Stumbling to the Finish Line
Good news! I made it to week two before focusing entirely on the USA.
Originally, I had a completely different newsletter for this week.
I wrote up a whole post on what the outcome of the American election might mean for Canada. I talked about pipelines and border security and Covid-19 and trade agreements. It was a solid piece of news reporting.
But I couldn’t send it out. Not because it’s not worthwhile to frame this election within the lens of how it might impact us in Canada, which it is. If you’re interested in that kind of piece, I can recommend this MoneySense article, written by my old camp counsellor (hey Bry!) or this thorough piece from the CBC. Both good options.
I couldn’t send that piece out because, honestly, I’m so tired. I’m so tired of all of this. I didn’t want to spend any more time focusing on these two men and their differences and their policies because *fart noise.*
Image via Reuters.com
This election is suffocating. It takes up all the air in the room. It should be hyperbole to say that the outcome of this one election, in this one country, will alter the fate of the entire world. But actually, that’s literally true!
In part because there is a TWO YEAR CAMPAIGN PERIOD. Why? For what possible purpose? The short answer is because America doesn’t have laws dictating how long it can be, so candidates jump in early to get name recognition and lock down donors. Which also means that in order to run, you need to have millions of dollars at your disposal to keep up with the multi-year campaign, which excludes a majority of people without access to those funds, especially marginalized communities, but that’s another issue. And my god, the endless campaigning and canvassing is exhausting. It’s exhausting to watch, and it must be exhausting to participate in. And if you’re the sitting president running for re-election, when do you have time to actually…be the president? I can’t imagine you can easily run the country while flitting off to an Iowa state fair and prepping for a debate. But I digress.
This election isn’t just a vote for the next president of the United States. It’s a vote on democratic rights, and violent extremism, and cruel, visceral, unmitigated hatred and racism. But on the other hand, the electoral college system is so comically broken that most votes basically don’t matter.
And the current president has spent months sowing seeds of doubt by disparaging mail-in ballots and claiming that people are forging votes to steal the election. Is it a ploy to stir up support in the courts, which he has packed? Is it a wink to his fan base, riling them up to demand “justice” if the election doesn’t go their way? Yeah, probably, both of those seem likely.
Trudeau addressed the uncertainty, from the CBC article I linked above.
“I think we're certainly all hoping for a smooth transition or a clear result from the election like many people around the world," Trudeau said. "If it is less clear, there may be some disruptions and we need to be ready."
All of this is exhausting.
It’s one horrible piece of information after another, with no chance for respite. And though I do not wish to trade places with my American friends right now, being in America, and voting in America, seems like it would provide at least a small amount of catharsis. A chance to participate in whatever tenuous hold on democracy still exists. Those of us in other countries have no choice but to watch this slow-motion car accident unfolding in front of us, and we can’t do anything to alter the outcome. The cars will crash, and we will be here on the sidewalk waiting, and the only variable is how bad the damage might be.
Which means that we’ll all - the whole world - be dealing with the outcome of this election for a long time. If the president wins another term, that’s one thing. That’s another four years of disastrous environmental policies and non-answers and bold, vicious hypocrisy paired with lying so blatant it makes me question my own sanity for a moment. Maybe I’m the one who’s gone mad. It’s a reasonable hypothesis in a world that is seemingly spinning off its axis.
But if he doesn’t win, and then refuses to leave, what next? Riots? Violence? A crucial test of his newly-filled Supreme Court? Again, probably. All of that seems likely.
So what do we do? We normalize it. Humans weren’t designed to deal with the level of adrenaline that living in this world and dealing with this news cycle produces. After a while (honestly, not that long) the horrible headlines don’t produce the same amount of rage. As Josh Gondelman wrote in this week’s edition of Welcome to Hell World (also recommended!), this is all routine now.
“What changed was that Trump’s avarice and incuriosity and a variety of the other seven deadly sins lost the ability to surprise. His actions kept hurting people, of course. I imagine that ability to inflict pain is what kept him showing up to work at all. But it was no longer weird to have a Commander in Chief who allegedly referred to dead troops as “losers” and “suckers.” It was horrifying but not shocking the way he downplayed a pandemic because he didn’t care if anyone with a different last name than he has lives or dies, and may not even believe those people continue to exist when he closes his eyes. It’s horrible, and at this point it’s completely quotidian.”
And so now, instead of being angry, or inspired to action, or even confused, I’m just tired of the routine. I want this to be over. I want this all to be over.
Recommendations from the Slush Pile:
There’s something low-stakes voyeuristic about the Money Diaries series. This one features a woman who subscribes to a popcorn box (love that.)
To find hope, turn inward.
All hail Ina Garten. She likes leftovers, and that’s all I need to hear.
Last week I read Consent by Annabel Lyon and it’s stayed with me for a few days. It looks at two sets of sisters in Vancouver who are brought together in unexpected ways, and what it means to have control over your life, or how much control you should expect. It’s unsettling, in a good way.
One Last Thing:
Mandy Patinkin is online, he doesn’t know what any acronyms mean, and he’s perfect. I wish that he and Kathryn Grody could adopt everyone and send out messages like this every day.
Great article - I'm enjoying reading your posts!!