Viewed from Canada, one would think we have a special unbiased perspective of the USA 2016 Election. But much to my surprise this is far from the case.
I decided to really try to understand the perspectives of the extreme, middle and reluctant Clinton and Trump supporters.
After 18 months of research this BLOG is my current conclusion in October 2016. As the election is still over 30 days away, and as both sides are indicating that they will do anything to make sure the other "side" does not win including threats of violence, it is perhaps the wrong time to take sides. But I do believe my effort to understand the deeper philosophies of both sides is worth documenting before either side "wins" and the victors re-write history. Although I suspect this BLOG will rapidly disappear - at least online.
The media is playing a very strange and new role. It is clear that the news feeds passing through the various news distributors to all Canadian media channels is under extremely sophisticated management. Identical sentences and phrases move rapidly onto TV news, to radio shows and to the newspapers and magazines. As we get closer and closer to the election these messages become more and more "out of the ordinary" certainly for Canadians. The messages are the same whether you are in Dublin, Miami or Vancouver.
Up until 2016, the implications of this has not been worrisome. Most Canadians have been comfortable with a liberal philosophy in fact even when Harper was in power, Canadian's still had a liberal view of the world. The media simply reflected their view of the world and their philosophy.
In fact Justin Trudeau's election was thought to reconfirm the nation's proud heritage which included support for our national healthcare system, our willingness to look after the needy, and our openness to refugees. Justin even reminded us
“Under the previous government, we saw a climate of fear where some government scientists were not allowed to talk to journalists about their research results,” says Rachael Jolley, editor of Index on Censorship magazine. “We hope that the new government will be more committed to making sure its citizens are fully informed about science and research.”
So what is happening? How is it that the issues and knowledge now discussed by millions of people in the USA, is unknown to most Canadians ; or at best put down to "conspiracy theories".
