Americans ici have eyes on U.S. midterms
Are you, too, all ginned up about U.S. politics these days? Do you, too, find yourself gobbling up all manner of U.S. news and latenight talk shows? Are you, too, having issues with those who don’t share your point of view about the man occupying the Oval Office? Can you, too, differentiate between a Beto O’Rourke and a Ted Cruz? If you answered yes, you, too, have become most invested in Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections. So many Canadians, who, for the most part, used to concern ourselves only with U.S. presidential elections and who used to associate midterms with school exams, have become totally consumed.
So one can only imagine just how ramped up Americans living in these parts are. Martha and Mark Oppenheim are New Yorkers who moved to Montreal in 1979 following a working stint in Paris. Dual citizens, they vote in U.S. elections and their hearts very much bleed for their country of origin. “What we are witnessing now is not the country we recognize,” Martha says. “We are painfully aware and personally lived through some dreadful history, which the U.S. survived: segregation, McCarthyism, Vietnam.” The Oppenheims understand partisan politics, but what they find so troubling is the level of poisonous rhetoric emanating from the halls of American political power. “The startling difference now is that a significant portion of Americans have embraced toxic language and paranoid conspiracy theories. Anti-civility is applauded and has unleashed the worst of human nature.” Regardless, the couple comprehends why Trump got elected. “We live in a bubble, ignoring the too many struggling Americans who have been forgotten and overlooked, ” Martha says. “Everyone failed them, including the Democrats. And now we are paying the price.” But she sees a silver lining: “Americans have been rather apathetic about using their right to vote. This should, hopefully, wake them up and get them involved.” That would certainly seem to be the case for a group of American students at McGill University. They’re called Democrats Abroad at McGill, and they’ve been reaching out to other American students in the city and helping them to register to vote while here. On one point, these students are all in accord: getting out the young vote. “I think it’s going to be different this year,” says Maryland native Brent Jamsa, 18. “Young people are really energized. There have been surges all across the country in first-time voter registrations. Young people and women are getting so fired up to vote for Democrats who share their values about gender equality and common-sense gun legislation.” “The fact that we have over 500 people in our group coming out to watch the election results live on Tuesday night for midterm elections — the largest turnout our club has ever had — shows just how invested we are,” notes New Jersey native Amanda Demers, 21. Members of the Democrats Abroad at McGill will be catching the election results at La P’Tite Grenouille on the Main. While many of my Canuck friends are really riled up about American politics, these students speak in surprisingly civil tones. “This election is certainly consequential, because we have seen enough,” softly says another New Jersey native, Fatou Ndiaye, 21. “There’s a level of concern that we’re trying to address. But we just believe that if you’re upset about something, then you have to take part in trying to rectify things. That’s a principle America is founded on, and we’re just trying to honour that, even from abroad.” Marylander Andrew Chase, 19, is optimistic that in spite of the rhetoric, sanity will return to the States. “We’ve had periods of divisiveness, but the country has eventually come back together,” he says. “After Trump, we’re going to need someone who is a unifier. It’s not about partisanship. It’s about what’s good for the country.” The recent mass murders of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh really hit home for Stephanie Frenette, 22, who comes from there. “What happened was so horrible, and our gun-control laws don’t help,” she says. “There will always be people who are hateful, who feel more emboldened under Trump. But they don’t represent the majority of Americans.” Given the name of their group, it’s clear where their political sentiments lie, but there are diverging points of view among the students. “This election is incredibly important for the country,” says Los Angelino Claire Rawson-Dannenbaum, 19, the president of the group. “A blue (Democrat) wave to take back the House would mean a major roadblock for far-right legislation.” The students are cautiously hopeful about Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives, but less so about the Senate. Not surprisingly, the fear tactics being employed by Trump against the Latin American migrant “caravan” don’t sit well with the students. “Yet I don’t think these views are unparalleled,” says Andrew Figueiredo, 20, from the red state of Kansas. “They were also pursued in the late 1980s and ’90s, and I really think voters will see through all this and past the fear tactics and will look to the issues affecting their families and futures. So we have to remain hopeful.” Amen.