American Heartburn

Taking one day at at time seems to be the consensus.

Image: NYDailyNews

(Pender Island, BC) - Economics Nobelist Paul Krugman wonders: “Is America a failed state and society? It looks truly possible.

"I guess we have to pick ourselves up and try to find a way forward, but this has been a night of terrible revelations, and I don’t think it’s self-indulgent to feel quite a lot of despair.”

Thomas L. Friedman wrote: “With Donald Trump now elected president, I have more fear than I’ve ever had in my 63 years that we could do just that—break our country, that we could become so irreparably divided that our national government will not function.”

At a Republicans’ election night party in Phoenix, a pair of friends, Linda M. Wright and Susan Cheatham, pumped their fists and thanked Jesus for Mr. Trump’s victory.

Gail Collins columnist at NYT wrote: “Well, wow. We’ve got a president-elect who a great many Americans regard as the spawn of Satan. A dimwitted, mean-spirited spawn embodying the nation’s worst flaws, failings and nightmares.”

Then she went on to explain "A Ten-Step Program for Adjusting to President-Elect Trump".

A few comments by her readers:

• “The only Ten Steps that would be useful right now would be in the direction of Canada. I know they don’t want us, but I think they would understand. But we’ve got to be quick, before they start building their wall.”
(On election day, Canada’s Immigration website crashed several times.)
• “Voters were furious with the antics of a solidly Republican House and Senate, so they’re sending a Republican president to straighten things out. Once they confirm a Republican Supreme Court Justice, anything will be possible.”
• “Republicans are naturally talented at nation-destroying, both at home and abroad.”
• “My advice: find the silver lining. This hangover we are all experiencing will be 10 times worse for his supporters in a few years.”
• “We are all dead and THIS is HELL!”

Stephen King (@StephenKing), who once called Trump a "sexist oinker" and a "tax dodger," tweeted, "No more book recommendations, politics, or amusing dog pictures for the immediate future. I'm shutting down."

Seth Macfarlane: “Some didn’t like Bush. Some didn’t like Obama. But this is different. Forget dislike. Many are genuinely fearful now. This is new.”

Barbra Streisand interviewed by an Australian TV progam: “I can’t believe it. I’m either coming to your country [Australia] if you’ll let me in, or Canada.” (www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/08/28/barbra-streisand-vows-move-australia-trump-wins/)

The interesting thing here is that people like Streisand have the money and resources to go anywhere in the world. Such options don’t exist for the majority of Americans.

Streisand is just one of nearly a dozen celebrities who have publicly vowed to move out of the United States in the event that Trump is elected. Other stars who have made the same pledge include Whoopi Goldberg, Miley Cyrus, Samuel L. Jackson, George Lopez, Raven-Symoné and Cher.

No word, yet, on whether former Canadians (e.g. David Frum, Martin Short or James Cameron) will make the move back north.

Marwan Bishara, a senior political analyst at Al Jazeera writes (“All we Arabs ask, Mr. Trump, is to leave us alone”):

“America, in one magic moment, you’ve revealed how you’ve changed. For the worse. Poor you, you feel so insecure, vulnerable and fragile. Like the rest of us.

“Maybe the people of the Middle East will look and realize that you are no longer the Great Democracy to emulate.

“You’ve voted to reduce your liberties. To narrow the range of people entitled to justice and equality before the law.

“Your imperial outreach allowed you to experience other cultures, but now you’ve chosen to shrink your outlook, with the expectation that the world will continue to revolve around you. It won’t.

“Instead of Americanizing the Middle East, Mr. Trump seems set on “Israelizing” America, stirring fear of Muslims and trying to wall out “the other.”

“President Obama has assured us that the sun will rise tomorrow, regardless. And if the Trump presidency is as bad as I expect it to be — though not so bad that it demolishes democracy entirely — he can be voted out in four years.

“Meanwhile,” Marwan Bishara concludes, “fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a hell of a ride.”