I have always been fascinated by American (USA) politics by its scope and the amount of money that is spend in each election. The political race lasts practically 2 years, which seems never ending compared to us here in Canada or in Europe. No kidding the Democrats had the time to change their candidate 6 months prior to the election and appeared to have had a chance to win until election night.
The question that should be asked is why many people (and countries) follow American Politics. In this past Presidential Race, in Canada, it felt that there was more coverage than our own political affaires. I do understand that the USA is Canada’s major economical partner, but for about 6 months, it felt we were all American. Despite the many faults, the United States is often used as a role model for the world, at least it used to be. It has lost a bit of its admiration in the past few decades. Its ironic that a country is idolized for the pursue of the American Dream, but at the same time the most indebted country in the world (https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-by-national-debt). It has been years that the country has had domestic issues that were never really addressed such as drug addition, gun violence, homelessness, decaying infrastructures, immigration and the list could go on and on. Nothing was done to solve the emerging problems probably because these issues result in big business. How shocking seeing this from the US. In addition, the working class has been ignored for decades. At some point people will want a radical change. I think that is what happened with the Republican in this past election.
What happened to the Democrates
The Democrates all look shocked at the results. The left news outlets mostly issuing blame that does not really explain this type of debacle. It runs much deeper than just blaming one or two people.
How can you explain that the people would rather vote for a candidate like Trump rather than the status quo? In a nutshell, people are saying that anything than the status quo is better, even if that means to vote for Trump and his faults. The American left, the Democrates, got out of touch with the realities of the working class. People working 2 or 3 jobs to pay for medical bills or simply to make ends meet has become the norm in many American families. Add to that many Liberals sermon people on what people should think. People in general do not react well when a group of people talk down to people and forcefully try to change public opinion such as the whole LGTQ ++ rights thing. In other words, rejecting wokism in its present form. Wokeism started as a noble cause: “the promotion of liberal progressive ideology and policy as an expression of sensitivity to systemic injustices and prejudices” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/wokeism), however it was brought to an extreme level. You can read the evolution of the movement here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke. Common sense was left out of the equation. All the causes wanted to be achieved at all cost. Overtime, the majority of people just got fed up with it all and they expressed it in this election.
The Democratic Party will need to take a close look at themselves and maybe get back to the old Liberal values and principles that most people identified with such as the working class, representing the people, etc. The party has become one of educated elitist, with many trying to be the moral compass of the American People and simply took it too far. Even after a few weeks after the election, the Democratic Leaders are still saying they ran an excellent campaign. Clearly is was not enough to win the election, despite now knowing it was a lot closer than what was originally mentioned. It was not a landslide by any historical standards. This article from NPR summarizes the election results well You can read it here: https://www.npr.org/2024/11/21/nx-s1-5198616/2024-presidential-election-results-republican-shift
What happens now?
Guess what happened after the US election? Not much since life pretty much continued. People still had to get up, go to work, feed the kids, etc. Will the election influence the long term? Probably. If Trump does what he said he will do, it will shake the US in ways it has not seen in years. Will that be a bad thing? The US (and I place Canada in the same bucket) have Federal Governments that has become dysfunctional and disconnected with the majority of the people. Maybe a shake-up is what is needed to move forward. Is Trump the best person to do that, I am not too sure, but now Trump and Republicans have the ball in their court. Let’s see what they do with it. I just hope that Trump’s bully approach will change when dealing with issues like the Ukraine/Russia war, the Hamas / Israel war, and NATO compared to hs first term. The new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is interesting and intriguing. Fareed Zakaria from CNN explains this and its implications very well. You can see his explanation below:
We are definitely going through some uncertain times. Lets hope we find a way to all meet in the middle to find some common ground so that we all move forward peacefully.
I want to thank you for getting to the end. Until next time, keep on Smiling 😊
NOTE: Feel free to comment or send me an email.
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