We are at war, but…

The American people have spoken. They re-elected someone who is actively trying to end the Republic. The POTUS has already crossed a number of Rubicons in the less than two weeks he has been back in office, and our soon-to-be-former Prime Minister Trudeau has already put some retaliatory tariffs on American goods. Whatever we might think about Trudeau, he’s standing up to the bully.

We as Canadians are not going to take this laying down, and I am trying to do what little I can, and trying to encourage others to do the same. At first, I thought it was absurd to try to boycott everything made in America, but in a way, it makes sense, just not in the way you think.

Trump is trying to cut regulations for consumer and worker protections. It’s like a libertarian anarcho-capitalist dream come true. You would like to think that this is not what most people who voted for him were expecting, or even wanting. However, I don’t think that it’s safe to eat anything made in America anymore, and it won’t be for the considerable future. And you don’t want to fly down there either, there have been a number of plane crashes in the last couple of weeks. He is just pandering to what the billionaires of the world want, which is to basically wreck the global economy, and divide the spoils amongst themselves, leaving 99.9% of us destitute.

In some ways, this is a culmination of American imperialist arrogance. It’s something I grew up with in the last years of the Cold War, it surfaced again with the George W. Bush administration and the misdirected and illegal Iraq War of the early aughts. But now, the worst has come to fruition. Trump is basically using America’s economic and military might to take whatever he wants, whether it’s the Panama Canal, Greenland, or making Canada into its “51st state”. I like to think that the rest of the world is getting ready to take on this behemoth.

But whatever happens, we must not give into hate and lump all Americans together. I have a close friend who is American. She and her family back home are scared about everything that is happening. And there are also some pockets of resistance (still peaceful though), and hopefully, the people in power will come to their senses and put a stop to all of this.

Just because the US government has lost its mind does not mean that any of us have to.