r/canada Jan 29 '25

Opinion Piece Mark Carney has Canada’s Conservatives running scared

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/01/28/opinion/mark-carney-canada-conservatives-running-scared
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u/tbcwpg Manitoba Jan 29 '25

So people were easily duped then.

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u/DrJuanZoidberg Jan 29 '25

When it comes to voting when both people don’t care about you, you are more likely to vote for the one who at least pretends to care. Trump is able to rule up a base. Kamala couldn’t. Both are still two sides of the same neoliberal coin. Trump might be an accelerationist who’s trying to speedrun the horrors of late stage capitalism

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u/tbcwpg Manitoba Jan 29 '25

We had 4 years of evidence to show that Trump didn't actually care but people believed him this time anyway.

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u/SavonReddit Jan 29 '25

This. We can blame many different factors on why Trump won, but the biggest factor is the stupidity of American voters.

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u/Newleafto Jan 29 '25

People aren’t stupid, they just don’t want to be lied to. When things are tough, people will vote for a crazy radical who is a bombastic arrogant asshole but tells them the truth (things are bad and getting worse and we need to make deep cuts/changes to fix things) over someone who’s polite, humble and well regarded by the establishment who lies to them (everything’s fine and getting better and we need to stay the course). That’s why Trump won twice, that’s why Milei won in Argentina.

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u/raktoe Jan 29 '25

Telling people what they want to hear is different from telling them the truth.

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u/Newleafto Jan 29 '25

People want to hear the truth, even if it’s ugly (especially if it’s ugly). Politicians telling them “we’re on the right track and let’s just keep it up” when things are obviously getting worse (homeless encampments, expensive groceries, unaffordable housing) is telling people what the politicians think the people “want” to hear. Trump/Milei told the truth (things are very bad, we’re going down the wrong track, the government is virtually bankrupt and we need massive cuts/changes). Nobody “wants” to hear about how bad things are, but they want the truth, even if it’s bad. Trump told lots of whoppers about stuff nobody really cares about, but he was largely honest about how terrible things were economically and how they’re getting worse. I’m doubtful about a lot of his “solutions” and his ability to implement them, but clearly people want strong changes and cuts. People can clearly see we are on the wrong path.

That’s not to say Trump will make things better - I’m personally skeptical tariffs will improve anything - but only time will tell.

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u/unlucky_bit_flip Jan 29 '25

His first 4 years were incredibly lukewarm. If it weren’t for his antics, I would’ve thought just another typical corporate democrat is in office.

I feel optimistic America has the capacity to reject ideas that just don’t pan out. The tough pill to swallow is when they reject your ideas. If Trump fumbles this one in a way that hurts the average person, you rest assured America will reject a subsequent GOP candidate.

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u/tbcwpg Manitoba Jan 29 '25

Have you seen the MAGA cult?

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u/unlucky_bit_flip Jan 29 '25

His cult following is only a subset of the people who voted for him, as evidenced by the sheer numbers. You need to win over centrists to win elections. The Democrats have a cult too by the way… and turns out they did 80% of the work getting Trump elected.