For those who enjoy card games, you will all understand the importance of the trump card. If the table is playing clubs and you have no clubs, you drop that trump card, the two of hearts, and <bam!> you take away that ace of clubs and break the spirit of whoever played it. Trump defeats everything and there’s nothing you, nor anyone else, can do. Of course there’s another trump you may be familiar with: Donald Trump, formerly known as “The” Donald. He is so important he gets an article in front of his name. Take that rest of the World!
One thing Canadians love to do is follow U.S. politics, because it really makes no sense. We have about a five-week campaign where issues come up, debates are held, babies are kissed, then everyone goes to the polls and the whole thing is wrapped up in an evening. This is not the case for the United States. I cannot imagine going through this election cycle for an entire year, every four years. First it’s these primaries that make no sense to me, then as the candidates whittle down one by one, they eventually arrive at a convention where the person with the most delegates should automatically get the right to run for President. Of course anyone can run for President but nobody pays attention to you unless you’re from one of the two principle parties: the Republics and the Democrats, Party A or Party B forever and ever. Everything is tied up in this two party system and if my math is correct, the two-party system means you have one more choice than dictator.
Since this election process goes on for so long, it really seems to bring out the worst in everyone. This latest Presidential election has been the most absurd of them all, at least for as long as I remember. Can you imagine Reagan and Carter stirring up this much controversy? How about Gore and Bush or Romney and Obama? No, this latest round, the election equivalent of the Octagon, has provided endless thrills and stupefying rhetoric. Every other country just sits back, grabs their extra large tub of popcorn and goes along for the ride wondering how American politics can be this ridiculous, but then someone says “oh, yeah, they got nukes!”
I am sorry for you Trump fans out there, but I just cannot believe he’s gone on this long. I suspect there’s still the possibility he’ll become President if something cataclysmic happens to Hilary Clinton, but right now it’s looking grim for the Donald. Right from the start of his campaign, his slow elevator ride down to the fawning crowd in a building with his name it, the Trump campaign has been like a very bad reality show. I don’t watch a lot of reality shows, but the producers usually hunt around for two types of people, those you love and want to see win and those you hate and hope do not win. When the latter wins, it’s usually because they were the most manipulative and conniving, but most importantly, it makes great television. People love to hate the bad guy, but as Trump shows, people also love to love the bad guy.
Trump has brought American politics to a new low. Gosh, when I was young, people joked about Dan Quayle because he couldn’t spell “potato” during a children’s spelling bee. Seriously, that’s it. The Donald says whatever he wants, however absurd and people cheer; they say he “tells it like it is,” as if they also believe Harry Potter is a documentary. Every time he opened his mouth in the debates you could see the gears clanking in his head as he fought to find some sort of response that was so vague, nobody was really sure what he meant. That’s the Donald. I’ll admit that I was no fan of George W. Bush and his aw shucks Texas redneck drawl, but at least the guy didn’t spew hatred and division. What happened to Mitt Romney? He’s about as threatening as Santa Claus. Seriously, Trump is the best the Republican Party can do? Yikes!
So I sit back with my bowl of popcorn awaiting the final outcome and wonder where U.S. politics will go in the next ten to twenty years. Perhaps it’s time they take a look at their system because, in order to wage a year-long campaign, you need money and plenty of it. Perhaps that’s the root of all this trouble because eventually the U.S. is going to lose their ace of clubs with a lowly two of hearts: “Trump!”
Paul Panchyshyn 