As the American election cycle was drawing to a close - I wrote that I was glad the whole damn thing was
almost over. I was naively hopeful that perhaps the mainstream and alternative
media would start to focus on more important (and quite frankly) more
interesting topics. I was, of course, wrong. The election of Trump did nothing
to quell the endless drivel that spouts from people's lips. If anything the
flow of absurdities has increased both in volume and in its polarizing content.
There is no doubt that the ever increasing flow of outrageous comments from
pundits, movie stars, politicians and want-to-be's is in large measure driven
by the incredible and incompetent statements and decisions made by the
president elect. It is truly frightening when such a person nominates people
for his cabinet that are not only profoundly unqualified for those positions
but in fact may be dangerous. When incompetent/ignorant/misguided people are
allowed to shape public policy in such areas as education, women's health care,
and the environment, then the gains of the last 60 years will be lost - perhaps
never to be found again. One can only weep for the children of the USA and all
of their lost opportunities.
However, those Americans who are now complaining about the
injustice of Trump's win need to own some of the responsibility for the failure
of the American electoral process. Their system of electing a president is bit
strange. In fact it is so strange that a surprising number of Americans that I
have spoken to in the past fifteen years cannot explain it. But just because it
is strange or hard to explain does not mean that it is without merit. The
electoral college has the singular advantage in that it ensures that parts of
the country with the largest number of people, do not control the country. If
the election was just based on number of people voting for whom, New York and California
would always elect the president and there would be no point in anyone from the
smaller stats voting. It is one of the legitimate complaints against the
Canadian system. Just ask anyone from B.C. when Quebec and Ontario vote the
same way.
But the real issue is not whether or not electoral college
system is fair or whether or not they should trust in the popular vote (2
million voters out of 230,000 million voters is a rather small percentage),
someone should be concerned about the 40% plus of American voters who did not
bother to vote. No one who did not vote should give themselves the right to
protest in the streets, demand recounts or otherwise tilt against windmills.
40% is a lot of people - if they had all voted perhaps the results would have
been different. But at least those individuals would have the right to be upset
in an, at best, unwieldy system.
Unless the three recounts change something dramatically (and
no one is saying that they will) - the world is stuck with Trump. That does not
mean that the fight is over. Neither citizens within the USA or the rest of us
need to bow down and accept the chaos that is bound to come. We need to ensure
that our parliament honours the
international environmental agreements we have made, that we continue to demand
that our citizens and those from other countries have the right to live in
freedom and dignity, and that we continue on a path of reconciliation with our
First Nations. We must resist the temptation to accept the lowest common
denominator when it comes to the environment or to our medical, educational and
social services.
For our neighbours to the south....a suggestion. Follow the
path of Thoreau and Trump. When the government of the day were about to embark
upon, in Thoreau's mind, an unjust war - he refused to pay his taxes. He was
prepared to go to jail for it. Be like Trump- don't pay your taxes. But be like
Thoreau and be prepared to go to jail for your beliefs. Just imagine - the
system would grind to a halt if 100 million people (white, middle class
especially males) stopped paying taxes AND plugged up the legal system.
Just a thought.
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