What do people in other countries think about Donald Trump?
CanadaWe’re concerned for our poor neighbours to the south, while simultaneously amazed at this unbelievable spectacle:UpdateI was astounded and dismayed, but not really surprised, when I read the Calgary Sun (a right-wing and very conservative news daily). They had published a poll taken of their readers to find out which presidential candidate people supported. The poll showed 48% support for Trump, 27% support for Hillary and 25% undecided.These sad numbers should not be surprising because this is an oil-producing province and Trump, a climate change denier, said that he would give his blessing to a huge pipeline project to send Alberta oil (most of it from our Athabasca “tar-sands”, a very polluting and expensive source) to the US Gulf Coast.A presidential endorsement of this “Keystone XL Pipeline” (Barack Obama already said, “No”) is something that Alberta oil barons would dearly love to see and so Trump is their man; environment and world peace be damned I suppose, as long as the oil companies keep making money. :^(Trump’s approval rating will be much lower and Hillary’s much higher in more liberal-minded parts of Canada, such as British Columbia and Ontario (maybe in Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia too). Saskatchewan and Manitoba, prairie-land in the middle of Canada, are a mystery to me.
Will President Trump attempt to become a dictator?
It is possible but not probable.There a number of answers that say Trump can’t become a dictator because of the Constitution. However, when someone becomes a dictator of a country, they generally don’t stress about violating 200 year old documents. What actually would stop him is the people’s and specifically the military’s respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.As long as there are enough people in the government and the military who believe in the constitution and the rule of law, and they will not obey orders that violate the constitution or the law, then there will not be a dictator in charge of the US.That is why the Meuller investigation is so important. It is not really what the ultimate charges are as much as the idea that nobody, not even the leader of the country, is above the law. The people who are calling for Trump to shut down the Meuller investigation are not patriots. They do not love America because they are advocating for violating the constitution and everything the founding fathers created.There is also an answer to this question that mentions Trump can’t be a dictator because Americans own too many guns. That is a fantasy that the NRA, gun manufacturers, and the right wing push to give people a false sense of security. The reality is that if someone was powerful enough to be a dictator, then the respect for the Constitution and the rule of law would have broken down. The dictator would have the backing of the local, state, and federal police, as well as the largest military in the world.Some civilians with guns scattered across the 50 states are not doing anything against the forces that the dictator would have. There might be a couple of skirmishes where most of the civilians die, and a bunch of arrests and/or executions but that would be it. Eliminating the respect for the rule of law would be hard. Once that is done, overcoming the civilians who own guns would be child’s play.It actually makes me nervous that this has become such a strong belief on the right. If people believe that their guns will keep the safe, then it might be easier for them to disregard the need to respect the Constitution and the rule of law. The thing that they think is keeping them safe could actually be the cause of their problems.