Canadians worry US democracy cannot survive Trump's return to White House, poll finds
Canadians worry US democracy cannot survive Trump's return to White House, poll finds
About two-thirds of Canadians surveyed this month said American democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump in the White House, and about half said the United States is on the way to becoming an authoritarian state, a poll released on Monday said.
The November U.S. election is likely to pit President Joe Biden against Trump, who is the clear frontrunner to win the Republican nomination as voting in the presidential primary race kicks off in Iowa on Monday.
Sixty-four percent of respondents in the Angus Reid Institute poll of 1,510 Canadians said they agreed with the statement: "U.S. democracy cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump." Twenty-eight percent disagreed.
The Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters seeking to block certification of Biden's 2020 election win shocked many Canadians, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly blamed Trump for inciting the mob.
Many Americans worry too, Canada.
Not enough.
Tens of millions of Americans look at the choice between Biden and Trump and choose Trump. That's insane.
It's nearly half the US population that wants Trump in charge. That's terrifying.
It's also scary that a lot of the Americans who live in left-leaning states aren't all that concerned. They somehow think that because their state is left-leaning and their neighbours share their political views, that somehow a second Trump presidency wouldn't affect them much.
Hopefully enough of them...
I worry how fucked we are. Like are we all gonna get a slim and slender dill pickle unfavorably shoved up our poop cutters OR are we going to get a giant prickly cactus shoved brazenly right up to our colons?
I think that will depend on how wealthy, white, straight, and male you are. Mostly in that order, but not always.
Canadians are also more clear than Americans that this isn't a Trump problem. He's just the symptom.
Canadians who are old enough remember the Bush II presidency, where Canada decided it wasn't going to join the US on its adventure in Iraq, and Americans freaked out. Americans started boycotting Canadian goods, and saying that if Canada wasn't siding with the US it was siding with the "terrists".
The election of Obama restored some hope that maybe things were getting better, but the reaction to that with the whole Tea Party thing, and then the Trump presidency showed it wasn't a blip, and that almost 50% of Americans were not rational people. Then there are things like the frequent government shutdowns, the constant gun massacres, the overtly political Supreme Court and its recent stance that precedent doesn't matter.
Back when Reagan was in power, the US conservatives were making terrible decisions, but at least they had a coherent philosophy, they believed in democracy, and the conservative ideals were more or less shared by other conservatives around the world (Thatcher, Mulroney, etc.)
These days, the US right wing is an incoherent mess of conspiracy theories, religious extremism, and chaos. Conservatives want to ban or burn books, but they still claim to stand for freedom of expression and speech. They talk about passing laws banning non-heterosexuals from everything, while simultaneously wanting the government to get out of their lives.
And, with a nearly 9000 km shared border and massive social and economic ties between the two, whatever happens in the US will affect Canada. There's no escaping that fact. Canadian democracy is almost irrelevant. If Trump comes to power again, there are no votes that Canadians can cast that will shield them from the chaos.
As a fellow terrist, what's the problem with us? 🌎
All yer nucular power and *pauses for camera closeup* weapons of mass destruction.
*ducks to dodge a shoe*
I dunno, some people are just loony.
Now I want to rewatch Legend of the Galactic Heroes. (Reference)
Dear United States,
I hope this email finds you well. I couldn't help but notice some unsettling developments in your life recently, and as your upstairs neighbor and friend, I felt the need to reach out.
It's been hard to ignore the noise from your past relationship with that abusive ex-boyfriend. You were so brave to leave him four years ago, especially after that terrifying January 6 incident. But now, I've heard whispers that you might be considering getting back together with him. Is that true?
I remember how hard it was for you, and for all of us who care about you, when he was around. His actions and the chaos he brought into your life were not only harmful to you but also affected those around you, including us upstairs. We thought we had lost the warm, friendly neighbor we knew.
Please think carefully about this decision. We all want what's best for you, and it's painful to see you possibly walking back into a situation that caused so much hurt and turmoil. If you need someone to talk to, I'm always here.
Take care and stay safe.
Sincerely,
Canada
well trump has shown to be a staunch enemy of democracy, the constitution and the rule of law
So do actual Americans.
So does the world
Some. But not two-thirds, unfortunately.
Regardless of the outcome of the US elections, I hope this makes the Canadian government realize that it needs take a more independent stance from the US in terms of its policies. Because right now our politicians don’t even want to change the daylight savings time policy without US states agreeing to it at the same time.
DST changes make sense. Why would Canada switch to a different clock system than our largest trading partner and neighbour? All hell would break loose.
Wherever you live in Canada most of the US is in a different time zone than you anyway. Somehow companies have figured it out.
In case you're here for the first time, reading this comment, and you blacked out from 2016-2020, Donald J. Trump is a fascist demagogue, who speaks directly to Russians about internal US affairs including classified info and has said that if re-elected, he will become a dictator. The GOP's plan to dismantle the executive branch and replace staffers with Trump loyalists has been laid out and available for all to read, entitled "Project 2025". His children admitted to meeting with Russian intelligence officials in Trump Tower to discuss undermining the 2016 election. He called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, was best friends with the world's most famous pedophile, mocked a disabled reporter in front of thousands of people (and on national TV), he lied that he would lower taxes on the working class and instead raised them, he illegally demanded clandestine investigations into the Biden's as blackmail for military aid to Ukraine (hmmmm I wonder what Donald learned from Putin during their hangouts...), and he let millions of Americans die of COVID by repeating lies that contradicted the real science of the pandemic. The laundry list is massive. He's not fit to be president of anything and he belongs in jail.
My grandfather drove a tank in WW2, a cousin of my grandmother went down on the HMS Hood. My family survived the blitz.
Now I'm sitting in Canada watching America gleefully become the new nazi fatherland and it's terrifying. Watching your neighbour embrace fascism with open arms... words cannot describe the amount of disappointment I have right now.
Please take me as a refugee if/when this happens... I've got an engineering degree and I'm willing to learn French.
Canadians also worry that CANADIAN democracy cannot survive Trump's return to the White House...
If you are going to leave the time is now. Not when you are in line behind tens of millions of refugees. As I said many times I plan to go down with the ship, but my wife has citizenship in another country and our kids can now legally be there. If/when it goes to hell send them out and I am staying.
Easier said than done. I earnestly looked into it around 2016 and it's not easy to make it in as a citizen, especially if you don't have a job offer. Having an engineering degree definitely helps, but I don't know how much. I started doing Duolingo French because that also gives you some "points".
It just wasn't doable for me at the time.
Luckily you don't have to speak French in 90% of the country.
You don't have to, no, but if you're trying to immigrate, there is a "points" system where you get points for various things. For example, there is a chart with a list of careers, with more valuable/desired fields equating to more points. You also get extra points for understanding, reading and/or speaking French. Higher score means more likely to be accepted.
So if one wanted to maximize their odds, learning French would help.
The amount of MAGA dipshits we have in alberta is uncomfortably high
What happened in the US could very easily happen here too. We're not as immune from the misinformation as we think.
Like the Premier of Alberta.
It's not doing very well without him, definitely won't survive with him. Tired of voting for slower erosion of democracy rather than having the option to vote for expansion of democracy. The US is not long for this world as a democracy. We'll soon have Putin style "Democracy".
Right here with them. It's kind of scary how close we had come before, but it's even scarier to think that there's a good portion of Americans who are like, "Yes, we've had first Trump term, what about infinite Trump terms?"
Yeah so do like half of Americans myself included.
I'm guessing the 36% that didn't see a problem with Trump were Conservatives who had to much lead paint in their diet as children.
Due to global hegemony if US democracy falls so does world democracy
I doubt everything would tumble like a house of cards, but it would have a severe destabilising effect on the rest of the world absolutely.
Suuure.... if the US democracy fails, Sweden is going to become a dictatorship. Australia is going to revert to full-on monarchy. Japan's going to go full Shogun.
Japan will go robot Shogun in space clearly. Probably invade Mad Maxville aka the country formerly known as Australia
I think that is a tad dramatic. The other democracies aren't lambs surrounding by wolves.
They aren't alone
Yes Trump will annihilate whatever semblance of democracy we have left in the United States. He plans on suspending congress, consolidating the courts, and expanding his ability of the executive branch without any checks and balances. He will begin to supercede democratic state governments, and the courts will rule in his favor or he will make them. He will sack any military official that doesn't align with his agenda, and deploy them domestically, even if just to instill fear in dissidents. Furthermore he'll transfer full control of the federal reserve to his office. Slowly eroding our constitutional rights and then he'll even extend his presidential term by another ten years.
This is what you will get if you vote for Trump.
Turns out, explicitly shutting out any options other than mid-but-increasingly further right or furthest-and-now-saying-the-quiet-part-out-loud right wasn't the healthiest decision for voters to be have a say in policy.
Everyone keeps telling me it's my lefty ass' fault we get fascism, but dems already did their fascism on me when Bernie won a primary and got told to eat a dick, then the dems went to court and told their voters to eat a dick.
But yep it's MY fault I don't vote dem.
Ahhh, some people still think political systems which are power duopolies were voters only get to vote for style of entertainement (morality subjects) but never for the actual management of all those things that determine Quality Of Life, are Democracy.
That's so cute...
Mind your own business Canada. You've got way bigger problems to deal with than worrying about us
US "democracy" will be fine. Russia is still technically a democracy. US can also have it both ways: have some sort of life long president staging sham elections and locking up political rivals at the same time. It will still be a 'democracy'. Of course Supreme Court would not let that... oh wait, they're all hand picked by the dictator, never mind. I wander if an average American would even notice any difference.
Right, but if it's a sham democracy, it's not a democracy. That's the thing about Russia - it's not actually a democracy. The layer of "democracy" is just a layer of authoritarian control with a very thin coat of paint.
Yes and what I'm saying is that US is not really that far away from this system. It doesn't have strong constitutional defences (Supreme Court is extremely politicised, corrupt and can just change it's interpretations of the constitution on a whim), the two party system is pretty much one capitalist party switching power between more extreme and less extreme wings every couple of years and it's all run but 70+ year old millionaires. US could very easily keep the thin layer of "democracy" and turn into dictatorship beneath it.
Russia isn't technically nor consequently a democracy. They never have been either.
The Supreme Court wouldn't even need to be stacked. They have made it clear that the law means nothing. There will be some ruling that I dunno know someone didn't say the magic words when the two term limit was put in place and hence it doesn't apply.
Exactly, most of them would already 100% support the dictator. That was my point, US democracy is really fucking close to oligarchy already and it would be easy to take it over the edge.
And the Emperor, who has not left the golden throne in 10,000 years, is still technically alive
Which democracy?, both parties are owned by the NWO, there is no democracy in the US since decades ago LMAO.
There is just the illusion of choice, people really think the president of the US can do whatever he want but they don't understand there are powers behind him, the real powers who rule over anyone with a public figure.
The shareholders of the US.
Both sides are not the same.
At the end both parties follow the agenda, it's just matter of time all politicians will take the same direction. I am not talking about if someone it's red or blue, the powers behind them obey to the elite interests.
Anyway if you think you have some kind of influence by voting for whatever party you want it's ok, It is called the American dream for a reason. It's because you have to be asleep to believe it.
RIP George Carlin BTW.
Trudeau talking about democracy?
Lol
Poor yanks, having to choose between trump and biden
It's a pretty obvious choice though. I'd really rather that the giant economy we're involuntarily tied to at the hip doesn't elect an authoritarian criminal.
That’s like saying you’d rather have a senile criminal over a criminal troll
It’s not an obvious choice
It’s equally shit both ways
We need electoral reform. Conservatives and neo Liberals are a minority. Anything but first past the post would be better.