On the one hand, it is surprising, because Canada is not known for its military, but on the other hand, Canada is an awesome country with its act together. I have long believed the United States should study Canada and reproduce its health care system, election system, and probably education and police as well. Canada does things right.
The strongest contrast is between Canada's superb health system and the horrible political football that is our health system, where a poor person just goes to the emergency room when things get bad enough. Our problem is caused by the Republicans. They want to let the poor die, because the poor deserve it, in their view, for being lazy, unlucky, immoral and/or stupid, and evolution needs to occur. Let Mother Nature take her toll and cull out the weak. The Republicans figure, let the poor suffer and die, and that way, there are less of them to worry about, and the ones that survive will work harder to stay alive. The Democrats say, wait a minute, other countries have health care and aren't going broke, why can't we? And healthy poor people tend to be happier and more productive than sick poor people. The question is whether poor people are a resource or a liability. Republicans say liability, so let 'em suffer, let 'em die.
In the end, Republicans don't care about the poor, and Democrats do. The irony is that a lot of poor people vote Republican just because they like that lilly-white Republican brand. It's all about race and tribal identity. Obama was a Negro taking the place of a long line of old white men. It got the racists all up in a lather, and they crawled out of the woodwork, enough for the Republicans to steamroll to victory in D.C.
The greatest irony of all are the religious right, the self-professed "Christians" that support Trump and the Republicans, based upon things like abortion or gays or whatever the current socially conservative brouhaha might be. I really have to call into question their religious scruples in supporting rich old white men letting the poor suffer and die, just so the rich can get richer. Is that would Jesus would do? Eh? I think the liberal churches have it right and are more in tune with Jesus, and if I were ever to go Christian, it would be the real, authentic Christianity, not this faux Christianity of the religious right, with their Biblical literalism. They take religion like lawyers, not like saints. They can't be right.
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