Did I wake up from a nightmare, or is it really true? Sadly, it wasn't a bad dream. It really did happen, and I am truly devastated. I am still in shock. The United States of America has elected a vulgar, racist criminal as its president. America has chosen a misogynist who thinks of women as playthings, a man who has been found liable to sexual abuse, a man who has told women that he will protect them, whether they like it or not. Yep, you've come a long way, baby!
To be honest, I am heartbroken. Donald Trump and his MAGA movement are the embodiment of everything I oppose, everything I find repugnant. Trump supporters say that they vote for him because he's similar to them. They claim that he speaks to them in the same way they speak to their friends. Is this true? Are Americans really so crude and hateful? Do they lack empathy? Some do. However, a great many have been deceived and misinformed. The American economy is strong. It is humming along right, thanks to President Joe Biden. Biden has never received the credit he deserves for that. He took the mess Trump left him and turned it around. Yet, many Americans falsely believe that Trump was good for the economy. They falsely blame Biden for high inflation, which he did not cause, and for which he did everything possible to bring down.
Thanks to Fox News and right-wing extremists s such as Tucker Carlson, many Americans are convinced that January 6th was just a walk in the park in which no lives were threatened or lost. They don't see it as a violent attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. They do not believe that Trump and his followers threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence. When asked about Pence, Trump replied, "So what!." The life of his vice-president, a fellow human being, meant nothing to him.
Donald Trump inherited a good economy from Barack Obama and took credit for it. Now he will inherit a good economy from Biden and will happily accept responsibility for that, too. Trump will then impose his ill-advised tariffs, and tax breaks for billionaires such as Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch and Jeff Bezos. He will eventually ruin the economy. Sadly, corporate media are controlled by a cabal of billionaires. They held Kamala Harris to a much higher standard than Donald Trump. Trump's bizarre behaviour was dismissed as just Trump being Trump, but Americans were told that they didn't know enough about Kamala Harris. This, despite her many speeches about her family background and her qualifications for the job of president. She has been a prosecutor, a district attorney for San Francisco, Attorney General of California, a United States senator and vice president of the United States.
When Donald Trump became president in 2017, he had held no political office. He was a shady businessman with six bankruptcies under his belt, and a realty show host on NBC. Trump has always presented himself as a tough guy and he is a quintessential bully. Underneath his tough guy veneer, he is full of jelly and as soft as a pillow. Many males support him because they like his macho attitude and his Alpha Male personality. They are unaware of his insecurity and his incessant need for his ego to be stroked. Real men are courageous and empathetic. They are confident and self-assured. They don't need to put others down in order to raise themselves up. They are comfortable in their own skin.
Lower income Americans do not realize that in voting for Trump, they have voted against their own interests. Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Insurance are thrilled with the return of Trump. They will make billions of dollars by spewing greenhouse gases, keeping the price of prescription drugs high, and destroying Obamacare. Americans with pre-existing conditions will lose their health care coverage. Trump intends to replace Obamacare with a "concept of a plan."
Non-white immigrants and migrants have no place in Trump's America. even if they are legal citizens Undocumented immigrants are less than human in Trump's America. All that ails America is caused by immigrants. They are "illegal aliens," no better than vermin. He and JD Vance promise mass deportations. Doesn't that sound horrifying? In Trump's America, non-white immigrants are the great scapegoats. If they work hard, they are taking jobs from "real Americans" (i.e. white), even if they are citizens of the United States. If they are unemployed, they are lazy. They are living off welfare.
Make no mistake, the United States will never be the same again. With Trump at the helm, it will sink into authoritarianism. He has no guardrails now. He will only listen to those who tell him what he wants to hear. This is a profoundly sad day. I am Canadian, but the effects of this elections will reverberate in my country and throughout the world. I can't sugarcoat what has happened. Donald Trump is unstable and he has fascist tendencies. He is obviously in cognitive decline.
Until now, I believed that the American electorate would always chose hope and optimism. Americans voted for Franklin Roosevelt over Herbert Hoover in the depths of the Great Depression. FDR's message was that "Happy Days Are Here Again." In 2024, the stage seemed set for the election of the first female president of the United States. Kamala Harris ran a great campaign. She exuded energy. She had momentum. She had a message of hope for the future. Yet, her vision was rejected for some 1950s vision of the past, when women never worked, white men were in control, and Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Muslims were marginalized.
Now, Americans and people around the world must face the dire consequences of Trump's return to the White House. He will help his buddy Vladimir Putin take over Ukraine. Somewhere in the Kremlin, Putin is sipping vodka in celebration, setting the groundwork for invading another country. As for climate change, which is arguably the most important issue facing humanity, it was hardly mentioned during the 2024 U.S. election campaign. Trump thinks it's a hoax. He thinks wind turbines cause cancer. Meanwhile, Florida has just been ravaged by Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene has caused widespread destruction and many fatalities across the Southeastern United States. Spain has just been hit by devastating floods. This past summer, beautiful Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada was severely damaged by wildfire.
Kamala Harris will graciously accept the results of this election. On January 20th, there will be a peaceful transfer of power. Biden and Harris will not claim that this election was rigged. Today is a dark day, but I will continue to search for reasons to hope. I still believe that the world can never give up on democracy and freedom. We can never give up on humanity. America, it's time for some soul searching and deep reflection. What kind of a society have you become?
- Joanne
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