The Casual Blog

Tag: Canada

March 16, 2025

Skiing in Canada, and trying to articulate some of the problems with Trump

Last week I got to ski in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.  It was amazingly beautiful there, with vistas that rivaled the Alps.  There had been less-than-average snowfall, but there was enough coverage for many excellent runs through varied and challenging terrain.  I sampled the Lake Louise area, and spent the majority of my time at the Sunshine resort.

The trip was organized by the Raleigh Ski and Outing Club, which I recently joined.  As a new member, I found the group friendly and welcoming.  There were quite a few very good skiers, and it helped my skiing to hang with them.  

I was a little worried that the Canadians would be upset with American visitors, because of the recent threats by Trump to punish the country economically and possibly take it over.  Happily, the Canadians we met were nice as could be, though I’m sure that a lot of them are distressed at the new Trump policies.  

Since returning to the USA, I’ve been spending a lot of time with the news, trying to understand what’s happening to my country.  There’s so much to process that it can be overwhelming.  

It feels as though we’ve had a coup, with a small group seizing power and upending the existing order.  This is not extraordinary, in the sense that it has happened in many countries before.  What’s unusual is that we (that is, a bare majority of us) elected the coup instigators, and this is the USA, which has a long history of political stability.

The new Trump administration has moved with lightning speed to dismantle the existing framework of government and put in place values and policies antithetical to our laws and traditions.  Recent polls show that a lot of these initiatives are not supported by the majority, but there’s still a substantial minority that continues to approve of Trump. 

The remaining support for Trump confirms that, despite being stupid in many ways, he has a remarkable talent for propaganda.  He labels his ideas very simply and keeps repeating them.  It matters not if his labels distort or reverse the original meaning of words.  The constant repetition, like water on rock, tends to erode critical thought.

To successfully resist the new Trump program, we resistors need to call out the distortions, and also to communicate better by simplifying our language.   Where possible, we need to be direct and uncomplicated.  With that in mind, I’m offering the following seven-question quiz to highlight a few of the most alarming new initiatives, including some words in boldface that might serve as touchstones.

QUIZ – ARE YOU OK WITH TRUMP?

  1. Are you in favor of tanking the economy?  Prices of groceries and other necessities are going up, as Trump is driving us toward an economic disaster with his bizarre tariffs.  The stock market has dropped like a rock.  Business leaders are scared of what he’s doing and scared to object.  
  1. Do you support corruption in government?  Trump has fired officials who served as watchdogs for government misconduct and has declared a non-enforcement policy for anti-bribery laws.  This makes sense if one intends to loot the state and reward cronies by allowing them to do likewise, as authoritarian regimes often do.  Likewise, Trump is encouraging business fraud and corruption by shuttering the Consumer Finance Protection Board.  See Sen. Murphy’s recent speech for more on this:  https://youtu.be/hycoCYenXls?si=CJqnRPXx5OUaqw6J
  1. Are you opposed to free speech?   Trump is threatening and punishing traditional media that displease him.  Media outlets are writing him checks to settle his baseless lawsuits (see previous question on corruption) and toning down their critical coverage.  He’s previously proposed to shoot peaceful protestors.  His people have just arrested a foreign-legal resident for protesting the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians.  He has promised there will be more arrests to come.  
  1. Are you in favor of white supremacy?  The Trump initiative to suppress diversity, equity, and inclusion is simply a rebranding of old-fashioned racism, misogyny, and xenophobia.  Repeat:  his anti-DEl program is really barely disguised pro-racism, pro-misogyny, and pro-xenophobia.  Trump’s DEI bans, blaming airline disasters on DEI, and his firing of accomplished black and female military leaders shows that this initiative is both serious and crazy.  
  1. Do you prefer cruelty to decency and kindness?  Trump has cut off aid to starving children.  He’s stopping medical care for HIV and other patients.  He is gutting agencies that serve those less fortunate.  He is imprisoning migrants who have lived productive lives here for years or decades.  He is denying the humanity – indeed, the very existence – of transgender people.  
  1. Do you think it is better to address serious problems based on ignorance or science?  Trump is declining to endorse vaccines to prevent preventable serious diseases.  He’s shutting down scientific research into fundamental health issues.  He denies the reality of climate change that threatens civilization.  Indeed, he is pushing for producing and using more fossil fuels that will accelerate global warming.  
  1. Do you support brutal autocrats and the betrayal of democratic allies?  Trump has withdrawn support for Ukraine and threatened to withdraw from NATO.  He’s threatened to seize territory in Canada, Panama, and Greenland.  Meanwhile, he expresses continued affection for kleptocratic war criminal Vladimir Putin.  

END   

Pencils down.  How did you do?  Of course, this list doesn’t hit every Trump disaster currently in progress, but you get the idea – the indecency and outrageousness of a lot of the Trump initiatives can be stated in pretty simple terms.  

There are also some Trump initiatives that are harder to simplify, like upending the constitutional order by refusing the directives of Congress and the courts, undermining the rule of law through baseless pardons and baseless prosecutions, and decimating the federal workforce that’s foundational to our system of justice, our defense, protection of our environment, and many basic services.  But for those too, simpler is better, at least as a starting point.  

Admittedly, it will probably never be possible to persuade committed MAGA-ites that Trump’s program is disastrous.  There are those whose minds are made up, and sadly for them, they’re likely to be among the first to face serious adverse consequences from their leader.  But there are still plenty of folks who voted for him who will consider changing horses at the next opportunity.  Let’s see if we can improve our communications to help them see that changing is a good idea.  

July 3, 2016

A flooring experience, kind Canadians, and one good thing about Donald Trump

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This week while the flooring guys installed our new red oak floor, we stayed at the Hyatt Place, an increasingly uncharming unvacation, with nothing excitingly foreign and lacking the sweet comforts of home. With many years of marriage under our belt, Sally and I are good at comfortably sharing space, and we had no worrying collisions or conflicts, but also no room to spread out in the usual way.

We ate lots of local ethnic food (Indian, Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Ethiopian, Italian), which was fun, though I regretted eating so much, which is so easy to do in restaurants. I stuck with my resolution of using the hotel gym early every morning, but missed the machines and equipment at my usual gym. I missed making healthy green smoothies for breakfast. I missed my piano and exploring the intoxicating music of Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy.

But enough kvetching. On Friday evening, we moved back in to our condo, and found that our Latino flooring guys had done good work. We quickly hooked up the lamps and unpacked some essentials, and walked over to Pho Pho Pho for some good Vietnamese food. The dust gradually settled over the next couple of days – really, a lot of dust.
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It was a big week for ISIS mayhem in Istanbul, Dhaka, and Baghdad, which got lots of news coverage, and the epic humanitarian disaster of 65 million refugees and displaced persons continued, with little news coverage. There was one happy NY Times story about Syrian refugees being welcomed by Canadians. Ordinary folk have volunteered by the thousands to help unfortunates get resettled. Those Canadians are especially gifted in the way of kindness and generosity. Too bad they have such cold winters.

We could be moving there anyway if Donald Trump is elected. But happily that’s looking less and less likely, as more of his cons, schemes, and frauds come to light. Also, more and more, it looks as though he isn’t seriously working to win the election, but is primarily running to gratify his vanity and improve his personal bottom line.
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Now that he looks less like a serious threat to the Republic, it’s easier to admit that Trump has done something important and good. He brought attention to an enormous problem, which for many educated, well-off people was almost invisible before. I’m speaking of the distress, fear, and anger of millions of white working class males. It’s now clear that we ignore their welfare at our peril.

The anger and fear aren’t hard to understand. It wasn’t so long ago that these folks could play by the rules and pay a mortgage, go out to eat, go on vacations, and otherwise support their families and have a materially comfortable life. But complex forces, including globalization, automation, and institutionalized corruption have led to job losses, employment insecurity, and wage stagnation. These forces have been well described by Robert Reich (for example, here) and Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson in their book Winner-Take-All Politics (summarized here).

As the working class lost ground over the last few years, I’ve puzzled over why they increasingly voted Republican, while Republican policies were increasingly skewed toward the wealthy and against them. They didn’t seem to notice that Republican tax breaks were mostly going to the super rich, and changes in labor law enforcement and other areas were to their disadvantage. It seemed that they were attracted and distracted by various social issues, such as abortion, affirmative action, guns, gays, and the “War on Christmas.”

Trump has shown that white working class males weren’t so concerned about the conservative social agenda, and weren’t really buying trickle down economics. He has ditched trickle down and generally steered clear of the social agenda issues (except for guns). This demographic may have noted that the Democrats quit doing much to help labor or otherwise serve their interests, and also noted that Democratic elites viewed them mostly with indifference, if not disdain. Most likely they identified with Republicans’ emphasis on rugged individualism, and therefore viewed Republicans as the lesser of the evils.
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In Trump, this population has found an outlet for their boiling frustration and anger. They like his commitment to change. Unfortunately, they are also well pleased and energized by his fantasizing, conspiracy theorizing, and demonizing. But most important, Trump has acknowledged that they exist, and their problems are real. For the first time in a generation, a politician has put their concerns and values front and center.

Like it or not, angry, frightened, downwardly mobile voters aren’t going to go away. In fact, absent major changes, there are going to be millions more of them, as political, corporate, and technological forces continue to take away jobs and the social safety net continues to fray. Democrats need to reconfigure to acknowledge and address their grievances. Bernie made a good start, but we better keep moving forward. If Democrats don’t offer real solutions, someone else will offer imaginary ones. It is all too possible that a future Trump, smarter, better looking, and even more cynical than the Donald, could mobilize their anger into a true nightmare. Think Germany in the 1930s.

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