I start with an apology. If you exist in a location where the going-ons in the United States of America (USA) do not significantly influence your day-to-day life, or if you do not even know what is going on in the USA, then what I will be writing about today may be of little interest to you. Furthermore, I am jealous if that is the case. You see, where I live in the world, the things that go on in the USA significantly affect my day-to-day life. To the point that it seems like the USA is the center of the universe. I know it is not actually the center of all things, but for me it seems to be much of the time.
I do not live in the USA; I live in Canada. I grew up in Alberta, to be precise. Anyone who knows the stereotype of Alberta may now believe that I am a redneck, right wing conservative. Of course, if you’ve been reading my blog posts up to this point, you should also realize that this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Perhaps it is because of my upbringing and environment that I rebelled later in life, likely falling much more on the left side of the political spectrum. If you’ve been reading my posts, you will know that I value freedom pretty highly. It is ironic, I suppose, that the USA considers freedom to be particularly important as well.
A lot is going on in the USA presently. Aside from a raging pandemic, there is widespread racism, violence, and an impending presidential election about to happen. Actually, technically, the election has already begun as many have already submitted their early ballots for the election. This, of course, makes all that is going on all the more controversial. However, I will not begin here. I will begin about four years ago, with the previous election, which resulted in Donald Trump placed into the office of the president of the USA.
I remember when it was announced. I was in a university pub, surrounded by philosophy and political science students. If you are not familiar, there is another stereotype related to university students, that they are all liberals. The group of people I found myself surrounded by expressed a strong, sort of liberalism with the announcement. Being all intelligent, critically thinking university students, they could not imagine the travesty that had occurred that resulted in Trump’s success. Something must clearly be wrong in the USA if he got elected as their president.
For the next couple hours, discussions ensued regarding how best to prevent this tragedy from ever occurring again. It culminated in the suggestion that all Americans should be forced to take a political science/elections class in high school, so that they would know how to critically assess potential candidates and would then only elect those actually worthy of office. If it is not clear, the very discussion belays a subtle opinion that the students overlooked: they had already prejudged the situation and decided that Trump was unfit for office.
Now, four years later, I’m sure that many people would suggest that their greatest fears have been affirmed. Trump’s management of the pandemic, alone, raises grave doubts as to his political fitness. The controversy that suggests he knew that COVID-19 was a lethal disease, but chose to play it down in order not to incite panic within the population. And there’s the issue of how he has chosen to deal with the Black Lives Matter movement, recently sparked by the killing of George Floyd by police in May. There are plenty of examples of issues Trump has chosen to deal with in unconventional and controversial ways. However, there is still an issue that seems to have escaped the entire discussion.
I am considered a Canadian. I live in Canada. My life revolves around Canadian affairs in my Canadian environment. So why am I spending so much time paying attention to and worrying about the USA and what goes on there? Is the USA the center of my universe? Should I be doing more to prevent the re-election of Donald Trump as president of the USA? Is there to be a call to arms, or a rally to protest, or some other movement that needs to be raised?
No.
While I can sit here and think about and discuss what is happening in the USA, ultimately that is the limit to what I can do. I can talk. I can listen. I can express my opinions. It is easy for me to criticize events in the USA and suggest that were I their president, I would behave differently. However, I am not an American. I was not elected by the population of the USA into the office of presidency. And, admittedly, I am not very familiar with the American political system, how it works, nor how I might navigate it in order to get elected.
I am not an American. I do not live in the USA. I do not actually know what the majority of people in the USA think about their president, nor why they may have elected him. Yes, there is talk about election fraud, both in the current and previous election. Yes, it is possible Trump has been playing the system in order to keep himself in office much longer than I may believe he deserves. However, this may simply be an example of a man who, unlike me, really does understand the American political system. He certainly has figured out how to milk the American economy for all he could. While these actions may be morally reprehensible, following the morality that I tend to support, this is far from suggesting he weaseled his way into office without the support of the American people.
I am not an American. I have enough trouble dissecting the Canadian political system, trying to understand how it can even be called “democracy” with all the representation going on. But my lack of understanding does not automatically suggest that the Canadian political engine is about to break down and fall apart. Similarly, the American political system may be functioning precisely as it was intended. The American dream seemed to suggest that anyone could make it in that country; all it takes is for one to buckle down and work hard, and they can be successful. Perhaps it is the precise understanding of “buckle down and work hard” that might need to be reexamined, similar to how Darwin’s survival of the fittest does not suggest that the fittest are those who are physically the strongest.
I say today what I said four years ago: the American people will do what they think is best. Four years ago, they elected Donald Trump as their president, regardless of how I or my peers in Canada may have felt about it. Right away, they will make their decision known again. If there is a problem with election fraud, as Trump himself is suggesting, then those same American people will react as they feel is appropriate. There could possibly be a bloody civil war or other large rebellion, if it turns out that Trump does not have significant support by the American people. Or, it may simply turn out that Americans really do want a guy like Donald Trump as their president. Who are we, as non-Americans, to criticize the democratic choices of the American citizens?