The USA

Content warning: I am going to let rip in this. 

PS: others' thoughts along similar lines: 

• "Opinion: Trans-Atlantic romanticism ends with Donald Trump" ("In the European Union, we tend to idealize the United States as an international partner. But we should stop that as soon as possible — regardless of who the US president is")
• "A New Administration Won’t Heal American Democracy - The Rot in U.S. Political Institutions Runs Deeper Than Donald Trump" ("Regardless of who wins the 2020 presidential election, the health of American democracy will not soon recover.") 
  

And the counter argument, from Joe Biden, President-elect: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-01-23/why-america-must-lead-again

As I write this, the results of the US presidential election hangs in the balance. My assessment is that there has been a late surge in support for #45, particularly on the day that they voted. On top of that, a conspiracy fantasist has been elected! 

If fascism hasn't won, it has come a close second to amathia - or paranoia. 

Too many yanks are, frankly, insane about any hint or suggestions of "socialism" - which, to them, can ONLY mean the full blown, authoritarian dictatorship of the type seen in the USSR (which is NOT what Marx advocated for - and Marx, incidentally, was wrong in most of what he thought, in my opinion). In the last day or so, I started seeing uncontested / uncorrected references (particularly from Pence) to Marxism, and my suspicion is that it further enraged the already angry supporters of #45, and just might have led to the surge that seemed to happen - particularly in the USA's "mid-West". 

There's another issue that needs to be taken into consideration: jobs. 

Too many people on my side of the political divide tend to ignore that when pointing out the need to act on the climate crisis - or, even worse, make idiotic suggestions along the lines of steel workers retraining for the tourist industry (whether that suggestion is true or not is irrelevant: it exists in the zeitgeist, and there has been no credible attempt to counter it). Many of those voting for 45 are afraid - afraid of many things, and loss of jobs is one. To them, those advocating for action against climate change are saying "screw you and your family - you can lose your jobs now".

Yes, it is insane - but that's the problem: the people supporting 45 are almost insane with fear. It doesn't matter that, if they get all the jobs they want now they will all be out of work in ten years or so when the climate crisis destroys modern economic systems: being able to cope with that is beyond their ability.

These people have also been duped by the fear-mongering around disorder in the streets. Again, it doesn't matter that the media beat up is wrong: they are so afraid they cannot see through the rubbish to the truth. 

Will telling them they are a pack of ****wits - as they undoubtedly are - help? No. 

Will pointing out the errors of their ways in being conspiracy fantasists help? No. 

Will politely showing the errors of their assumptions about the word "socialism" or that 45 is not actually helping them economically get anywhere? No. 

These people, the lyin45ettes as I've termed them (for their support for their liar-in-chief), have gone beyond the capacity for rationality because they have become overwhelmed by emotion. They feel ignored, isolated, and alienated - and that makes them (a) only approachable on an emotional level, and (b) dangerous. 

And unfortunately we, the rest of the world, cannot afford to wait for the conspiracy RWNJ infested Congress of the USA, no matter who winds up as president, to sort itself out. We have to cut ourselves off from the USA, and the many good and clever people who are still there, and act on the climate crisis, the pandemic, and many other things, with neither deference nor disdain for what the US has become, and look after ourselves. 

In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that the UN and all associated international organisations need to relocate out of the USA - if not in fact, then in function, by holding their meetings online. Budgets need now to be workable without the USA, along with peacekeeping and other activities. Don't put the USA last, just ignore it and learn to stand on your own two feet without them, as, no matter who wins the presidency, they have shown themselves - as a nation - to be moral, intellectual and physical cowards, cravenly hiding in the basements of their souls. 

And we can't wait for them to get out. Leave them to their own devices.