I have pretty low hopes for America. Latest polls say the House of Representatives will turn over to the GOP and that means Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. Oh my god, what a conspiracy driven revenge fest that’s going to be. They are already talking about impeaching Biden though they don’t know what they will be charging him with yet. I’m sure that will go well.

The US Senate might actually tip 51 to 49 in favour of the Democrats. Worst case scenario, however is status quo, which is still a Dem held Senate. This means whatever QAnon nonsense the House gets itself up to can’t go anywhere because the Dem Senate will simply block it. That’s not great for Americans because there is actual work to do and nothing is going to get done. It will be Obama’s second term all over again. Americans love stalemated government when they truly need progress and majority rule when they can give conservatives and libertarians a blank cheque to fuck them over. It’s astounding how much suffering they will accept if it means people they hate suffering even more. The American dream in reality.

Among my family and friends, there is a fairly even split between those who’ve stopped voting, those who vote Democrat, and those whose not terribly hidden misogyny and homophobia (throwa bit of racism in there too) keeps them voting Republican. I’d say racism was the biggest driven this year, as it has been since Obama won, but transphobia and Roe V Wade narrowly edged it out for the moment.

I have been warning my friends for years that the US was sliding quickly into a kobayashi maru, but they simply don’t want to deal with it. Covid accelerated it even more than electing Trump did. This is bad for the world. It’s terrible for Canada given that we share a completely unprotected border with them.

Someone on Twitter (no, it hasn’t imploded and disappeared in a supernova yet but that’s coming), is speculating we are heading into a lost decade. I agree. The next decade is going to be very hard and what does (or doesn’t) happen will set the stage for the future our grand-kids may, or may not, have.

Anyway, happy US election eve. No one country should have this much impact on the world. Particular one with a population that is so very small. But here we are. Good luck to all of us.