I really hope we get back to times where we were really best friends. It was good for both countries and was a model for international relationships/partnerships.
Im Canadian, so I cant do much to affect American policy. I'm generally happy with how Canada's politicians are handling this situation. I do hope more Americans do what you say, it is why democracy exists.
The nice thing about having a rep that supports my ideals is I don't really see the need to. It won't change anything, and I don't need to convince them.
It is important because they need to decide priority. And if they are not strong supporters they may even change their opinion to get votes next fall if they see the political winds. (I don't know your representative, some are more swayed by the winds that others)
AIPAC bought the KY-04 seat by pumping so much money into shows demented boomers watch that they completely upset the usual primary voters in the state by getting truckload of demented people to show up from a 30 second sound blurb played over and over that Massie was selling out Kentucky to the democrats. This despite the fact the votes from last term's primary voters basically did not change at all.
It's actually mind blowing how effective AIPAC is. They managed to upset one of the most popular Republicans in the US house by a genius campaign at non-voting demented boomers by tricking them to believe probably the most conservative guy in the entire congress is secretly a Democrat.
The French have more of a social safety net, which enables extended protests. I understand the irony in stating this (well then, USian, get off your ass and demand a social safety net), but the chicken-and-egg problem is real. This is setting aside cultural mores and biases; for an example thereof, see sibling comment.
> Get off your arse and take lessons on protesting from the French.
Sir, I'm fleeing this country. The time to protest was 30 years ago. Or 70 years ago. Either way, it is well in the past. This country will need to crash and detox from its addiction to money before it can become a real democracy.
The Citizens United decision virtually ensures that the average voter, even in aggregate, has nothing important to say. Shortly, one particular U.S. citizen will have a net worth of $1T; and this, more than anything will ensure that “We the People” are only noise, compared to the real signal.
That is a problem, but the larger problem is people don't have an informed vote. They vote for a party straight down without considering what they really support, or what the unintended consequences of those things are.
The other half of this is there is so little choice that a voter does have. On the national level it's just over one bit of information per year. Over 12 years - 3 presidential races, 6 congressional reps, 4 senators. I'm not counting primaries because while they can shape policy, they can just as well unshape policy from people voting strategically ("electable"). And a voter can only vote in half of the primaries, so primaries are already part of the dynamic ushering people into these packaged sports teams of the major parties.
In addition to the obvious fixes like Ranked Pairs voting, I'd say we need a Constitutional amendment bringing back independent agencies with their heads being directly elected rather than merely picked by whomever wins the presidential race. For example you shouldn't have to balance your guess of how you think one president will treat the ATF vs the NSF. Or the President shouldn't have any power over the Attorney General, as it's the Attorney General who should be prosecuting a criminal President, rather than merely being a lapdog in the criminal conspiracy. A race for each agency would also create focus on each agency head's actual results, rather than how the current guy is using a round-robin of all these different departments to create a tough-looking spectacle in one area, only to move on to another one when the actual results start becoming apparent.
We also need the right to recall for all national politicians, for obvious reasons.
The representative system in the US is all but dead when it comes to high-power politics, this second Trump presidency has vigorously shown that. They weren't of that much use before, also, apart from blocking a few essential things here and there. They're also not at the Caligula's horse in the Senate moment, but they're rapidly going that way.
As a Canadian watching from a distance the fact that the administration and its congressional allies etc don't seem to be concerned at all about what is going to happen in November gives me a lot of apprehension about what they might know that is not being stated publicly.
Midterms coming up and prosecuting an endless "war" that doubles gas prices, and not seeming concerned at all about the blowback?
When you figure out how to leverage a vote to get something, let me know. Last time I tried this I was screamed at for electing a fascist for withholding it.
You will be screamed at no matter what you do. So don't let that get in your way. It is important to vote. Remember when people are screaming that at least you're sending a message because votes even for third parties are counted and when third parties start to get a lot of attention that does change what the major parties do. So don't worry about so-called wasted votes. They're never wasted. Sometimes you don't have a good option, but you can pick the best option you have.
Apprehensions on the northern border usually want to be found, as asylum claims. Anyone who wants to cross illegally at the northern border could easily do so since forever. So in this case the bazillion other points land in Canada, since those that wanted to illegal into the US from the North always could. That's a "win" for the US from the perspective of the administration.
> Apprehensions on the northern border usually want to be found, as asylum claims
Not anymore, not right away anyway:
> The new terms allow each country to expel asylum seekers who apply for protection within 14 days of crossing the U.S.-Canada border between ports of entry.
You realize that the library is not like a portal right? It's just a building that happens to be on the invisible line. If you wanted to cross the border you could just travel to any point along the countless miles of uninhabited wilderness outside the town and walk across.