I used to fear the fine print.
Perhaps my trepidation came to light after I applied for my first loan, while still in my youth, when the person behind the desk slid forward a stack of pages asking me to sign by the little Xs there, there… and there.
Faced with a knowing smile from the bank operative – as I realized it would have taken me an hour to read the tiny font and much longer to understand it – I was told to not worry about it.
So, I didn’t… and paid the eventual price.
Ever since, I’ve taken a closer look at the fine print, sometimes still a little too late and too inexperienced to fully comprehend, but I always want to know how it will impact my bank account in the end.
It’s like that with most of our politicians at all levels in Canada.
I hear their grandiose proclamations that are intended to calm or inspire, but I also listen for their seemingly minor turns of phrase and nuance that better informs what they’re really up to.
And, yes, it usually ends in hidden fees, just like my loan paperwork from decades before.
But hearing the political bilge from south of the (as-yet-unwalled) border these past few months, my fear of fine print has faded and been replaced with a fear of much broader strokes.
It’s what the politicians are shouting from the hustings that seems most alarming, and yet their supporters are clambering on board in greater and greater numbers.
It’s as if voters are not registering what they’re hearing.
Up until this point, I’ve always wondered if politicians mean what they say, and I’ve feared they don’t.
Now, we’re hearing from a new generation of politician whose supporters contend they don’t really mean what they say.
This does little to assuage my fear.
It’s easy to focus on the one with the loudest mouth, but even the also-rans and the ones from across the aisle are saying things that seem not only far from practical, but darn near impossible, and certainly not very presidential.
And we’re told to not worry about it.
My concern is that we should worry about it. That the United States is on the verge of something truly awful. That the fear of others is being used solely to gather support, and that even if the person who eventually becomes president didn’t really mean what was espoused, the hate that propagated will never be forgotten.
Xenophobia, blame and racism are being stirred up en masse in such a way that even if the frontrunner doesn’t land the coveted position, his coarse words and crazed theories will divide his country for generations to come.
It’s as if they, the people, have decided their country is a network reality show, and they’re trying to cast as many wacky, Type-A personalities as possible into the lead roles.
And I – like many of you – simply watch from the sidelines, as the show is broadcast around the globe before it’s eventually cancelled.
I fear, someday, we’ll all pay a much greater price.
Lance Peverley is the editor of Peace Arch News.