r/Lightbulb • u/amichail • 8d ago
Idea: The media should talk about Canada’s defense leverage in the current trade war
Coverage of the U.S.-Canada trade war keeps emphasizing how much Canada needs the U.S. economy. But there’s much less discussion of how much the U.S. needs Canadian cooperation for its own defense.
The U.S. northern defense depends on Canadian geography, airspace, Arctic surveillance and NORAD. America can tariff Canada, but it can’t move Canada off its northern border.
That should matter when discussing who has leverage in this trade war. The U.S. has more economic power, but making your northern neighbor increasingly hostile has a strategic cost.
Canada’s strongest leverage may simply be that America is much safer with Canada as a willing ally.
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u/gothiclg 7d ago
As an American change your news outlets my boy. I’m hearing plenty of news about how Canada could (at least temporarily) hurt our economy if they felt like it. Neither country would be in this position if a dementia patient wasn’t the US president
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u/bentforkman 7d ago
America is not this way because Trump is president. Trump is president because America is like this.
If it wasn’t this dementia patient, it would be some other idiot, or the next idiot would be just around the corner. America is never going to be reliable or sane again.
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u/LeftforLenin 5d ago
I know, every single time a DSA member speaks you realize that idiots can gain power
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u/gothiclg 7d ago
Biden was president between the first Trump presidency and the 2nd. We had 4 sane years where he wasn’t doing dumb things to us. Everyone he endorses is currently losing elections. We just had a short period where dumb people screwed us.
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u/bentforkman 7d ago
Not prosecuting the guy who organized a coup was not “sanity.” And even if it was, that is what I meant by “the next idiot will be just around the corner.” Even if America elects a sane person for a bit any deals signed by them, any measures to correct the mess that was left behind will be undone the next time the fascist party wins. Most things will not be corrected because your government is so corrupt, the people paying Trump to do things will also buy off the democrats.
Trump had 77 million votes in 2024. That’s a catastrophic number of citizens who do not understand democracy or the law. They are ungovernable except by authoritarian means. Humpty Dumpty cannot be put back together.
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u/Sensitive-Respect-25 6d ago
I get the anger.
However, 77 million voters voting for Trump isn't proof that they do not understand democracy or how laws work. It IS proof that there are very real segments of the population deeply unhappy with the current prospects of the US. Of the 7 or 8 Trump voters (second term) I know personally, 6 agree it was the choice between a douche and turd sandwich. They went with the turd, viewing it as a lose-lose.
Stay angry but harness it to try and correct things in 8 to 12 years by affecting the new politicians of today so changes can be affected tomorrow.
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u/hallofgamer 7d ago
He doubled down on trumps timber tariffs, even increased them. Fuck y'all the whole lot of you
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u/RadCheese527 7d ago
Yeaaa… as a Canadian wtf are we gonna do to prevent them from running surveillance and patrols on their own?