Analysis of An American Election

I feel sad....that sort of sadness one feels when someone - someone you don't know very well but who you have known for your whole life, dies. There is a general sense of something lost, of something that may never ever be the same again - although you can't exactly explain what it is.

In reading the various bits and pieces on my traditional media sites as well as the social media sites, it seems as if many observers are blaming Trump's election on misogynistic and racist voters. There is a general sense that somehow Trump just barely got in by some sleight of hand, some trick that he used to fool easily mislead voters. Others argue that Clinton just did not have what was needed to mobilize the opposition. One Facebook posting even suggested that if the Democrats had allowed Bernie to run - this would never have happened. But such comments avoid the truth of the election.

It is no doubt true that a  number of Trump's most ardent and vocal supports were white males who were poorly educated and under employed. It is equally as true that a number of them are racists, misogynists and angry that they have lost their elite status in their world. It is true that Trump spoke directly to them and promised them a promised land just beyond the next election. BUT not only did Trump earn almost 50% of all votes (in Canada any party getting 50% of the popular vote would be deemed to have won by a landside), the Republicans won the majority of seats in Congress and in the open seats in the Senate. They even won seats in ridings where the Republican candidate denounced Trump. The Republicans won the presidential race as well as in both houses in spite of the fact that the leadership of that party were less than enthusiastic about their presidential candidate.

Almost half of the American people who voted, voted for a political ideology that argues that those that have - should keep it; that if corporate America becomes untaxed and unfettered by regulation - then all will prosper; that a specific group of voters have the right to prosper and to be considered elite, and if they lose that status then it is someone else's fault; that the very people who are marginalized by class, ability, religion, ethnic origin, gender or race are somehow responsible for their own marginalization and that failure is always the fault of the person except when it happens to them; that more guns will mean that communities are safer; that only the self designated elite should have access to services and that their version of the Christian God is always on their side. Trump may have played out that hand in a particularly virulent manner, but half of the American public were just waiting for someone to publically head off in that direction.

Trump is the personification of the "me first" philosophy. But he did not invent it - he just said what approximately half of the public who wanted to vote were already feeling. While we should be concerned and even alarmed at all of the dangerous possibilities that may confront us as neighbours and as world citizens, we need to be careful that we do not vilify Trump while absolving those who elected him. Trump is the President-Elect perhaps in part because there was not a more palatable  alternative but primarily because nearly half of the population who voted agree with him and what he said. And while we should be deeply concerned as to what Trump may do, we should be even more concerned about the values of the American voters. When Trump does not deliver on what he promised- who will they chose next?

Another Election - What Have We Learned?

As I write, citizens of the USA (it would be so much easier to just say "Americans" but in fact all of us who live in the Americas are Americans..... those of the USA  have inappropriately assumed that label) are in the process of electing their next President as well as their Congress and some senators. I, for one, am glad that the damn election is over. Perhaps Canadian news services will now have more space/time to discuss some news that is relevant to Canadians. I am always surprised at how much interest Canadians are suppose to have over American elections. In this particular election cycle I have been even more surprised at the number of Canadians who have come out on various social media sites condemning one of the presidential candidates and begging US citizens to vote.

I am surprised mainly because it would appear that some Canadians who are posting on those sites actually believe that those to the south of us give a damn as to what we think. Really? In the fifty or so years that I have spent following political stuff - I can never remember a time when the USA created a policy or responded substantively to a Canadian issue that was not to their benefit. And why would they? Our neighbours seldom listen to the what the rest of the world thinks they should do. As a matter of fact it seems quite obvious that most of them don't even listen to each other - in part because they are bombarded with too much irrelevant information and even more irrelevant opinions.

There is a large, powerful and financially lucrative industry whose only function is to convince voters to vote for a particular person or party. In every election cycle millions ( in the USA it is billions) of dollars are spent on distributing/propagating information designed to sway the voters. I am not sure that those billions of dollars are well spent if for no other reason that I am not sure if anyone really understands why people vote. For example. in Canada there have been a number times when there have been large swings in the popular vote such as when the Mulroney Conservatives or the Martin Liberals lost power. But I suspect that people who switched their vote from Liberal to Conservative or vice versa would have done so anyways as they were tired of the previous government. Voters had already decided that there was a need for a change (under the guise that change is a good thing every decade or so). It took almost nothing to push enough voters over that line. I suspect that most of us, most of the time vote generally the way we always have. It is perhaps only those at the very centre who switch their votes slightly to the left or to the right.

Those of us at the extreme left or right of the political spectrum do not, very often, change our position. My guess is that those of us who voted for a socialist-like-platform when we were 20 - still do so; those who, as they were coming of age, believed in a social and economic conservative platform - will not have changed their minds thirty or forty years later. While platforms of a particular political party may disappoint us - we are committed voters. Any attempt to change our minds is probably a waste of money. It is only at the centre where people do not have a clear political/economic values that there is room for movement. It is there that that the sellers of influence focus their energies.

While it is less of a problem in Canada than is the USA, we are still afflicted with uninformed and irrelevant people providing information that can shape that soft middle core of voters. I am always surprised that singers or actors  in the USA are allowed so much influence but then this a culture that validates a barely famous actress's tirade against vaccinations.

If we are to have elections that contain useful debate and at least interesting policies proposals, then we need, not just during an election cycle, but all of the time participate/create a dialogue about what is important and how we can invest in change. We need to stop seeing politics as a blood sport for us to watch from the side lines. We need to learn to engage both our neighbours and our politicians in conversation. If there is anything to be learned from the election to the south - it is that when people stop listening to those who think differently - then chaos can and will evolve.