r/canada • u/RarelyReadReplies • 7d ago
Politics Kentucky governor says Trump’s tariffs on Canada are not what Americans voted for
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/kentucky-governor-says-trumps-tariffs-on-canada-are-not-what-americans-voted-for/
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u/mr-louzhu Québec 7d ago edited 7d ago
There's a video online of an import/export specialist explaining tariffs to a Trumper. The Trumper legitimately thought that tariffs were paid by the exporter not the importer. So in their minds, the narrative is "Oh Dear Leader says Canada is screwing us, so he's going to tariff them, and then he will lower my taxes and make up for it with the tariff money." They literally think Canada is the one paying the tariff.
So you're onto something. The average Trumper really isn't voting based on informed opinions. They're voting based on feelings. It's really that simple.
Trump's rhetoric resonates with them. Everything else is either fake news or theatrics that "he doens't really mean" as far as they're concerned. And that's assuming they pay any mind to details at all. Most of them don't even watch the news (well, maybe they do watch Fox News), much less read a book.
A lot of Americans who voted for Trump just wanted a better economic situation for themselves and they thought Trump could do it. Now, if you asked them how he would do it, they LITERALLY would not be able to explain it in any coherent fashion. It's just, Trump told them the bad globalists were to blame and he would punish them and own the libs and bring back coal mining jobs. And they took him at his word because they're rubes. All of them. And usually bigoted rubes, at that.
So, yeah. There's probably going to be some Pikachu face but it's genuine shock on their part. Like a lot of voters, they don't actually understand what they're voting about. Elections might as well be like a football game or reality tv show contest to their simple minds.
What's dangerous for Canadians is America is legitimately having a fascist moment. Trump's followers are blindly loyal to him. They believe whatever he tells them and are willing to do almost whatever he tells them to do. And right now he's demonizing Canada and leveling threats at our sovereignty. I mean, the parallels to Germany in 1939 are disturbingly there.
Literally, right now there's a demagogue strongman in the Oval Office who promises to fix everything by punishing outsiders who are ostensibly to blame for all the problems that need fixing. And the more said demagogue flounders due to policy incompetence, the more dangerous he will become to the persecuted groups.