I am worried. I had this feeling in 2016. I had a feeling in my gut that it was possible that Trump could be elected. The polls all had him down significantly. But I watched what he did in the debates. And I knew the people he was speaking to, reaching. And in my gut I had a feeling he could win the presidential election. I have not as strong a feeling now, but I see he’s up to his old tricks. The question–and it’s a vital question–is how many people are with him this time?
So much of the US now has witnessed him in action. We know what he’s all about. These days we see mass protests all over the world about racial injustice in the US–particularly in regard to police brutality. Trump is not with this movement. Trump has ducked out of the COVID-19 pandemic because he embarrassed himself so disgracefully publicly. But the pandemic rages on anyway. Racial injustice in the US rages on. And Trump is fleeing these problems like an ostrich with it’s head in the sand, even as he hid in his bunker at the White house while the voice of America’s conscience rose up en masse. It is not my intention to list the wrongs I perceive in Trump–they are abundantly clear. We know who Trump is. But the question remains, “How many Americans are with him?”
I am an American. I was born in the US. I was brought up and educated in the US. I live in Canada, now, a country that is not favorable to the US; I know this because they tell me this almost daily. But I never disguise my American heritage. I love my country.
I do not like what I see Trump standing up for. I can easily dismiss this man, and say to myself that he does not represent the America I know and love. However, it’s a different matter if a majority of the American people reelect him. Then it’s a statement of what the country stands for, not just one man. That concerns me deeply. I would be very disappointed in America if the majority of the country sides with Trump and what Trump stands for. I am putting this all in print. So I must choose my words carefully. But I am willing to say this: if Trump is reelected by a majority of the American people, I will have to seriously reconsider my citizenship in the country I was born in, educated in, and still proudly call my homeland.
David Fekete 