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| Canadian cultural institution |
The world’s a fine place and worth the fighting for. — Ernest Hemingway
Every day that Americans agonize over abortion, decry the war in Ukraine or rake their fingers bloody over the brick wall of guns is another 24 hours closer to the day Republicans try to steal the 2024 presidential election, with better odds this time. More pliant secretaries of state. More true believers waiting in state legislatures. A hyper-partisan Supreme Court.
And as much as I’m concerned about women’s rights, Eastern European atrocities, school massacres, etc., those issues pale compared to the prospect of the United States no longer being a functioning democracy. Where a candidate like Donald Trump can lose, as he did in 2020, by 7 million votes — quite a lot, really — yet insist he won and, far worse, be supported by an enthusiastic mob of leering lackeys and blind bootlickers.
With that in mind, I posted on Facebook a chilling column by the Washington Post’s Max Boot. “We’re in danger of losing our democracy. Most Americans are in denial.”
The very first comment ended: “The outlook is bleak. I’m going to study a move to Canada.”
Again with the Canada.
The “Ho for Canada!” crowd has to realize they represent a vein of weak, selfish, cowardice that is among the worst qualities of the Left, almost as bad as the subservient, anti-democracy terror that causes supposedly free Americans to sprawl before seditionists like medieval peasants groveling at the passing of a nobleman on horseback.
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| There are many potato diseases in Canada. |
Second, if the point is we are trying to avoid letting the United States devolve into the white fantasyland of Republican dreams, well, some 80 percent of Canada is white. I’m surprised Republicans aren’t mooning about escaping there. The national health care system must put them off.
Yes, I understand there’s a “Why-didn’t-they-get-out-when-they-could?” dynamic. All those good German Jews who stuck around as the nation went insane in the 1930s, hoping for the best when they should have been on the next boat out of Bremen.
But we aren’t anywhere near that, and if Democrats can find a spine, maybe we never will be. Pre-emptive surrender is not a success strategy. The United States isn’t 1938 Germany. It’s 1931. There is still time to avoid the catastrophe. But that takes work. And people.
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Seems to me that a very good reason for not planning an escape to Canada is that Canada is not going to welcome you in, regardless. Now, New Zealand, on the other hand...
ReplyDeleteGotta say, dissing our friends to the north with a photo of Potato World is like saying the United States is primarily the home of the Corn Palace. Uh, Toronto gives Chicago a run for its money, if not vice versa, and Montreal is wonderful. For starters.
"The United States isn’t 1938 Germany. It’s 1931." Counterpoint: the older one gets, the more evident it becomes what a short amount of time 7 years is. To wit: It's been 7 years since the Biggest Loser rode down the escalator in order to defame Mexicans. Frankly, aside from the fact that we haven't had a nuclear war, I'm astonished at how badly things have gone since then, and how rapidly the trajectory of this country has been reversed from the optimistic days of Obama to the current nightmare.
Finally, as long as I'm being disagreeable, I might as well go all in. If I were Grizz, I'd wonder what exactly was the difference between him being castigated for saying the second Civil War is just about here and "Win or die. That’s a plan."
Yeah, seven years since the Orange Nightmare began. Feels like a week sometimes, and it feels like a century, too How quickly we went from the Obama Years to the rail spur that ends at the edge of the abyss.The early Twenty-Tens now seem like a fantasy...a smoke dream. And when I'm not thinking about Ukraine as Poland, or about 1931 Germany, I'm thinking about JFK and Cuba, and everything...EVERYTHING...becoming burnt toast on a lovely summer's day...and Tom Lehrer, at 94, croaking out..
Delete"And we will all go together when we go
Every Hottentot and every Eskimo
When the air becomes uraneous
We will all go simultaneous
Yes, we all will go together when we go!"
And he can change it to "Ukrainious"...nyuk nyuk nyuk...
I am probably the closest one here to Canada...a four-mile hike, and then a 55-mile boat ride across Lake Erie. But they don't want Yankee refugee geezers asking for political asylum, unless they bring along their thriving business...and new jobs and an infusion of big money.. They'd just put me into a camp and then shuffle me off to Buffalo, where I'd be tossed back over the fence and into the swamp...to face God-only-knows-what.
Thanks for having my back. I don't know what the difference was, either. Maybe Mister S was just miffed and peeved on that particular day. Wasn't the first time I said it, but it might be the last time I'm that graphic...the bulldozers, the grass doing its work, yadda yadda, yadda. But we won't talk any further about that.
Win or die? I'll turn 75 this summer. If we win, I might see 85, if I'm lucky. If things keep on going south, my odds will not be favorable.. But no matter what happens, the Iceman is already in my neighborhood. And he isn't Jerry Butler, either.
Aside from the merits of whether pledging to move to Canada is a good idea for whatever reason, I would point out that we already went through that in the election of 2016, with several public figures either promising or threatening to move to Canada if Trump was elected. I am not aware of any who actually did so after the election. If people are still posturing with that as a threat, it's an old act and not very believable.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the devastating cold intro to Saturday Night Live on the weekend after the 2016 election, when Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." (Cohen himself had died on the preceding Monday.) It's available on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG-_ZDrypec) and well worth the viewing. At the end of the song, she turns to the camera and says, "I'm not giving up, and neither should you." Words to live by.
Seems to me it’s a race to see if we can get the right wingers out of office before they pass enough laws to make that impossible.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the BEST reason for a move to Canada: no humans!
ReplyDelete