Naturally with the Republican National Convention taking place this week the fitness of The Donald as President has once again taken the centre of debate on social media, most especially amongst many of my more ‘progressive’ friends and associates. Doomsday scenarios, demagogue, war, hate, class warfare you name it, it’s all part of the narrative. I suspect to see, in turn, similar fear mongering being made by my more ‘conservative’ friends once the Democratic National Convention ramps up this last week of July. I suspect I will see more about doomsday scenarios, claims of criminal activity, class warfare, the old guard, the elite establishment, friend of Wall Street, $15,000 designer jackets, you name it.
Clearly identifying with a “tribe” over the superfluous is all the rage and has become more important than the real issues and reality itself.
As a collection agency with offices in Edmonton, Calgary and the GTA we are watching with keen interest the unfolding of events with respect to these phenomenon and their impact (or lack thereof) on Canadian credit markets.
It’s a binary world. Leafs OR Habs, Jays OR Yankees, Oilers OR Flames, Liberal OR Conservative, Democrat OR Republican, demagogue OR criminal…but I digress. The point is it has become more about the TEAM than the GAME itself. Sure, it makes us feel good to belong to something, to be part of a group whose feelings and opinions mirror our own. It brings us validation. It brings us comfort. It brings us self-esteem. It just doesn’t bring us any type of success. Newsflash: Nobody really cares how you feel.
Unlike the near dictatorial powers of a Canadian Prime Minister, strengthened by the tradition of party discipline in the Legislative Assembly of the Federal Parliament fortunately, the President of the United States (POTUS) as a result of the Constitution enjoys far less “sway”. A brief civics lesson for those who may have slept through that chapter in high school can be found here courtesy of Cliffs Notes (the academic savior of many) : https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/american-government/the-president/the-powers-of-the-president Newsflash: In reality it really doesn’t matter who gets to sit at the nice desk in the oval shaped office.
Once considering the above, and our theory of “tribe identification” now superseding the real issues and reality itself may very well have merit. Either that or 95% of the population, including journalists, professionals, and other educated people all slept through this exact same civics lesson or, they all have some kind of personal agenda to push by way of all the persistent ‘tribal blather’.
Both sides of the presidential debate will continue ad nauseam with all of its end of world doomsday scenarios, while at the same time failing to acknowledge the limitations of presidential power (allegedly the most powerful person on the planet; POTUS) and nary a peep on real issues that will impact both us and our children, such as the imminent danger of negative interest rates and the burden that burgeoning public debt will have on social programs, our retirement, pensions and taxation for both us and future generations.