Cape Breton and American Uncertainties
Apr. 8th, 2017 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dewlineWhat I originally had here was a facetious, detail-obsessed comment on the title of this article. Because I live in Canada, though not in Cape Breton...
What I want to say now that I've read it in full? That's something else.
I have friends who want to stand and fight, friends who feel a need to get ready to flee, friends who are uncertain of what to do next, and I know a few people who think the new management in Washington is Just Fine with them, too.
My government at present views the new management as a complication they have to try to cope with in order to get to better days for everyone on both sides of the border. At least that how it looks to me right now. I don't know that they understand what they're dealing with yet. They were ready to work with just about anyone else *but* the people now in the White House...
What I want to say now that I've read it in full? That's something else.
I have friends who want to stand and fight, friends who feel a need to get ready to flee, friends who are uncertain of what to do next, and I know a few people who think the new management in Washington is Just Fine with them, too.
My government at present views the new management as a complication they have to try to cope with in order to get to better days for everyone on both sides of the border. At least that how it looks to me right now. I don't know that they understand what they're dealing with yet. They were ready to work with just about anyone else *but* the people now in the White House...
no subject
Date: 2017-04-09 11:36 am (UTC)In fairness, I think you could say that about pretty much every government in every country right now. I don't know that anyone really understands the current US administration -- not even those who are part of it.
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Date: 2017-04-09 03:50 pm (UTC)Still developing my thoughts about what's actually going on and where it's going to go. I don't think the US electorate as a whole is getting more racist or fascist--I actually suspect that what we're seeing is a rabid counterreaction to recently improving attitudes on the US left. And that the worst people who supported Trump are currently getting hit by the realization that what they're likely to get in practice is not the full-throated blood-and-soil fascism they want, but the same collection of greed-driven Republican policies that have ruined things many times in the past.
But the human cost is likely to be high anyway. And a lot of horrible attitudes that used to be taboo are getting socially normalized, which is not good--but they were always there, just slightly hidden.
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Date: 2017-04-09 04:34 pm (UTC)I spent a week in Atlanta in the mid '90s getting training on a new programming package (which turned out to be a total POS), and every morning I'd walk about a mile to a small diner for breakfast. One day someone left a local newspaper, and just to see what people were talking about, I turned to the Letters To The Editor. There was one, I don't remember the exact text, but it was not flippant and it ended with what was essentially "The South will rise again! YEEHAW!"
Before the election, I was telling my wife that regardless of Trump winning or losing, he's at least ripped off the bandage that was hiding these attitudes, and maybe now society can work on fixing that. Now, I don't know what to think. A friend, whom I went to high school with, moved to Mexico when Dubya was elected and has since become a Mexican citizen. He's encouraging his parents to move down with him, and I expect they will soon. For my wife and I, Chile is the likely destination as it is one of the most dense countries for telescopes outside the States.
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Date: 2017-04-09 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-09 08:16 pm (UTC)One thing that's quite interesting, politically-speaking, down here is the displeasure of the Alt-Right with "45" bombing Syria. So the bombing would strengthen his relationship with the NeoCons, while weakening it with the Alt-Right. Strange days. People realizing that Obamacare = Affordable Care Act = they now have better health care is changing some attitudes.
From Atlanta to US Domestic Politics
Date: 2017-04-09 08:38 pm (UTC)And yes...strange days indeed.
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Date: 2017-04-09 07:30 pm (UTC)The air raid in Syria seems to have had exactly one salutory side-effect: it angered the neo-Nazis. Details from CBC's Matt Kwong here.
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Date: 2017-04-09 08:12 pm (UTC)I have cousins and extended family on both sides of the national border who think this current situation is excellent and who still support Trump - and not in an apologetic way, either, but fully triumphant.
I just can't even.
However. I saw a useful point recently: those of us who hate and fear the current regime should not be spending our time on the unabashed Trump supporter, but rather on the vast number of people who didn't vote. We won't convince the former that their attitudes are repugnant (cognitive dissonance and blah de blah), but we might have a chance of convincing the non-voter that their preferred candidate deserves to know that the non-voter supports them.
Besides: it is obvious that nothing that Trump can do has done or will do is heinous enough to alienate his supporters - and even if he is gone, there's only Pence to look forward to (argh).
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Date: 2017-04-09 08:26 pm (UTC)As for your family's internal debates, I empathize. I don't have such divisions to cope with myself so far as I know, but even so...