Family, then politics: A Republican and a Democrat keep the peace in a nation divided
It’s clear whose political camp Tracey Danka is in as you pull up to her tree-lined property in Calabash, N.C. Various flags promoting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump flap in the breeze.
But there’s also a giant banner for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz prominently lashed between two trees.
“Well, let me tell you the only reason there is Harris is because I ordered it for my husband,” Danka said.
Danka, who still believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump by U.S. President Joe Biden, is married to a lifelong Democrat who does not. Raised in Pennsylvania by parents who were Democrats, Danka is a mother of two recent college graduates, an organ donation advocate — and she once voted for Barack Obama.
But that was before Trump took a ride down that golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce his 2016 candidacy for U.S. president.
“I remember thinking that as sad as it is, our country is a business and we needed a businessman running our country rather than a politician, because these politicians would say and do whatever they needed to talk to the person in front of them,” she said.
Trump, hot off his television show The Apprentice, was known for firing people who fell short of expectations, and Danka liked that. But, she said, “Do I agree with everything Donald Trump says? No.”
For one, she doesn’t believe in tax breaks for the wealthy, she believes in exceptions for abortion in cases of rape and incest — and the kidney recipient acknowledges that the Affordable Care Act, brought in under Obama, may have saved her family from financial ruin.
“If it wasn’t for Obamacare, we would have lost everything and we would probably be renting some rat hole,” she said.
But Danka is aligned with Trumpism on many other fronts.
“I want the illegal immigrants gone. I want our veterans taken care of. I want our children to be able to be children. I want the schools to not be able to take away the parents’ rights. I want a [border] wall. I don’t care who pays for it,” she said.
Jan. 6 protester mistrusts journalists
Danka also continues to believe the myriad disproven claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, which is what brought her to the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Our voices didn’t matter. It didn’t matter how we voted,” she said.
Danka said she went to support Trump, but while she marched to the Capitol — where a vote was being held to certify the 2020 election results and a huge throng of protesters had gathered — she didn’t go inside the building.
“Why? Because it wasn’t right. You know … God gave us free will. How we choose to use it is really up to us,” she said.
Like many in Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, she has a deep mistrust of journalists.
“Turn on the TV. Are you kidding me? You know, I mean, look at the news. It’s always ‘and Trump has done this and Trump has done that. The Republicans have done this.'”
On Jan. 6, Danka was part of a crowd that mobbed me a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. To Danka, on that day, I was a symbol of Donald Trump’s “fake news.”
I show her the video from Jan. 6. It’s an uncomfortable moment. She shifts her weight and shakes her head and grimaces as it plays out on an iPad.
“It was just rude and uncalled for,” Danka said. “Nobody should attack anyone for doing their job for, you know, speaking their mind for reporting the news. So yeah, I would say I was wrong.
“As a person who is a proud Republican and a Christian, how dare I?” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
North Carolina residents Ed Danka, a lifelong Democrat, and his wife, Tracey, who supports Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, disagree about the results of the 2020 election and the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Seven months after that day in Washington, Danka sat down with a local news reporter to talk about the importance of kidney donations.
And, of course, she recently invited a CBC News reporter into her home, which is an act of trust. I wanted to know what changed.
“I guess it’s who the journalist is,” Danka said. “I guess it’s what their goal was and what they’ve said in the past and how they’ve portrayed people. So do I agree with all of them? Nope. Do I trust them all? Nope.”
‘I foresee martial law’
Once a week, Danka cooks food for seniors. She drives to neighbouring South Carolina, where it’s clear Donald Trump’s big lie has an unshakable hold on many in these parts.
Her first stop is to drop off the spinach ravioli to Joe Naudus Sr., a retired Vietnam War veteran, and his Yorkie. Naudus’s mistrust of the 2020 election results has spilled over to the election on Nov. 5, and he fears there will be violence.
“I don’t like to think about it. But if this election goes bad on the far left, there’s going to be a civil war,” he said.
Naudus is so suspicious of the election process, he thinks that even if Donald Trump wins, he won’t be allowed into the Oval Office.
“I have my doubts whether they’re going to let President Trump into the White House if he does get elected. I foresee martial law,” he said.
Down the road, Danka drops a care package off to Francine Lazard-Ailing, who originally hailed from Canada and used to vote Liberal but is now a U.S. citizen and a Trump supporter.
“In my opinion, it was a stolen election,” she said, adding she’s worried about the integrity of this election. “I hope that they will have enough people standing up and watching on both sides.”
A Trump supporter who was hostile toward a CBC reporter apologizes for her behaviour on Jan. 6, 2021.
Many in Danka’s circle still share the same set of beliefs that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, but her husband of 26 years, Ed Danka is not one of them. There is a factual gulf between the Democrat and his MAGA-minded wife, including around what happened on Jan. 6.
“We seem to have two very different versions. I was watching that on TV from the get-go. And what I saw when I talk with Tracey is not what she relates that she saw,” he said. “I know what I saw. I saw people breaking into the Capitol building attacking officers.”
Seated next to her husband on their back patio, Tracey Danka paints a different picture.
“For me, it was a show of support. Patriotism. Love,” she said.
Deep fears about November election
The two spar over Trump’s assertions that the last election was stolen, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Kamala Harris. Even so, they hold hands.
“The last thing on Earth we would ever allow is four people that we do not know personally to affect our marriage. We were married in a church under the eyes of God. And that’s where our marriage is focused” Tracey said.
“Family comes first and then politics,” Ed agreed. “All we can do is vote for who we think needs to be in that job and hope for the best, and may the better man or woman win.”
Still the two live in different information ecosystems.
Ed watches a lot of different news channels and researches current events online. Tracey doesn’t watch live TV and is mistrustful of most American news outlets, but she spends a lot of time sharing information on Facebook.
“It’s frustrating,” Ed said, especially when it comes to the allegations of election fraud.
“They went to 60 different lawsuits in different states claiming, you know, that the election was rigged, and every one of them, they lost,” he said.
“So what do you need to do with these people for them to get it?” he said. “It’s almost like a cult. I mean, when you have a cult, no matter what that cult leader says, the members go along with it. They’re mesmerized.”
One thing the Dankas both agree on is that the violence at the Capitol was wrong, and they harbour deep fears about what could happen in November.
“I feel if Trump does not get elected, it’s going to be worse than it was the previous Jan. 6,” Ed said. “He’s had four years to plan it.”
Asked whether she plans to heed Trump’s call if there’s another protest akin to Jan. 6 after this election, Tracey said, “I’m going to say no only because, you know, my husband will back me 110 per cent in anything I do,” she trailed off.
“But not when there’s danger out there, honey,” Ed finished the thought. “Because now you know it’s there. You didn’t know it before four years ago. But now you know what they’re capable of.”
Published at Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:58:04 +0000
In major military exercise, China simulates sealing off Taiwan’s ports
China employed a record 125 aircraft, as well as its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships, in large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands Monday, simulating the sealing off of key ports in a move that underscores the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait, officials said.
China’s Defence Ministry said the drills were a response to the Taiwanese president’s refusal to accept Beijing’s demand that self-governed Taiwan acknowledge itself as a part of the People’s Republic of China under the rule of the Communist Party.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence said 90 of the aircraft, including warplanes, helicopters and drones, were spotted within Taiwan’s air defence identification zone. The single-day record counted aircraft from 5:02 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time. Shipping traffic was operating as normal, the ministry said.
The drills came four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its National Day, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in a speech that China has no right to represent Taiwan and declared his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment.”
“Our military will definitely deal with the threat from China appropriately,” Joseph Wu, secretary general of Taiwan’s security council, said at a forum in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. “Threatening other countries with force violates the basic spirit of the United Nations Charter to resolve disputes through peaceful means.”
‘Stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy’
Taiwan’s Presidential Office called on China to “cease military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.”
A map aired on China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed six large blocks encircling Taiwan indicating where the military drills were being held, along with circles drawn around Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the six areas focused on key strategic locations around and on the island.
China deployed its Liaoning aircraft carrier for the drills, and CCTV showed a J-15 fighter jet taking off from the deck of the carrier, though the exact location of the ship is unclear.
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Two former officials discuss their visit to Taiwan, the role Canada could play in its battle for sovereignty and the threat China poses to the self-governing island.
China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command spokesperson Senior Captain Li Xi said the navy, army air force and missile corps were all mobilized for the drills, which were an integrated operation.
“This is a major warning to those who back Taiwan independence and a signifier of our determination to safeguard our national sovereignty,” Li said in a statement on the service’s public media channel.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing that China did not consider relations with Taiwan a diplomatic issue, in keeping with its refusal to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.
“I can tell you that Taiwan independence is as incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait as fire with water. Provocation by the Taiwan independence forces will surely be met with countermeasures,” Mao said.
‘I am used to it’
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said it deployed warships to designated spots in the ocean to carry out surveillance and stand at ready. It also deployed mobile missile and radar groups on land to track the vessels at sea. It said as of Monday morning, they had tracked 25 Chinese warplanes and seven warships and four Chinese government ships, though it did not specify what types of ships they were.
On the streets of Taipei, residents were undeterred. “I don’t worry, I don’t panic either, it doesn’t have any impact to me,” Chang Chia-rui said.
Another Taipei resident, Jeff Huang, said: “Taiwan is very stable now, and I am used to China’s military exercises. I have been threatened by this kind of threats since I was a child, and I am used to it.”
The U.S., Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally, called China’s response to Lai’s speech unwarranted. “We call on [Beijing’s government] to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
China held similar large-scale exercises after Lai was inaugurated in May. Lai continues the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party that rejects China’s demand that it recognize Taiwan is a part of China.
Also on Monday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced it was sanctioning two Taiwanese individuals, Puma Shen and Robert Tsao, for promoting Taiwanese independence. Shen is the co-founder of the Kuma Academy, a nonprofit group that trains civilians on wartime readiness. Tsao donated $32.8 million US to fund the academy’s training courses. Shen and Tsao are forbidden to travel to China, including Hong Kong.
China also held massive military exercises around Taiwan and simulated a blockade in 2022 after a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, who was then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. China routinely states that Taiwan independence is a “dead end” and that annexation by Beijing is a historical inevitability. China’s military has increased its encircling of Taiwan’s skies and waters in the past few years, holding joint drills with its warships and fighter jets on a near-daily basis near the island.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of the Second World War. It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated them in a civil war and took power.
Published at Mon, 14 Oct 2024 10:21:22 +0000
