That seems very astute to me. As a Canadian I’m not having a breakdown, but the turmoil and conflict in the USA is seriously troubling. I would hate to be immersed in it.
I'm in Europe so I'm not having an "identity crisis" either. My views on the US have long been somewhat mixed, but there's definitely a "I thought you were better than that" feeling. Our friendship with the US was always a bit mixed and there were ups and downs, but this feels like a "I don't know if I can ever trust you again" moment. Or at least, it will take a long time to rebuild the trust.
Basically this:
"A Trump victory will be akin to the moment in an unhappy marriage where the spouses are arguing again and one hauls off and hits the other. It might not mean that the marriage is over—but it’ll never be the same. Both partners will have learned something hard about what one is capable of and that will inform their future interactions forever."
Absolutely. I think this is a reasonable take. I think I knew America was already capable of it and it was a matter of when, not if, something bad would happen. But we’re certainly past the threshold now.
For what it’s worth, I have a feeling Canada will elect a questionable conservative next year as well. North America is trending this way. Young men are more conservative than I’ve seen in my lifetime. Things are getting worse in various ways. People are going to vote for a significant change, I think. No other party offers anything of the sort.
> Tens of millions of people are going to wake up [this morning] to find that they don’t live in the country they thought they did. Liberals, classical and otherwise, will discover overnight that they’re now outnumbered by a coalition of earnest fascists, partisan Republicans who’ll rationalize literally anything, and millions upon millions of less tribal voters who don’t care how corrupt Trump is or which laws he breaks or whether he overturns elections or not so long as they get the results on their pet issues that they’re hoping for.
> That’s an identity crisis. A big one. And a lot of people are going to be having it at the same time.
