Nice country you got there buddy! You wouldn’t want your economy to get hurt now, would you? It would be a shame, a real shame - a nice country like yours - getting hit by nasty tariffs! A real shame! But, you know, there’s something you could do for me……
Since Mr Trump’s election we can kiss goodbye to the “rules based order” and say hello to obeisance to the “strongman”and the billionaire pals of the strongman divvying up the economic system. With Trump we are very likely to see international organizations like the U.N., and other international agreements and institutions downgraded and bypassed through separate deals between individual nations. Instead of “win win” we’ll get “lose lose”, as jobs are lost and inflation soars. The United Nations was constructed to prevent another world war, the International Monetary Fund and GATT, to avoid global depressions and the tariff wars that can precipitate them. The World Health Organization or W.H.O. works to promote global health. It helps to control disease outbreaks like polio, HIV, Ebola, and Covid. Containing a disease like Ebola in one country is a boon to every country. Once these international organizations are fatally weakened, we will find ourselves much closer to the conditions leading to another world war.
Lots of people want to burn it all down: all the peace, order, and good government that we had, all the institutions that we built that helped many of us to flourish. When we look at governments as gangs with a big man on top, all that flourishing goes away and we are looking at a dog eat dog world - in other words - at Social Darwinism. It’s going to be: survival of the biggest meanest son-of-a-bitch!
In Trump we have an American President who literally sees Putin, Hitler, and the Mafiosa, i.e., the aptly named “Mob”,as his lifelong role models. Secrecy, loyalty, escalation instead of compromise, never admitting mistakes, and saving face above all else. All of the above - the opposite of good government.
Conservatives used to tell us that character is an essential component of leadership. Once they fell for Trump’s endless lies they stopped believing in character. We are about to relearn this lesson the hard way!
My guess is that Trump’s election is going to accelerate the breakup of the “United” States, and, if we let him, Canada. When Donald Trump made that little joke to Trudeau, about Canada joining the states, it wasn’t a joke. We should keep our eyes on Canadian politicians because the next few years are going to prove their mettle or prove their spinelessness. This is a real test for Canadians using live ammunition - no joke! In Canada we have a truly great country. We need to keep it that way by standing up to Donald Trump and rejecting all of his corrupt tactics.
