As a Canadian we generally pay more attention to American politics than our own especially because of the extremes of it that are mirrored here as well. In Canada I generally lean politically Liberal or independent these days. American Media overwhelms our own especially where I am from because of how it ripples across the western world.
Looking at the state of politics in America, the gulf between the extreme right and normal politics has become so wide that they almost seem as if they exist in completely separate universes. From the outside I think a lot of people looking in can’t understand how so many people can believe that Donald Trump would be a good candidate, especially after his first stint in office.
The way I see it is that you only have to look to Russia and their propaganda machine since much of the media is either controlled and or owned by Putin and his political elite. In the United States, while the media is separate, corporate entities like FOX News and News Max are owned by Conservative entities that use their reach and status within society to shape and generally warp their viewers perceptions of reality. The ability to pick, choose and warp stories has an impact.
The Internet makes this worse since social media can keep individuals stuck in their own information echo chamber. This means that ideas and stories are constantly reinforced so that how can an individual not believe it, if everyone they know does? It highlights the power of propaganda in the Republican party apparatus that has led to electoral college success over the decades.
The democractic coalition that has developed during Former President Trump’s first term is a dynamic collection of groups that is like a herd of cats. Getting them to move together is always going to be a challenge. Especially when you compare it to how the Republican party messaging, which is focused on a core set of ideas or stories day to day, reinforces whatever message they want to get out.
When President Joe Biden, declined the nomination, his immediate endorsement of Kamala Harris helped to prevent the division that would occur from an unpredictable and fast forwarded nomination process. It helped to galvanize the various groups within the coalition because of Biden’s performance in his debate with Trump in June.
Vice President Kamala Harris during her speech at the 2024 DNC spoke not as a trailblazer who would break that final glass ceiling but as an American, first and foremost. I’m just a spectator to what is happening in America, I hate politics in general but am so concerned with the damage that would be done by Trump returning to office since the guardrails would be off, not just to America but to the western democracies as a whole. To the alliances that Trump depises all elevated by the propaganda apparatus of Fox News, the republican party and MAGA.
I used to watch CNN a lot during COVID but have come to understand that legacy media no matter the channel each have their own bias. It is easy to get caught in your own media silo. I do try to go to more independent leaning media channels, especially on YouTube than the news channels you see on cable.
The new ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, took all the worry and fear from a 2024 rematch and shot up into the sky like fireworks and has since kept on going because it takes everything that Trump said about President Joe Biden and reflects it back on him. Donald Trump is now the old person in the race and the focus is now not on the general electorate but on the key battleground states up and down the ticket for not only the makeup of the Executive and Legislative branches of the American government but of what it represents. Who will define the next chapter in the American story? Does America want to go back to the unpredictability of a second Trump administration and in many ways try to go backwards or do they chart a new path forwards.
That is the contrast between the 2 presidential candidates and instead of it being a contrast between 2 old white men, it is between one old rich white man and a younger black/south asian woman? The republican party and the creators of Project 2025 which acts as a blueprint to reshape the federal government if a second Trump term is scary, a means of a level of control over the choices people can make and how they live their lives that is scary. From the deportation of millions of so called illegal immigrants, to a federal abortion ban to replacing career civil servants with political appointies it would turn the United States of America into something that looks more like Russia, with power centralized and opposition snuffed out.
The focus of the DNC was on everyone as happy warriors, to protect the freedoms of everyone. While the RNC seemed more like the corination of someone many know is unfit for office. The leaders of the Republican party have fallen in line not based on an ideology but because that’s what many in the party want.
These people are scared that their political power will be diminished in a a multicultural and diverse America and devolution of the Republican party into a cult of personality is the price they have paid for it. It isn’t the republican party it is the Trump party, the extremists are the leaders who believe they can manage their narcissist leader so that the extremists that created project 2025 can begin to execute on their agenda. The fall to facism or the recognition of a diverse Democratic America is the fight they face.
It is the fight for the future, the continuation of a rules based global order. While it isn’t perfect going back to a time where the dominate. The focus of Kamala Harris’ speech was not as a democrate but as an American, not as what would be the first female president but as a leader of and for everyone and that’s what needed to be done.
You could tell that everyone there knew that it would be a race to mobilize against an electoral college map that makes them the underdogs that this is a fight that could continue the American experiment of reshape America towards the future or the past. Kamala knows that they are behind, as Tim said they are behind but they are in it to win it and they have the team to do it. Now it’s time for everyone state side to get to work, I wish you luck and I’m routing for the Harris-Walz ticket, democracy over facism, freedom over fear and hope over despair.
You can feel the energy at the DNC, that everyone had to do their part, to overcome the republican advantage this cycle and from now until the results come in, its gonna be a full on battle, every day, every attack. There will be good and bad days but, there is a chance. They have momentum and I believe that there are more of us than them. I’m just a normal person but I hope everyone gets out there and votes Register to Vote Online – Vote.org not just for what you believe but what you want your country to be. I’m pulling for you America, for the messy and chaos of democracy but at least one where you can be civil and where the other side isn’t painted as an enemy. Good luck.