For Non-USA Readers
My last post was for readers in the USA. This post is for readers outside the USA. I am not a pundit, not an expert in political science and sociology, but I have a bit of a brain, enough of a past to have strong opinions and enough nerve to share some of what is on my mind.
The usual search for reasons to explain what happened in the USA’s elections will circulate. Normally, Democrats find reasons for a lost election in the way the campaign was run. The Harris/Walz campaign was well run. Its flaws were not big enough to explain the outcome.
Ignore this. It is not important for you as a person (or a nation) outside the USA.
Some people wonder whether the stunning outcome of the USA’s election was fishy. Trump talked openly about not needing votes because he already had all he needed, about his supporters never having to vote again, about having a “little secret” involving the election, and so on. Russia meddled flagrantly, and some other countries meddled more quietly.
Don’t ignore this.
Look at how your country’s elections are held. Do what you can to shield against disinformation, what Russians call “political technology” (communications that stir people up and then use disinformation to steer them), incendiaries in ballot drop boxes, scurrilous ways of making it hard for people to vote, bomb threats at polling places that make some people miss out on voting because they can’t wait long enough for the polls to reopen, etc.
Democrats respect the Constitution and the rule of law. They—I should say we because I am one—won’t storm the Capitol or try to derail the peaceful transfer of power. We are also wary of becoming conspiracy theorists. We can talk ourselves out of believing a conspiracy existed when there actually was one, and we have done so before.
Biden has awesome powers the Supreme Court invented for the Presidency. He is too honorable to use them. Those who might want to investigate how the election was conducted won’t have any way to do it. Those who will have the power and the time to investigate are delighted with what they got from the election and have no wish to examine it.
So it doesn’t matter how this happened. It has happened.
The election results will stand.
Oh, wait—how this happened does matter to you because if your country hasn’t been targeted yet, it will be, in one way or another.
What Will You Face?
This is not going to be Trump 2.0 or Trump Unleashed. Ignore every pundit who talks in those terms. They are wrong. Anyone who listens to them will do the wrong things to try to resist or try to protect themselves.
This is going to be Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society Unleashed, which is far more perilous for everyone. Trump will be lucky if he carries on as a figurehead. You will face J.D. Vance, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and their cronies, but even they are not the main danger. The Heritage Foundation is. The Federalist Society is. The Mont Pelerin Society is, especially on the international stage.
Why is this more perilous for you? Because it is overtly international cancer with a limitless appetite and the world is on its menu.
Study Project 2025 to get a glimpse of what is about to happen. Remind yourself that the document only contains the parts they regard as sufficiently palatable to publish.
Methods in the plan have been tried out on smaller countries. Look at Argentina for a peek at what happens when some of the plan is implemented. Now the USA is the largest, most aggressive tumor of the metastasis.
Pay close attention to what this means for you, your country, the country next door, and the world.
What Is The USA?
Whatever your concept of the USA was, discard it.
This election is what the USA is now. In that sense it doesn’t matter whether Trump meant it when he repeatedly dropped hints that it was “fixed.” The election results will stand, so this is what the USA is now.
It is a country where the election went to those who worship hatred, vengeance and cruelty. It went to raw power and riches for the few at the top.
By Inauguration Day at the latest, you won’t be able to trust the USA at all. Alliances, trade agreements, intelligence-sharing, humanitarian aid, military support… all stand on quicksand. Countries that currently seem aligned with the incoming government may believe the USA is their ally, but the USA will not be reliable for anyone.
Personally I am grateful to the countries I have visited or worked in, especially the UK where I now live, for helping me see my birth country differently from the way I did when I had only lived, worked and traveled within the States. The USA has long been simultaneously wonderful and awful, admired and reviled, good and bad. Sometimes it has tilted more toward the good, sometimes more toward the bad. It has waded in where no one else could dare to wrangle a horrible mess, and it has waded in where it shouldn’t. It has been generous and miserly, kind and hard-hearted, the world’s police and the world’s bully. I learned to see the USA’s mixed character better and my conscience had to grapple with it more…
You cannot expect the good parts any more. What you understood to be the bad parts only hint at what is coming.
From here onward the USA is untrustworthy. International rules and norms will not apply. In the blink of an eye it could flip from your best friend to the strongest adversary aligned with your enemies, faster and more dramatically than ever before. It could use past status as an ally to sucker-punch you.
Prepare for the USA being on the Dark Side.
I hope what I’ve said here has been phenomenally stupid and wrong. I can stand the humiliation of being very, very wrong. But if I’m right and kept it to myself, my silence would be a betrayal.
Country before party.
World before country.
Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once said “Living next to the Americans is like sleeping next to an elephant—no matter how friendly and even-tempered the elephant, one is affected by every twitch!” Canadians are very aware that what happens in the US affects Canada directly. We also have our own "Maple MAGA" in our Conservative opposition to the Liberals / our current prime minister Justin Trudeau (Pierre's son). It's likely Conservative Pierre Poilievre will win the next federal election. Interference in our election processes by India, China and Russia have already been proven. Conservatives have hosted actual AfD/Nazi members from Germany and our former PM Stephen Harper is head of the IDU, the International Democracy Union--an Orwellian misnomer--that counts Hungary's Orban amongst it's most successful members. While Trump was in power previously Justin Trudeau's government was able to mitigate some of his damaging actions, but I am fearful of what will happen when a Trump supporting Poilievre government is in power at the same time. Americans contemplating moving to Canada may find that things are pretty similar up here, soon. Strength and endurance to all.
And yes I am wary of becoming a conspiracy theorist but too much has been said and done. Too much coziness with Putin and enemies of democracy. Were the results rigged? If Musk and other operatives didn’t use their vast wealth and digital expertise to manipulate results, the hypnotic power of extreme disinformation was election interference at minimum and tampering at the highest level.