We have figured it out that Republican candidate Donald Trump is more eloquent when discussing something he knows nothing about. He obviously assumes that if he knows nothing about it, his followers will know even less. Ergo he can say whatever he wants.
He was testing that assumption last Sunday when he was railing against Obamacare during the second presidential debate. His followers know very well that Trump is four-square opposed to the Affordable Care Act that opponents refer to as Obamacare. The other evening, he said it was a disaster. And to make matters worse, he said the Hillary Clinton’s proposed fixes would create a system like Canada’s—which he described as catastrophic.
What he did not realize though was that millions of Canadians regularly watch American television programs and as those programs were all pre-empted by the debate, there were millions of Canadians idly watching the debate—hoping it would be entertaining. And it was.
At least it was entertaining until Mr. Trump informed them that their Medicare system was catastrophic. He informed them that many Canadians come into the United States for health care because their system is so slow.
To make this even worse, Canada has no tracking system for patients giving up on waiting and heading south. A study funded by the Fraser Institute has supplied estimates to raise the panic levels on this. The Fraser Institute is famous for paying academics to prove its right-wing theories. It is sort of a reverse of ‘publish or perish.’ Instead it is publish a paper for the Fraser Institute and then perish as your fellow academics send you to purgatory.
But that does not detract from the hard work constantly being done in Canada to reduce wait times for patients after seeing a medical specialist.
The only problem is it still provides fodder for detractors such as Donald Trump’s right-wing sycophants who hang on his every word as gospel. He can talk about groping women as he wishes and still win the votes of people who talk about ‘family values.’ He can still rail against the world-wide Muslim religion and win the votes of so-called Christians. He can say disgusting things about his country’s Mexican neighbours and still expect to be handed the keys to his country’s White House. Mr. Trump is the catastrophe.
And before you think that is the deciding factor for November 8, we should report on a recent interview with an American Trump supporter. The interviewer was asking the lady if she was not concerned about Mr. Trump’s attitude towards women. “Oh, that doesn’t matter,” she said, “It is all about leadership.”
-30-
Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]