I’m deep behind enemy lines.
Though the enemy is unaware of their role as enemy.
And to be honest, they aren’t really enemies anyway. Just folk.
Oblivious folk.
I’m in Atlanta to support my Mom (you’ll see) and as is always the case the Americans around me have been friendly, courteous, gracious, and very welcoming.
That isn’t to say that I’m thinking of rebooting any Florida vacation plans.
Absolutely not.
As a Canadian, I’m still not over that feeling of betrayal that has been continuously whipped up by the current US administration like never ending bile-flavoured cotton candy.
Threaten, even jokingly, the sovereignty of my country and I can guarantee it’s going to take a while before I drop my guard around you.
Threats like those come across a bit… rapey.
Maybe that’s no coincidence given the current regime.
But make no mistake… the American people are nice. Goddamn nice.
I’m always fascinated at the culture when I’m in the states. More so recently.
There’s a disconnect between citizens and their government/politics.
Like they exist on separate planes.
Parallel universes even.
At the very least in a “not my brother’s keeper” manner.
The thought process seems to be “My government said that, I didn’t… so why would you be mad at me?”
America seems to me to be a collection of people that happen to be in the same room and there ends their connection.
It’s individualism gone to the extreme.
It’s anarchy with credit card debt.
It’s chaos with a Buy Now button masquerading as freedom.
That take may seem a bit extreme.
And it is.
It’s lovely down here and so are the people.
So lovely that it’s hard to make the connection between the people and their government.
I think it’s hard for them as well.
For many, it’s probably survival-level hard.
Canada used to be labelled as having no real identity.
That no longer seems to be the case.
The USA has lots of cultural identity… it just doesn’t match what’s being presented to the rest of the world.
I hope that changes for the better soon.
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Please don’t count out all of us who are doing our best to protest against our current government. We aren’t all selfish bastards. Our country has currently been taken over by morons who happen to be fascists. A double whammy to fight back against
The disconnect between Americans and their government is theirs to fix.
It’s not good enough to say “oh that’s the government; don’t get mad at me”. Americans voted Trump into office, excused his corrupt insurrectionist attempt to stay there, then elected him again. They tolerated his theft of classified documents and they tolerate his endless corruption and grifting. They look the other way when he is crudely disrespectful of other world leaders and the sovereignty of other nations. Americans are tolerating the emergence of an oligarchy where a handful of sleazy tech bros control virtually all the wealth in America. Americans (and their media) remain standing on the sidelines while the Congress lets Trump do what ever he pleases - including ignoring the American constitution, the American justice system, international laws, institutions and treaties. No Kings protests are fine - but it is every Representative, Senator and Governor that needs to keenly feel every hour of every day the jeopardy of not standing up to the orange moron.
Standing on the sidelines, shrugging and saying “what’s yah gonna do?” signals to the world that it is compliant Americans, not just Trump, that are the problem. The world is expecting Americans to deal with the debasement of America - not just shrug it off. Trump has proven the vaunted American system of “checks and balances” is a farce. This needs fixing. Big time.
Are there lovely American people? Absolutely. There are few Canadians that don’t have lovely American friends, business colleagues and family. But Trump’s MAGA America is not lovely in any respect and this disconnect is ruinous. The world is not waiting for Trump to leave thinking this unloveliness will then just blow over. America is broken. Trust with most other nations has been shattered and Americans have a lot of work to do to repair it.
November 3 will just be the start of a very long journey of redemption and rebuilding. Possibly a generation or more.