“It should not be misleadingly portrayed as a struggle between democracy or authoritarianism.”
But the election is exactly that.”
I’m hearing this from other wise, intelligent and worldly pundits. I’ve respectfully disagreed with you Justin Ling in the past but not this time.
I can’t recall ever being so nervous about a US election. I consider myself a centrist and definitely not “woke”, but the trump party (I don’t think the old Republican party exists anymore) is seriously frightening. My stomach is in flip-flops. I can’t imagine living above an evangelical nation where women suffer the consequences of rape and sexual abuse. I see putin’s army of degenerates storming Ukraine unchecked, raping, killing, and carrying out putin’s genocide with the approbation of snotty, ignorant american isolationism. And I don’t like emotional commentary yet here I am.
There's been another piece I've been tinkering with (which I'll probably put out closer to the election) basically charting how, for a half-century, we've had every reason not to give in to pessimism. But that, I think, has made us incapable of imagining what 'bad' looks like, and unwilling to understand how quickly things go from good to bad.
It's a pretty dour thing to think about but I think it's something we've all got to turn our minds to, no matter what country you're in, and pretty quick.
I had this exact conversation with a friend last night, she was realizing that all sorts of thing we just take for granted now could just vanish a lot quicker than we think, if we think they could vanish at all.
My brother tells me it’s historically 10 years. Ten years for American politics to subsume Canadian politics. We have our own christian right (or other religious fundamentalists), anti-science and anti-government people already expanding beyond the fringe.
When I moved up here in 2009 I was shocked at how apathetic my Canadian coworkers were. "What's happening down there can't happen here" they said to me, and I said that they should stay vigilant because it will happen when they arent paying attention. Humans are humans, and the US and Canada are culturally extremely similar. They scoffed. I can only hope that they remember this and are less apathetic now.
It's ok. Emotions are part of being a human being, and while they certainly can't be in charge of things, they are real and important. I am terrified too, and not ashamed to say it. I am a dual citizen and a Florida voter. I wish I could do more than cast my vote and donate a minute amount of cash. I have never felt so helpless in my life.
Wow! Thanks for this detailed overview of behind the scenes activity.
This calls for some very sober thought here in Canada and reflection on how easily this spills over the border with the likes of current rhetoric. Very troubling.
Unfortunately, not just rhetoric. We could get a flood of refugees if the US starts deporting people, tarrifs on goods and services and all kinds of defence implications.
In my darker moments, I wonder if we're Belarus or Ukraine in this scenario.
I've been mentally disengaging from American political news for weeks; not so much the "Biden's Brain" coverage, it's the news that Trump could actually win. I'd thought that chance remote, given his history; a block of cheese carved into Biden's likeness should be able to beat him. it was shocking to suddenly notice the polls. What is WRONG with these people?
I have to remind myself, over and over and over, to not acquire hope for Americans, whatever their (very slow, halting, backtracking) progress. They've always chosen the leaders who lie to them, because they want to be lied to:
- Their past isn't so bad;
- it's quite past, America is good now;
- All their wars and attacks are justified;
- Their cops are trustworthy and only occasionally fail in "split-second decisions";
- Their businesses are honestly trying to serve customers at lowest cost, and their rich have earned it.
Both parties have to agree with these narratives, Democrats have to couch education and reform attempts in coded, respectful terms. These lies are very popular, and only clapback comes to those with ugly truths - it's like an employee going to HR with a story of a handsy boss; the problem is her fault for bringing it up.
I keep reminding myself this is like the 2004 election: Bush was proven by then to have lied about WMDs to trick his country into war (justified! see above) , had opened a no-human-rights prison camp and tortured people there, and it had come out that he shouldn't really have won the 2000 election after all...and, yet, he received the only popular-vote win for a Republican candidate in the last 36 years.
The crushing sense of American betrayal to all liberality around the world ... validating *torture* FFS ... was monumental. I'd kind of thought another 20 years, a whole generation, would make for a more-liberal America ... but, of course, "you are what you do" - that same war coarsened and brutalized Americans, too, made them a darker, harder people.
You don't want to get too sympathetic, just because there are a lot of good ones.
I can't really deny what you're saying here, but that second Bush term is still the only one where a majority voted for a Republican (I certainly didn't vote for him, but what happened happened). It isn't just "a lot of good ones". It is most of us (I am dual citizen, to be clear -- living in Canada since 2009).
The Christian conservative elements have been working since around my father's birth in the 50s for what is happening today. Relentlessly. One of the ways they did that was the district gerrymandering that is part of the reason these Republicans keep winning even though most of us aren't voting for them.
What I mean to say is, we still need your sympathy. Most of us don't want what is happening, and surely you've seen the same elements working up here, too. Maybe we can stop it from going as far as it has down there. I worry that putting in too much of an us/them dichotomy will make Canadians less vigilant and allow it to happen here too. I mean look at Ontario. Ford's PCs have won two majorities and that is even with all the bad things he's doing to our environment and our healthcare.
I'm sympathetic, of course - what a nightmare to feel responsible for a torture camp because your side couldn't muster the votes. I've had to withdraw interest, entirely, because it automatically brings sympathy, and I just can't emotionally afford it any more.
For instance, I went from astonishment to anger&contempt at the Obama administration, then finally to sympathy. Could not *believe* he could leave open torture camps, not end illegal war, but finally realized that ObamaCare passed by ONE vote...and that, because Obama had to husband his every drop of political capital to get there.
And then THAT was backlashed not with just a 1000-seat loss but, OMG, Trump. The jump from Carter to Reagan was teeny in comparison.
So !@#$ 'em. Sudan doesn't break my heart because I don't know or care about their politics, and carefully don't start to. I was years disengaging from hope for Afghanistan, when I realized they wouldn't, as a nation, change, despite all the many, many sympathetic victims there. I'll just feel bad, every day for the rest of my life, if I let myself care about Afghanistan. Or Sudan. Or Ohio. Sorry.
I get what you mean. We all have to preserve our mental health even at the best of times, and we are not in the best of times right now, that's for sure.
And agreed. I voted so excitedly for Obama in 2008 and it didn't take long for me to realize he was, for the most part, business as usual. A disappointment.
Justin: I finally took the time to read your excellent, thorough deep dive into part of the intricate and well-funded network behind the rise of the intellectual wing of the American far-right. It's a fascinating read. And now, two weeks after you published this, it feels like there's some hope this agenda can be thwarted by the Kamala wave. But Democrats must not be fooled, because as you rightly point out, even if there is a clear electoral victory for Harris, the conspirators already have their plans in place to block and dispute that victory. I'm relieved to see Kamala and her allies come out swinging right out of the gates, but it's going to take more than a feisty attitude and strong grassroots mobilization to win this thing.
My anxiety around the election and its aftermath are at an all-time high. (Even reading this I felt my breathing become more shallow and my palms become sweaty.) It is hard for me not to worry that the US is already lost, regardless of what happens in November, but I guess it remains to be seen.
Exactly! That's why I had to disengage! I was getting that reaction, despite my Canadian immunity to American fascist displeasure.
I got a lot of peace from reading Stephen Pinker's "Better Angels" book. Pinker gives you a longer view of the entire planet slowly growing a conscience and a soul. It's not just the abolition of slavery, votes for minorities and women, there's an ongoing continuum of moral consciousness: it used to be OK to beat kids in public. Or shoot a "dog that won't hunt". A Republican just discovered even Republicans have moved to the other side of that little culture war: dogs are now pets, not farm equipment. That shooting would have been uncontroversial in 1980.
Pinker was able to show that WW2 was just a bump in that road; well, a mountain in the road, but the race climbed it and became better. Trump really is just a little bump in that same road.
On the other hand, Pinker's time-scale is also what drove me to drop NYT and WaPo subscriptions, start disengaging with American news. I realized that while I was watching progress, the speed is such that I won't see a low-racism, low-militarism, low-violence America in my lifetime. 20 years from now, another Trump, only a little less bad, will still be possible. If you feel you have to stay engaged, you'll need a lot of teeth-gritting.
So I had to give up cheering for the Good Guy American team.
Truly, if I were not a Florida voter in particular I might have disengaged more, as I have the luxury of my new Canadian citizenship. But it is still a state that could maybe go either way. Less than it used to be, but still.
“It should not be misleadingly portrayed as a struggle between democracy or authoritarianism.”
But the election is exactly that.”
I’m hearing this from other wise, intelligent and worldly pundits. I’ve respectfully disagreed with you Justin Ling in the past but not this time.
I can’t recall ever being so nervous about a US election. I consider myself a centrist and definitely not “woke”, but the trump party (I don’t think the old Republican party exists anymore) is seriously frightening. My stomach is in flip-flops. I can’t imagine living above an evangelical nation where women suffer the consequences of rape and sexual abuse. I see putin’s army of degenerates storming Ukraine unchecked, raping, killing, and carrying out putin’s genocide with the approbation of snotty, ignorant american isolationism. And I don’t like emotional commentary yet here I am.
There's been another piece I've been tinkering with (which I'll probably put out closer to the election) basically charting how, for a half-century, we've had every reason not to give in to pessimism. But that, I think, has made us incapable of imagining what 'bad' looks like, and unwilling to understand how quickly things go from good to bad.
It's a pretty dour thing to think about but I think it's something we've all got to turn our minds to, no matter what country you're in, and pretty quick.
I had this exact conversation with a friend last night, she was realizing that all sorts of thing we just take for granted now could just vanish a lot quicker than we think, if we think they could vanish at all.
My brother tells me it’s historically 10 years. Ten years for American politics to subsume Canadian politics. We have our own christian right (or other religious fundamentalists), anti-science and anti-government people already expanding beyond the fringe.
When I moved up here in 2009 I was shocked at how apathetic my Canadian coworkers were. "What's happening down there can't happen here" they said to me, and I said that they should stay vigilant because it will happen when they arent paying attention. Humans are humans, and the US and Canada are culturally extremely similar. They scoffed. I can only hope that they remember this and are less apathetic now.
It's ok. Emotions are part of being a human being, and while they certainly can't be in charge of things, they are real and important. I am terrified too, and not ashamed to say it. I am a dual citizen and a Florida voter. I wish I could do more than cast my vote and donate a minute amount of cash. I have never felt so helpless in my life.
Wow! Thanks for this detailed overview of behind the scenes activity.
This calls for some very sober thought here in Canada and reflection on how easily this spills over the border with the likes of current rhetoric. Very troubling.
Unfortunately, not just rhetoric. We could get a flood of refugees if the US starts deporting people, tarrifs on goods and services and all kinds of defence implications.
In my darker moments, I wonder if we're Belarus or Ukraine in this scenario.
Thanks for the in-depth perspective . People need to know.
I've been mentally disengaging from American political news for weeks; not so much the "Biden's Brain" coverage, it's the news that Trump could actually win. I'd thought that chance remote, given his history; a block of cheese carved into Biden's likeness should be able to beat him. it was shocking to suddenly notice the polls. What is WRONG with these people?
I have to remind myself, over and over and over, to not acquire hope for Americans, whatever their (very slow, halting, backtracking) progress. They've always chosen the leaders who lie to them, because they want to be lied to:
- Their past isn't so bad;
- it's quite past, America is good now;
- All their wars and attacks are justified;
- Their cops are trustworthy and only occasionally fail in "split-second decisions";
- Their businesses are honestly trying to serve customers at lowest cost, and their rich have earned it.
Both parties have to agree with these narratives, Democrats have to couch education and reform attempts in coded, respectful terms. These lies are very popular, and only clapback comes to those with ugly truths - it's like an employee going to HR with a story of a handsy boss; the problem is her fault for bringing it up.
I keep reminding myself this is like the 2004 election: Bush was proven by then to have lied about WMDs to trick his country into war (justified! see above) , had opened a no-human-rights prison camp and tortured people there, and it had come out that he shouldn't really have won the 2000 election after all...and, yet, he received the only popular-vote win for a Republican candidate in the last 36 years.
The crushing sense of American betrayal to all liberality around the world ... validating *torture* FFS ... was monumental. I'd kind of thought another 20 years, a whole generation, would make for a more-liberal America ... but, of course, "you are what you do" - that same war coarsened and brutalized Americans, too, made them a darker, harder people.
You don't want to get too sympathetic, just because there are a lot of good ones.
I can't really deny what you're saying here, but that second Bush term is still the only one where a majority voted for a Republican (I certainly didn't vote for him, but what happened happened). It isn't just "a lot of good ones". It is most of us (I am dual citizen, to be clear -- living in Canada since 2009).
The Christian conservative elements have been working since around my father's birth in the 50s for what is happening today. Relentlessly. One of the ways they did that was the district gerrymandering that is part of the reason these Republicans keep winning even though most of us aren't voting for them.
What I mean to say is, we still need your sympathy. Most of us don't want what is happening, and surely you've seen the same elements working up here, too. Maybe we can stop it from going as far as it has down there. I worry that putting in too much of an us/them dichotomy will make Canadians less vigilant and allow it to happen here too. I mean look at Ontario. Ford's PCs have won two majorities and that is even with all the bad things he's doing to our environment and our healthcare.
I'm sympathetic, of course - what a nightmare to feel responsible for a torture camp because your side couldn't muster the votes. I've had to withdraw interest, entirely, because it automatically brings sympathy, and I just can't emotionally afford it any more.
For instance, I went from astonishment to anger&contempt at the Obama administration, then finally to sympathy. Could not *believe* he could leave open torture camps, not end illegal war, but finally realized that ObamaCare passed by ONE vote...and that, because Obama had to husband his every drop of political capital to get there.
And then THAT was backlashed not with just a 1000-seat loss but, OMG, Trump. The jump from Carter to Reagan was teeny in comparison.
So !@#$ 'em. Sudan doesn't break my heart because I don't know or care about their politics, and carefully don't start to. I was years disengaging from hope for Afghanistan, when I realized they wouldn't, as a nation, change, despite all the many, many sympathetic victims there. I'll just feel bad, every day for the rest of my life, if I let myself care about Afghanistan. Or Sudan. Or Ohio. Sorry.
I get what you mean. We all have to preserve our mental health even at the best of times, and we are not in the best of times right now, that's for sure.
And agreed. I voted so excitedly for Obama in 2008 and it didn't take long for me to realize he was, for the most part, business as usual. A disappointment.
Justin: I finally took the time to read your excellent, thorough deep dive into part of the intricate and well-funded network behind the rise of the intellectual wing of the American far-right. It's a fascinating read. And now, two weeks after you published this, it feels like there's some hope this agenda can be thwarted by the Kamala wave. But Democrats must not be fooled, because as you rightly point out, even if there is a clear electoral victory for Harris, the conspirators already have their plans in place to block and dispute that victory. I'm relieved to see Kamala and her allies come out swinging right out of the gates, but it's going to take more than a feisty attitude and strong grassroots mobilization to win this thing.
My anxiety around the election and its aftermath are at an all-time high. (Even reading this I felt my breathing become more shallow and my palms become sweaty.) It is hard for me not to worry that the US is already lost, regardless of what happens in November, but I guess it remains to be seen.
Exactly! That's why I had to disengage! I was getting that reaction, despite my Canadian immunity to American fascist displeasure.
I got a lot of peace from reading Stephen Pinker's "Better Angels" book. Pinker gives you a longer view of the entire planet slowly growing a conscience and a soul. It's not just the abolition of slavery, votes for minorities and women, there's an ongoing continuum of moral consciousness: it used to be OK to beat kids in public. Or shoot a "dog that won't hunt". A Republican just discovered even Republicans have moved to the other side of that little culture war: dogs are now pets, not farm equipment. That shooting would have been uncontroversial in 1980.
Pinker was able to show that WW2 was just a bump in that road; well, a mountain in the road, but the race climbed it and became better. Trump really is just a little bump in that same road.
On the other hand, Pinker's time-scale is also what drove me to drop NYT and WaPo subscriptions, start disengaging with American news. I realized that while I was watching progress, the speed is such that I won't see a low-racism, low-militarism, low-violence America in my lifetime. 20 years from now, another Trump, only a little less bad, will still be possible. If you feel you have to stay engaged, you'll need a lot of teeth-gritting.
So I had to give up cheering for the Good Guy American team.
100%
Truly, if I were not a Florida voter in particular I might have disengaged more, as I have the luxury of my new Canadian citizenship. But it is still a state that could maybe go either way. Less than it used to be, but still.