I’m in Canada, so the local Trumpers will also support the Conservative party in our elections next year(ish). The one hope we have of them losing this election is if Trump shits the bed so hard, so fast, that even the CanaTrumpers notice.
Canada is in a weird position. We have no actual influence over who Americans will elect, or what those elected will do, but we’re still going to be affected by it. If Trump crashes the US economy, ours will crash as well. Having someone in office here who will cater to Trump’s every whim will just make it all worse.
And from our side of the border, I have never understood why so many Americans speak derisively about Canada, when they seem to exceed us on so many social issues.
This. Pay attention to what is happening. Don’t be speculating about what might be happening six months or six years hence. The present contains trouble enough; do not borrow more from the future. It will be there when the future does arrive and you’ll have dealt with it twice.
There are several reasons I discuss US politics. I certainly don’t think I can change or influence them. Every election claims to be the most important ever. Is this one different, because the principle of separation of powers is under real threat? Perhaps… I don’t know much about John Thune, but the fact he was not the MAGA candidate may mean the Senate might take its job seriously.
They say when America sneezes, Canada catches cold. Guess something has to explain our weather. Canada is a country which trades its resources. The US imports more Canadian oil than any other nation. American companies in Houston own a lot of the Canadian oil companies, and Waltz’s wife is an executive at one of them. Trade deals and tariffs are very big deals here - with America. Amazingly, Canada does not have free trade between provinces. Most politicians here liked NAFTA. The proposed Trump nominees are not particularly positive regarding Canada, which should indeed do a better job supporting its military. Trudeau is unpopular with some American pundits and some Canadians, and will have difficulty winning the next federal election.
People feel strongly about politics. So I don’t always discuss politics IRL, but I do enjoy doing so to some degree if it can be done intelligently and without rancour. I like understanding and analyzing the world. It makes a modest difference to my short and medium term investments - where I invest and in what form. I take pride in my understanding of global events and have enjoyed The Economist for more than three decades.
US politics might conceivably influence where I travel. Some Canadian policy is heavily influenced by American decisions - including on the environment, immigration, law, military, intelligence, social media, government spending, tourism, etc. The greenback has a big influence on the value of a Canadian loonie as well. In general Canadians know quite a bit about American happenings. Americans don’t think aboot Canada much, but tend to resort to dated stereotypes, eh?
American trends often move north after a few months or years of delay. So it matters to us if America does go off the rails, although I think the US will avoid most of the worst excesses. About 20% of Canadians are Trumpers, including a significant percentage of young men and strong conservatives. The Conservatives currently seem likely to win Canada’s October 2025 election. This is more due to fatigue with current policy and incumbents rather than a vindication of Trump, whose election might give Trudeau a mild bump.
That would be me, partly because I foresaw plenty of people trying to erase “boundaries around the limits of the badness,” which is why I feared the opposite of what you intended: a place to churn up specific fear that the entire world is definitely collapsing in these ways. (See Jasmine’s post in this very thread.)
Not everyone processes fear and anxiety in the same way. If your mind is whirling around the same speculative fear over and over again, even though talking it out might not change it, it does provide opportunities such as discovering that you’re not alone in thinking this, and also maybe offers exposure to ideas that limit the depth of the rabbit hole your brain is digging, if it does so alone.
Tangible examples of that can be found in some of the threads about the election outcome - for example (quoting from memory, poorly) there was one where someone was expressing fears about how things might play out in a very extreme fashion, at the same time as there being no opposing control to stop that happening. Someone else in the discussion pointed out that there could be ways in which the situation itself would be self-limiting (ie mass deportation of every non-white person would be Bad For Business - so whilst it might not be limited by human decency, it would still be subject to limits).
Yeah, I’ve had this same thought myself. It’s not good for anyone’s ongoing mental health to sit around in dread of what he might do, and then wailing and gnashing teeth when he actually does some of these things.
Most of us (all of us on here?) are not in a position to actually change or influence any of it in any meaningful way for four years, so in my mind at least, it’s shifted from something that I had a vote in, to being something more… environmental. Like the risk of a tornado, hurricane, drought, or some other event that’s unable to be predicted, but that can be prepared for (both during and after) and otherwise isn’t worried about.
Am I happy about his election? No. Am I frightened about what he might do to erode and break our system? Absolutely. But am I sitting around in a state of anxiety about it? No, and that’s the difference here. There’s a difference between fear and anxiety, and being fearful is perfectly acceptable and even smart here, but being anxious about it doesn’t do anyone any good.
That strikes me as a healthy attitude. Me, I presume he will appoint/enable many really bad/incompetent people and will do A LOT of REALLY BAD stuff which will cause countless bad effects lasting well beyond his term. I do not need to try to analyze his various utterances (who knows which he will follow up on and which are just middle of the night tweets?), or anticipate policies and appointments. I can do specific things to protect myself - exercise, eat well, stimulate my brain/positive emotions, value and support friends and family - which will put me in a better position to weather WHATEVER specific shit he brings.
Skimmed the paper this morning - absolutely passed over the articles regarding appointments, Sen/House leaders… Had the idea (which I DID NOT act upon! ;)) that instead of reading that, I’d be better off if I dropped to the floor and disd some push-ups!
We may be saying the same thing, but I think of it as the difference between fear and anxiety. I fear a tornado that’s bearing down on me, but the anxiety equivalent would be constantly being afraid/wound up about the concept that a tornado could happen where I live.
It’s prudent to have a go-bag and a plan for what to do if tornadoes are in your immediate area, but there’s no point in being anxious every time there’s a thunderstorm in the forecast, or worse, just being anxious that every thunderstorm could spawn a tornado. That sort of thinking is just corrosive to your psyche and isn’t actually productive in terms of getting prepared, etc.
So I’m not anxious about what could happen. Concerned for sure, and more than a little dismayed that the election wasn’t closer than it was, but not anxious.
