The whole campaign has been like watching an episode of Colombo. We all knew who the villain was, we knew what he had done, how he did it, who helped him, and when. But in the end, instead of comeuppance he was rewarded with the highest, most powerful office in the world and the chance to pardon himself of all his crimes, including treason. It’s an extraordinary tale, one we’ll have to live with for decades. Trump and his acolytes will appoint more ultra-right-wing Supreme Court justices for life and it will be a drag on US citizen's rights for years to come.
Americans voted to destroy what credibility they had as well as their own standing in the world. We have to face it. Most of the population in the richest country in the world opted to damage their neighbours and allies to save a few cents off food and petrol, already among the cheapest in the world. This perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise. Anyone who has read Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath will recognise the selfishness which permeates much of American society, particularly in the old Confederacy states.
Someone said recently (it might have been Robert de Niro) that you could pick someone at random off the streets of New York and find a better, more capable, and knowledgeable candidate. I think that’s true - of New York, California and most of the north east coast. Unfortunately, it isn’t true in Iowa or many other bible-belt southern states. Indeed a majority of American voters seem to have an IQ of 70 or below.
It’s obvious to me that Trump is a man of exceptional stupidity, a deranged crank and a moron as I suggested on Tuesday. To think he is anything else you need to be an idiot, an imbecile, or a moron yourself. The only other possibility is that you’re completely apolitical, never read a newspaper, and hold deeply racist views. They picked a white narcissistic felon and probably a traitor in preference to an impeccably qualified black woman and that group is now in the ascendancy.
On Twitter, someone posted this quote by H L Mencken writing in The Baltimore Evening Star on July 25, 1920:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.”
This was over a century ago but they got there in the end. Trump is that complete narcissistic fool.
What does it mean?
Trump is 78 and cognitively impaired already. He is not going to survive four years. The Republicans won the Senate and the House of Representatives so they are in complete control, for the moment. But Trump will be ousted sooner or later, probably not before the mid-term elections in 2026, when they will almost certainly lose the Senate or the House (maybe both). The next two years will be chaotic and dangerous for the West. Reagan’s shining city on the hill has been reduced to rubble and will take years to rebuild if it ever is.
Read this as a terrifying example of what is to come:
Michael Flynn: Time to dismantle FBI and purge 'highly qualified' government expertshttps://t.co/IhV7kGMOaf
— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 7, 2024
This is not an exercise or some theoretical threat. Flynn was once the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and a long-time Trump supporter.
The Republican party ought to suffer a terminal blow but knowing Trump's followers they are stupid enough to blame everyone else rather than the nutjobs they elected. I expect in 2028 it will be President Vance in charge and facing re-election. Without Trump, he will lose badly.
The result makes Brexit look even more stupid. If Trump triggers a trade war, we are in serious trouble. Europe and the EU are the last redoubts of democracy although Orban (Hungary) and Fico (Slovakia) are doing their level best to undermine it from the inside.
If the EU fails we will all be sorry. For all its faults it is still our best hope for the future but it must now recognise the world has changed and begin to build its own resources, especially in defence. The US is no longer a reliable partner in anything. Yesterday was a wake-up call for Brussels.
