Canada

I'm from Quebec and we have this character called Elvis Gratton and one of his famous line is "Ils l'ont l'affaire les americains" or in bastardized English "Americans know what they are doing".

Elvis Gratton is a caricature of a typical man of that era where a lot of Quebecers were enamored with the US. At that time in the US, it was the golden era of the American dream (but we know how it turned out).

When I see conservatives spreading their bullshit, it reminds me of that character which is not very intelligent and how pervasive the US conservative propaganda is in Canada.

Maybe Canadians are smart and able to learn from the US not to elect right wing psychopaths. I really hope so, because Conservatives never solve any problem. They only make things worse.

While I’ve had similar thoughts, I have to wonder if the reverse is true. We’re seeing an uprising of joy and caring; something as equally infectious as the hateful, controlling rhetoric of the Trump-era Republican Party.

I think (hope) people see the two options and are drawn to the joy. Being angry is exhausting.

There is a lot of terrible out there we need to work together to solve. Some of it is sad, depressing, frustrating, wildly unjust-but we can be joyful in tackling these issues. Maybe not all the time, but then no one is ever one thing or one mood or one emotion. Nevertheless, a campaign of joy can make us realize there is indeed another way.

Looking at Trump’s tragic demagoguery and seeing what’s going on with the Harris/Walz campaign , it’s not hard to believe more and more people are thinking “you know what, I want that.”

So hearing PP using the same old poor-us, divisive, othering talking points begins to take on some of the same burden. It’s tired. It’s ugly. It’s empty.

One can dream right?