Sept 28 the grate debate

Two greying figures stooped over microphones and hurled vindictive barrages of verbal diarrhea at one another. It was a dismaying situation watching the first presidential debate of our wayward brothers from south of the border. It got so bad that one wealthy old guy told the other wealthy old guy to shut up. Of course, he didn’t.

The descent into chaos has accelerated and I don’t know who the winner was. The loser was the American people.

 I make no secret my dislike and disdain for the 45^th president of the United Mistakes of America. I have loathed the man known as Donald Trump from the days when he was a reality TV star and lecherous host of Miss America. With a sense of disbelief, I watched him railroad and lie, trying to remain the so-called leader of the free world. Now it’s not so free and he is not much of a leader.

Sad days indeed.

The divisions that are widening in the country to the south have become chasms. The gulf between people in Canada has widened as well. We are being divided by some unseen hand, an unknown force that seems to revel in our discord. Last night’s debate accentuated that.

In the middle of a pandemic, the USA has campaigned on an election like no other before. There are two camps of people now and real fear of civil war. Sitting on the sidelines in Canada I feel the unrest, the unease. We have two wings of the same bird no longer beating in unison; they are competing instead of complimenting. In the past twenty years, discord and division have become an infection that is far more threatening to our future than any virus.

Now the political leaders dance like minarets on strings. They accuse each other, they cajole each other and they definitely do not respect each other. Most people have camped themselves on one side or another. Encouraged by social media and the endless barrage of partisan posts, many people no longer think for themselves. They merely repeat the party line, the latest meme.

Donald Trump has done some good things to help his country, but no one from the left would ever admit that. Joe Biden and Barack Obama did a lot of good things for their country and you will never hear someone from the other side admit anything like that. The extreme views have taken over any debate. Putting the two leaders on a stage with each other and letting them bicker like school children served no purpose except to boost TV ratings. The ones pulling the strings are the ones winning in these debates.

The more I see of social media and biased mainstream media the more I am convinced that something fundamental has changed in the last twenty years. Watching from Canada we get sucked into the vortex of Social media, TV, radio, and Newspapers. It is almost impossible to avoid unless I were to drop out and pull a Chris Farley and go live in a van down by the river. Things have gotten less civil, more hateful, and more personal with all forms of media.  As I watched the train-wreck of a debate I wonder if this is all a plan, an act to create discord.

I shut the TV off in disgust and went outside into the fresh, pure air of my Okanagan home. I know what is really important. I know that my health and the health of my family and friends is what really is important. Healthy, happy, and alive I know that what happens in November may affect me in Canada. But there is absolutely sweet FA I can do about it. I can’t even vote.

So I let it all go and hope that Trump doesn’t get another four years. But even if he does, the world won’t end. I can just live each day to the best of my ability. I will try to stay positive,  I will continue living the dream.