Many Canadians are appalled by what’s happening in the US. But we sometimes forget that, just as Canadians are masters in our own house, so are Americans in theirs. So, while we may look on in horror as their country sinks into fascism – likely already beyond the point of no return – they can and will do as they please.
This was always America’s fate; the culmination of generations of bred-in-the-bone belief in American exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny, obsession with personal rights and freedoms that trumps communal responsibility, unquestioning allegiance to a Constitution written more than 200 years ago and reflecting a socio-political context that is no longer relevant, the intentional destruction of the public education system, unfettered capitalism, and Christian fundamentalism run amok.
Even so-called “reasonable” Americans, who condemn Trump’s actions and lament the current direction, must shoulder some of the blame. These are the same people, after all, who can watch hundreds of kids murdered every year in daily mass shootings, yet refuse to call for a total rethink of the “right to bear arms”, rather deferring to what they deem is a more reasonable (read Democrat) interpretation of the Second Amendment, further solidifying the idea that their Constitution is the obvious and indisputable authority on all matters of freedom and how to conduct a society. Community safety and kids’ lives are sacrificed on the altar of exceptionalism and in the name of freedom.
So, let’s accept that the US story will play out as it must as the country succumbs to a fascist, oligarchic regime. And let’s learn from their experience so that we don’t follow them into the abyss, as we so often do as a result of our geographic, social and economic proximity.