Americans “stupid” or whatever insults I’ve seen flying around the internet, but there was a vote. He won the vote. Over 72 million people think that Trump and the Republican ideology lines up best with their ideology. Who am I to argue with that? I don’t agree with it, but I guess that’s democracy in action. Regardless of what lies were told or what disinformation was spread, people overwhelmingly went out, voted for ol’ Donny, and this is the result. That’s how she goes I guess…? I don’t fucking know anymore dude.
My heart absolutely breaks for the people of Ukraine. I’m sure they’ll lose their US support come January. They don’t deserve that.