Okay, here goes nothing… To all of MY CANADIAN FRIENDS (an American ones who chose to read this), I am going to try to give my explanation as to what happened in the election of (can’t really believe I’m writing this) President Donald Trump…
DISCLAIMERS:
EDITED: FORGOT TO ADD THAT I RESPECT THE DECISION OF ANY VOTER IN THE USA, I THINK THAT IF YOU DIDN'T VOTE, IT IS FAR WORSE THAN VOTING FOR EITHER CANDIDATE... BUT AGAIN, I RESPECT ANY DECISION MADE
OKAYYYYY HERE WE GO… I will first say that I am glad that I am Canadian, and I am glad that I been able to spend a lot of time in the USA as well, it has given me new insight on a lot of things. In regard to this election campaign and this election itself, I found myself sometimes paying way more attention than I should have, and that is why I feel like I might need to explain some stuff. Yes, Mr. Trump, President Trump (should keep writing it to get used to it), won. That is because of something called the electoral college. In short, the electoral college is comprised of 538 “votes”, with each state getting a certain number of votes based on state population (i.e. Pennsylvania = 20, California = 55, New Hampshire = 4, etc.). Now, to win the presidency, you need 270 of these votes, which President Trump won by a decent margin. There are many problems with this system (IN MY OPINION) and that’s a story for another time. The main thing to take away is that the POPULAR VOTE, which means the total amount of votes, no matter which state they came from, was in favour of Sec. Hillary Clinton (according to sources like “The Independent” and “Toronto Sun”) by about 200 000 votes. This means that, like the 2000 Bush/Gore election, the person who had the most TOTAL votes LOST the election… Pretty scary to me.
Next… Let’s talk about how in every poll before the candidates were elected, Sen. Bernie Sanders was polling WAY better against Pres. Trump than Sec. Clinton was. Obviously they are just polls, and can’t be trusted, as almost every poll had Clinton WAY ahead of Pres. Trump before last night’s election. With the knowledge of the stuff above, I do THINK that Pres. Trump would have “Felt the Bern” and lost the election. There is way more to talk about with this but I’m going to move on so that this doesn’t become the longest post in the history of time.
Next… We shall talk about how the PRESIDENCY, the SENATE, the HOUSE are all “controlled” (majority) Republican. That is GREAT news for Republicans out there because it means that the laws and bills and any other government issue is MORE LIKELY to be passed because Republicans will presumably be in accord with a Republican President. If this scares you, I’m not sure whether to confirm or deny your fear. The only stat that I can offer you is that the last time the Republican Party controlled all three was in 1928… For those of you who know history, the “Great Depression” started in 1929… Now before you jump to conclusions and follow the market which has the DOW down 700 points (as of last night when I checked), you have to remember that the ideals of both parties kinda did a SWAP during the JFK years (congrats on those who followed in American History). This is hard to explain but from what I remember (CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG) JFK was the first Catholic President, and that kinda shifted the way the States voted, therefore changed the sides that people were on (generally, Rep went Dem, and Dem went Rep, also why I disagree with the “GOP” Grand Old Party label for the Republicans because the ideology was completely reversed… again, story for another time).
Here’s the deal… I don’t THINK that the American Senate, House, and Supreme Court will be harsh enough (IN MY OPINION) to do certain things like deport every illegal immigrant, put Muslims on a register, and build a WALL between borders… I could be wrong, and the fact that the Republicans control Congress could be the thing that changes what I think.
Next… I am not too worried (as of yet) as to what happens with this country… The system has been around a while and whether Pres. Trump shakes things up or not, I have faith in America that they will end up making the right choices… If you think about it, President Trump is around for 4 years (my whole college life), and if he does a GREAT job, then awesome, we’ll have him for 4 more years, if he does the disastrous job that a lot of people (most people, according to the POPULAR VOTE) think he will do, then America will have a new and improved President in 4 years (or less if its so bad that they Impeach him).
Lastly… If Clinton would have just not done some shady e-mail things, there would be absolutely ZERO reason not to have her as the next President of the United States. That being said, from living here for close to 3 years, I don’t think America was too keen on having their first female President (AGAIN, MY OPINION). I also think that if you look at these candidates CVs, I can’t understand how Pres. Trump was elected. Hillary Clinton was, and is, BAR NONE, the MOST QUALIFIED person ON PAPER, MAN OR WOMAN, to be a candidate for President of the United States of America. Contrast that with Mr. Trump’s CV (Mr. because of the fact I’m talking about him as a person not the President), and you can understand why SO many people are confused on how a person with ZERO POLITICAL and/or PUBLIC SERVICE experience (aside from that time he was, yes, a DEMOCRAT) can beat out the hands down most qualified person for this office. BUT, even if Sec. Clinton would have won this election, because the House and Senate are Republican majority, she would not have been able to do anywhere close to as much as she would like! Everything would be shut down, and she’d be denied things like meetings with the Senate, much like PRESIDENT OBAMA’s term. For those people who say “Clinton and Obama have done NOTHING for this country” or “They haven’t changed anything in the government”, I say to you, “Do you understand politics?” My friends who are into politics (you know who you are), will, I hope, help people understand that in political things move very SLOWLY, because people are more interested in themselves, their “image”, and their places in office, than doing their duty as government officials. THE REASON OBAMA COULDN’T DO AS MUCH AS HE WANTED WAS BECASUE HE GOT SHUT DOWN EVERY TIME HE TRIED… He is the first President to be DENIED a MEETING on his BUDGET… I try not to include my political affiliation in anything I do, an this is the most biased I’ve been toward Obama (as far as I know), and therefore will say this…
As one of my American History teachers said, “you can only really begin to judge a President 50 years after he leaves office”… Therefore before you judge Obama, or Trump for that matter, wait a couple years before you can really see the difference they made in this country. Obama, as a Canadian I’d like to thank you for your 8 years in office, I thoroughly enjoyed watching you as President of the United States. To President Trump, good luck sir, you may have the most/least amount of pressure a President has ever had (depending on what side you’re on)…
I will ALWAYS consider myself CANADIAN first, but I am very glad to have been in this country for a little while… Thanks for reading...
Let the comments begin...