There was a time when I was totally oblivious to what was happening in the United States, where politics was concerned. Some years back, I vaguely remember watching TV one night and seeing some man named Obama on a stage proclaiming: “Yes, we can!” and thinking how cool it was that a black man was going to be president. I also remember thinking that history was being made, but beyond that, I didn’t give American politics a second thought. Like, ever.
And then it was 2016.
Enter Trump. And yes, I’m aware now, that he made his announcement in ‘15, but I wasn’t paying attention then. In fact, I didn’t start paying attention until he was in the debates with Hillary Clinton. I was dumbstruck. How could he have possibly made it this far? Seriously? Trump?
The first time I had ever heard of Trump was way back in the ‘80’s when he made an appearance on The Phil Donahue Show, and I was thinking then, what a smarmy person he was. The guy just flat-out repulsed me, everything about him was so offensive to me. I never watched any of his Apprentice shows, Celebrity or otherwise.
But I made it a point to watch the debates. I had to. I had to see what his agenda was. This guy was such a joke. It was hard to take him seriously. Did Hillary?
Election night. I will never forget it.
I was watching the election on TV from my home in Ontario, my daughter was watching from her home in Alaska. We were communicating that evening through Facebook messenger. The tones in our messages went from excited anticipation and hope, to complete devastation in a few hours time. Our optimism turned into despair. [getty src="621888814" width="594" height="396" tld="com"] What a blow. We ended our conversation that night with tears in our eyes and knots in our bellies. We knew that an era of oppression was about to begin. How could this have happened? I am still in disbelief, so much so that I have never considered him a president.
Election night came and went and most of America went into mourning. So did Canada, believe that.
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I wish I was American if only to be able to partake in the Resistance. That’s what makes this whole farce of a presidency so frustrating, it’s that I have to watch this happening from a distance and feeling such helplessness as he is quickly destroying everything. It’s not fair to the rest of us. He is, after all, but only because he was elected to this position, the most powerful person on our planet.
When Canadians say, “you aren’t alone, we feel your pain”.... we mean that in the most profound way. The presidency of the United States doesn’t just affect the United States, but the whole planet.
His views on climate change, his talk of “fire and fury”, his disregard and disrespect towards women, people of color, immigrants, disabled, well, basically anyone that isn’t blonde haired, blue eyed and heterosexual, is absolutely monstrous.
And don’t even get me started on his lying and his Twitter use. There is something seriously wrong with him, and yet, people still follow him. His base? Freakin’ lemmings if you ask me. Aren’t they aware of how utterly incompetent he is? How there hasn’t been a day since his presidency that he hasn’t created some kind of controversy or been offensive? How he is creating a divide between the races? How he is in denial about climate change? This guy is a flippin’ idiot.
I never paid attention to American politics. I do now.
[Featured image by zmb_mur via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0]