"Respect"

[solarbird]

Yes, I went off on Twitter again. It was a little sloppy so this is a tiny bit revised. Says the same thing, though.

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[VIDEO excerpt of Donald Trump's departing address. TRUMP: "The world respects us again. Please. Don't. Lose. That. Respect."]

As he says this, the Toronto Globe and Mail is literally running editorials saying Canada may need to intervene in US politics to prop up democracy as a counter to Russian (and etc.) meddling in favour of Trumpist fascism.

No, really. Go read it. The editorialist is wrong about this not being a 'real' insurrection in that they absolutely meant it; he just discounts it as too disorganised and inadequately supported by the military.

Still real though.

I'll have to split this across tweets:

"The U.S., for the foreseeable future, will be the battleground for democracy. If Canada wants democracy to survive, it will have to be an active participant. Obviously, our virtues and our self-interest coincide on this point: ...

...An autocratic U.S. is a massive threat. How do we manipulate its electoral process and its government to serve the interests of global democracy? If we are too squeamish and too conventional to engage, the enemies of democracy, currently rampaging, will go unopposed."

I realised later that a lot of you won't play the clip, because FUCK Trump, right? But here's what he said:

"The world respects us again. Please. Don't. Lose. That. Respect."

As CANADA tries to figure out how to intervene and save democracy in the US.

_Canada._

"Respect."

Just imagine what _other_ countries are trying to figure out.

Quietly.

_Not_ in public.

"Respect."

Christ.

Comments

[dewline]

And this Globe and Mail opinion essay is from a guy who's trying to figure out the odds of there being a Second American Civil War - or, going by David Brin's blogging about US history, phase nine of the first one that started in 1776 and has never really stopped, going suddenly but expectedly hot - in our lifetimes.

[solarbird]

Winning the election means it's us facing a fascist insurgency rather than the fascists crushing a democratic resistance. Given the failures of 2007, we're in... about the least bad realistic position we could probably be in.

[jessie_c]

As CANADA tries to figure out how to intervene and save democracy in the US.

Sorry.

congratulations

[solarbird]

That is, of course, the most Canadian response possible; well done.

(I'm not saying we don't need the help. But I am saying that all this is literally the opposite of respect.)

[oh6]

It has been clear that relations with the United States - with anyone, never mind Canada - were approaching a Situation since at least the election of Ronald Reagan, and likely from decades before that. I recall musing in the early 2000s that some US analogue of Sovietology was going to be necessary at some point.