The New York Times’ Absurd Strategic Forecasting of the U.S. Annexing Canada ⇥ readtpa.com
Let’s be clear about what’s happening: The President of the United States is openly fantasizing about forcibly annexing a sovereign nation of 40 million people. He’s been repeatedly referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau” and threatening our closest ally with absorption into the United States. This isn’t a policy proposal to be analyzed; it’s the ravings of a dangerous authoritarian.
But instead of treating this story as what it is — evidence of Trump’s increasingly unhinged worldview and contempt for democratic norms — [the New York Times’ Peter] Baker decides to play electoral college calculator. He walks us through detailed scenarios about House seats and Senate majorities, complete with expert quotes about the Democratic Party’s theoretical gains. It’s like writing about the thermal properties of the emperor’s new clothes while ignoring his nakedness.
This is the work of the chief White House correspondent in the U.S. prestige paper of record, and it reads like a parody. The focus of the story is, as Molloy writes, on the electoral calculus and partisan wisdom of stealing our country. It should actually be about the absurdity of the Washington chattering classes validating the lunacy of this president without considering the millions of real people living between Alaska and Maine.