US Election 2016 - My (Canadian) Observation

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DragoonMyuutsu's avatar
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Like many have already expressed, this was indeed a very painful, tumultuous US election to watch. But why I ask? As a Canadian I was certainly driven to watch and go vote on the day in which Justin Trudeau defeated the Conservatives and won the Liberals a majority in Parliament. But this one also drew my attention, and it was the same magnitude of societal impact as when I saw the news of the 9/11 attacks and I tried to make sense of the events that unfolded. From the start the election primaries and candidate selections was anything but an orderly process which at the time wasn't anything to hold on, but was a starter to much more dire to come. What was at first a laughable spectacle, especially on Donald Trump's participation, gradually became a more serious possibility that he could actually attain the office of one of the most influential nations in the world. Late-night comedians who were quick to engorge themselves in the prospect of Donald Trump trying to win the presidency, eventually realized that there is a chance for his success, spreading the dangerous and extreme changes that could wreck the very infrastructure holding the country together; they like many other celebrities made large efforts to endorse Hillary Clinton and promote her as the worthy next president. Unfortunately, their efforts were in vain... and as Stephen Colbert put it, it was like a poison in which Americans took to feed their desire to disprove the other side, but then it gets worse as more is devoured. The involvement in politics drawn in by the large spectacle in which this election ballooned into an absolute catastrophe in the end.

1.) My desire to see a first Madam/ Former First-Lady President of the US
2.) High celebrity endorsement of Hillary Clinton
3.) Low Voter Turnout for any election I've observed
4.) Donald Trump winning the presidency

All this culminating into what truly depressed and severely bummed me out on Nov. 8 and 9th.

Made worse when I came across this video of a 103 year old senior named Ruline Steininger, who made an effort to vote every election, and especially this one to finally see a first Madam President in the Oval Office. Seeing this really shattered whatever is left in my heart.


Hillary Clinton may not have been a perfect candidate especially having been in the political spotlight for some time and most notably under scrutiny for the email scandal while secretary of state, but I saw more potential in her to run the country when compared to someone like Donald Trump. Something that many definitely saw in her and wanted to help her take office. While she failed to win over voters of low-income, middle class working people, they should not be seen at fault for the electing of Donald Trump in my opinion. They were only voting for someone who they felt resonated more with their daily struggles and felt were consistently ignored in previous governments as I have heard from a Podcast from Cracked.com. Clinton definitely was a politician while Trump remained outside that environment, so it made it more appealing they would vote for him than her feeling that they needed to usher in a change. A change that documentary filmmaker Michael Moore claims will still be unheard even with Trump as all they've accomplished is deliver a giant bombastic message to government to finally hear them, and that will be all because Moore insists that Trump will still be the same Trump he always was and will always put himself first before anyone else. I'm in the middle working class in Canada, and life doesn't get any easier each day here either; I work 2 jobs and find it hard to enjoy any free time and work on any personal projects I have lined up, but I would never vote for someone who has clearly demonstrated some very degraded morals and is disingenuously apologetic.

Who is at fault then? In my opinion, it is the undecided voters, nearly 44% of eligible voters did not come to vote because they were discontent with either main party candidate and any additional candidates in the race [Source]. They found they could not settle on one of whomever they can support at all and thus refused to vote and remained complacent on that decision. While Canada certainly had it's low voter turnout, it shouldn't either because if your country doesn't run properly under a new government, you have no right to complain as you did not voice yourself through a vote on that critical day and early voting periods. Had you did, you have the legitimacy of calling out the government for failing to do as they have promised in the campaign they ran. And this most certainly will seem to be the case with Trump's administration. Even if you don't like the candidates selected, whoever does get voted into power will still affect your life, and everyone should at least consider that they should at least vote for SOMEBODY on the ballot, doesn't matter who or for what reason, but you voted, that's what counts. The end result will show a more definitive direction in which the nation has chosen to go. Trump didn't win the presidency, sweep the nation with his rallied low-income middle class supporters who flooded the polling booths; in fact he didn't actually get the most votes nationwide, because Clinton actually got more votes than he did [Source]; but he got more votes to win the Electoral Votes (a VERY, highly contentious electoral system currently) due to the undecided voters sitting back and doing absolutely nothing and not actually voting to determine if the nation truly wants him to enter the oval office. Had everyone did vote and he still won the election, in that regard, it would be harder to contest his victory. Trump and Clinton both only had a quarter of support from eligible voters while the rest were undecided, which spells out a completely fractured, divided country that once held a top global position and now comes off as a joke. As a result, the US has elected a self-absorbed, narcissistic, brash, uncharismatic, racist, whiny, foul-tempered, misogynistic, sociopathic bigot to be president; a man who has openly threatened his opponents, incited violence, called on international powers to intervene in the election, caused dangerous mob mentality at his rallies, insulted his own political party he is representing, and whose staff plagiarized a speech by First Lady, Michelle Obama, all-in-all an inflated antithesis of a high authority figure in a 1st world country of freedom. To the undecided, I hope you are pleased with the result, especially if you thought Hillary was going to win based on the polls in the media with or without your vote to whoever. There are still places that do not have the privilege to vote and decide how things should be run; the right to vote should not be taken for granted. I didn't call out on the undecided voters of Canadian elections because frankly there wasn't a "Donald Trump" candidate in the 3 major political parties here. But cross-border, there is and just seeing this result, really was shocking, and coming off of Brexit which echoed similar eventual outcomes, I can't help if Canada might fall into such a horrible vote for whatever in the near future that only results in a further decline of society. The undecided have plunged their own nation into a state of fear in which they must live in because that is the extremes in which Donald Trump has built his campaign along with intense hate and anger. Is this the type of country we want the newer generations to grow up in and adopt such a rhetoric?

Daily Show's Ronny Chieng trying (and failing) to get undecided voters to vote: [Twitter Link]

Sound advice for those eligible voters who DID NOT vote AT ALL from Louis C.K. on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, April 4, 2017:


To the Anti-Trump protesters, you have every right to be angry and dismissive of Donald Trump's election win, because the election system according to some is outdated and flawed, and that the nation as a whole did not truly usher him into power. Please remember to keep it peaceful and continue to fight for what you believe is right.

Election anxiety will take a long time to settle, but at least the late night comedians are trying to recover and going to move on, ensuring that comedy will always be there to brighten someone's day and show the lighter side of all that turmoil that erupted that fateful night, but hopefully watch Trump's every move and calls him out when he missteps. I wonder if any of them will actually invite Trump to their show anymore post Nov. 8, this includes SNL. Hillary Clinton when she conceded defeat did it admirably and gracefully showing that she has far stronger character than her main political opponent (we all know he would've kept us in "suspense") and not diminishing the outlook for future generations to pursue grand ambitions while doing the right thing. Both Hillary and Bill Clinton appear to also taking a much needed, well-deserved break from the election:


Being an observer across the border, I too am in the process of recovering, the things I've learned from this election I plan to incorporate in my manga projects because art in these incidents truly help escape the struggles of reality much like comedy. Letting out what I felt during this whole 1.5 year election, very much helped; keeping it bottled up, would only make things worse. I'm not asking for any serious comments or discussions (I've seen the horrible commenting left on YouTube alone), in fact I refuse to respond to any comments posted on this journal due to the type of internet responses this may attract (I'd disable comments, but that option is missing for some reason), this is just how I feel and an example of decline in society in what was once a very strong neighboring nation to Canada that could spread.

To Hillary Clinton, thank you for being an strong moral fighter who is an inspiration to many.
To Ruline Steininger, hope you have more comfortable and happier years to come and hopefully you do one day get to see a Madam President of the US.

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(UPDATE) IN MEMORIAM:
Not to recent ago, I learned Ruline Steininger has passed on Jan. 31, 2017, my thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends. Her longevity and dedication to a better United States will hopefully bring forth a Madam President of the US, who will stand and defend the country in a righteous manner.

News Stories:
CNN Politics - Ruline Steininger, Clinton supporter, dies at 103
The Des Moines Register - Iowan, a Clinton supporter who was born before women could vote, dies at 103
The Sydney Morning Herald - Ruline Steininger, the 103-year-old Hillary Clinton supporter, has died
Cosmopolitan - The 103-Year-Old Woman Who Went Viral for Supporting Hillary Clinton Has Died

Hillary's Condolences



Ruline Steininger
1913 - 2017

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If the Simpsons predicted a President Trump, then surely Futurama will have predicted an Evil Supervillain being elected as a Governor:

© 2016 - 2024 DragoonMyuutsu
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Alandrian's avatar
I don't buy into the idea of the rust belt people being grossly dissatisfied and saying "fuck you" to "The System". That's what liberals like to believe. But studies on the voters (as well as the fact that that Pat Toomey character became governer of Pennsylvania) strongly suggest that it's far more likely that all the racist scumbags came out of the woodwork. (Also, one of the few truths that Chump told is the fact that the election was rigged.)