US democracy drags on. But decorum is dead

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio/vlog version of this story, click here.]

Hubris. Melodrama. Scheming and screaming. Refusal to accept one's errors. Refusal to accept defeat.

Kamala Harris or Donald Trump: Which one is the greater threat to democracy? (Photos from X and Instagram.)

No, I'm not referring to South American football teams — although, all the above do apply to them. I'm referring to US presidential elections; those of recent vintage at least.

Fat chance

Watching the Democrats and Republicans battle it out is akin to two schoolyard bullies facing off. 'Yo momma's so fat' sort of stuff. OK, you're right, that might be a bit unfair to the inventiveness of some of those fat-momma quips.

It can make for compelling viewing for sure. Yet, it doesn't inspire confidence that the world's most powerful country has competent leadership.

The June debate between the now-retired candidate, President Joe Biden, and the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, was unedifying. Hey, a real axis of evil — China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — may be threatening the West but how well would their leaders do facing into a par five in inclement conditions? It's pointless having a good shot on the battlefield if you can't shoot your way around a golf course, you know?

At least Biden can focus more on his golf game — or simply just try to focus — now that he's no longer in the race to prolong his stay in the White House. Trump, though, will — or should, anyway — be spending less time on the tee and more time on the campaign trail.

'Whatever Harris decides to discuss, her big problem is that she's not an orator.'

His fiery rhetoric is, um, par for the course. He had promised a toned-down, more unifying style in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on him. Trump saying this is one thing. Delivering it, quite another. A slightly milder speech than normal at the Republican National Convention aside, his tone remains more bellicose than benign.

Calm-ala Harris?

In such an atmosphere, adopting a less hostile approach when trying to win over those crucial swing voters makes more sense, one would think. It remains to be seen if Trump's new opponent, the presumptive Democratic Party candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, goes for such a strategy i.e. focusing on policies and plans rather than ad hominem attacks. The early signs are that she'll play the man more so than the ball.

One area where she might offer something different to both Biden and Trump is in the god talk, as in having less of it. At times I wonder what's the point in having these elections if it's all in the hands of the Almighty. Many of the USA's political heavyweights reference their Christian god more than the average Islamic fundamentalist mentions Allah.

This isn't necessarily a problem, particularly if it is accompanied by concrete proposals. However, the god talk rings hollow in the toxic political climate of today's USA.

Nonetheless, Harris is going to be on safer ground talking about gun control rather than god control. Jesus is still a big vote-winner in American politics.

Whatever she does decide to discuss, her big problem is that she's not a talented orator. Well, she's not an orator full stop. (Or period, as our US friends say.)

A dying democracy

Thus, the Harris handlers will most likely advise her to stick to the well-tried but not altogether trusted line that 'Trump is a threat to our democracy'. Keep it simple, stupid.

A fresher, smarter approach would pay greater dividends, but that's probably beyond Harris's ken. Or maybe she'll show us in the coming weeks some political acumen that has heretofore remained hidden. It has been a crazy election cycle after all.

Yet, the constant over these last few years has been the vitriolic nature of US politics. This isn't going to change anytime soon.

Some argue about just how democratic the USA is, but it's certainly no dictatorship. Its version of democracy is still alive. What is dead, or dying in any case, is decorum in political discourse.

And with the death of decorum, decline or dictatorship is not far behind. Or both.
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Trumpism: Why it won't go gentle into that good night

 @wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]
Much of the world appeared to breathe a collective sigh of relief when Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States of America.

Swamp men? Barack Obama & Joe Biden. (Photo from Facebook.)

After four crazy years of Donald J. Trump, calm has been restored. A comforting normality has returned to the self-proclaimed greatest democracy on the planet. Certainly, Biden will conform to many people's view of what it means to be "presidential".

Long live Trump

However, while Trump's presidency may be dead, Trumpism lives on. To ignore it, to hope it will just peter out as a force would be foolish in the extreme.

To this end, President Biden has talked the language of reconciliation, of unity. Therefore, we must assume that his administration isn't about to completely discard the almost 75 million US citizens who voted for Trump.

Biden only needs to look at his own inauguration day to be reminded of why Trump won the 2016 election. While the outgoing commander-in-chief decided, as has been his wont, to go against 150 years of tradition and not attend the peaceful handover of power, three former establishment presidents were present: namely Clinton, Bush and Obama.

"Untruths can be forgiven as long as one is acting in good faith, saying what one thinks. 'Trump may be a liar, but he's an honest liar.'"

The bonhomie on display, especially the banter between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Michelle Obama, will lead some to believe that common ground between two deeply divided factions can be found in the years to come. There is room for bipartisanship.

However, another way to look at it is as the personification of what Trump referred to as the 'swamp', a swamp he promised to drain which, depending on who you ask, he either made a decent fist of doing so or failed miserably.

Where lies truth?

This Washington swamp is a political elite out of touch with the needs and wants of America. It's an enemy that needs to be dismantled for those who espouse Trumpism.

Then there's language, what's said and what isn't said. The BBC's Washington correspondent, Jon Sopel, when asked of Trump's positives, referred to his transparency.

Now, while we all know of the many untruths Trump spouted and tweeted during his term in office, what Sopel refers to is the idea that you knew how he was feeling at any given time. To use the old expression, Trump wears his heart on his sleeve — or at least he constantly posted it on Twitter when he had access to that medium.

This is another important element of Trumpism. Untruths can be forgiven as long as one is acting in good faith, saying what one thinks. 'Trump may be a liar, but he's an honest liar.'

Contrast this with the politically correct language of Biden and his ilk. Experience leads Trumpists to view with great suspicion all these carefully worded speeches. They've heard it all before.

What's more, in such language they tend to hear not the equality of opportunity they associate with their USA but rather an equality of outcome. What they believe made the US great — the individualism, the freedom, a "non-interfering" government — is being eroded before their very eyes under the guise of progressive politics.

President Biden is only settling in at the White House. He may indeed turn out to be a president who can build bridges rather than walls. Convincing some in his own ranks to rein in their more ambitious ideas will surely prove key to that.
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Trump: Better the devil you know for the US?

As much as some may wish it wasn't so, the person — nay man as it has been and looks set to be for at least another four years — calling the shots in the White House exerts global significance.

Trump: As the opposition dithers, he looks set to win four more years. (Photo from Facebook.)

So while there will be those outside the USA, and even a small number inside, who will plead indifference to this year's presidential election, the winner is sure to have some sort of influence on their and all of our lives, whether we like it or not

'Trump hasn't started World War III. Not yet anyway.'

Now, at the risk of being a bit premature here considering events of the past week and the fact there's the best part of a year still to run on the incumbent's term, we can say, thankfully and as predicted before he was elected, that Donald J. Trump hasn't started World War III nor turned his country into a Fascist dictatorship.

Making America heard again

What he has done is brought back that US bravado, or cockiness if you will, making it seen and heard again both at home and abroad. 

This isn't to say it's been all gung-ho, trigger-happy stuff in a classical American Wild West style. No. He's used the carrot-and-stick approach in dealing with his nation's most threatening challenger to world supremacy, China. Ditto with North Korea, more or less.

The stick has been used more so with Iran of late as we've seen to deadly effect, although it can be argued with some justification (how much the assassination of Qasem Soleimani will impact things domestically in the US in November is difficult to say at this remove). What he has failed to do is come good on his promise to reduce US troop numbers in the Middle East.

That latter negative notwithstanding, with an economy in fairly rude health by all accounts, coupled with low employment, a good number of his fellow citizens feel he has done enough to warrant those coveted four more years. 'Far worse presidents were re-elected' is what his supporters will tell you. 'Just look at the previous commander-in-chief, Barack Obama.'

For liberal Europeans, that's a hard one to stomach. Obama was their darling, the old-world style president that had been long overdue for the New World.

'The Democrats have left the country.'

The US under Obama for Europe was like seeing your old friend going out with someone who seemed a really decent, salt-of-the-earth type chap after having a few roguish partners. He wasn't the stereotypical loud, in-your-face guy we'd seen before. 

Alas, she reverted to type and then some when Trump won her over. 'We'll just never understand that young and reckless, yet alluring, US, will we?'

'Do something, Democrats'

A big reason why Trump looks set for re-election, putting to one side a highly unlikely impeachment, is to do with the opposition.

As Ronald Reagan reputedly once put it, 'the Democrats have gone so far left they've left the country.' And just like it has been in Colombia, being associated with anything close to the far left in the United States of America is pretty much toxic at election time.

OK, numbers-wise, thanks to the population concentrations on the east and west coasts, whoever finally appears on the Democratic ticket might actually, just as in 2016, win the popular vote. (One must also take into account the anti-Trump echo chambers reverberating around these more liberal sides to America. Their words tend to find more favour with non-Americans than those living in the 50 states.)

Lies of the land

This isn't, however, how the system works to get the keys to the White House. The electoral college vote should once again get Trump over the line.

I must say that if I ever got the chance to meet the current president, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to stomach him for any length. I certainly wouldn't be at ease in his company in any case. He is, after all, a serial liar. The man who gave us #FakeNews regularly says things that are clearly untrue.

The thing is, those who are doing their damnedest to get him out of office are also blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Truth being the first casualty of war and all that.

In one sense, November's presidential election is similar to what the UK electorate faced in December 2019: What's the least-bad option? The devil you know or the one you don't? 

With an opposition that raises more questions beforehand than answers, Trump is looking like the "safest" bet for US voters, as abhorrent as that is for many on the outside looking in.
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Flying the flag for political incorrectness

Many people still don't seem to get it. Or they wish it wasn't so in any case.

Basically, a significant reason US President Donald Trump proved to be — and still proves — popular across Middle America, away from the east- and west-coast echo chambers that is, is that he speaks a straightforward language.

Trump: Middle America's president. (Photo from Twitter.)

He tells/tweets it as he sees it — for better or for worse. Unlike mainstream, establishment politicians, not everything, nay nothing in terms of tweets anyway, is precisely planned, framed in must-not-offend diplomatic speak.

In the politically correct West, where the leftist discourse has taken a strong hold in the universities, shaping in such a way many of our current and future key opinion leaders, somebody deviating from the accepted script is bound to find favour with those not in the club.

This is not to say that all Trump supporters are dumb hillbilly racists, the standard charge levelled at them.

Indeed, many Trumpists I know find his controversial, excessive tweeting irritating. Neither do they agree with all his utterances — in fairness it can be hard to keep up with them in any case.

Yet, it's the feeling that despite his many flaws, he is about as honest as they come. He doesn't hide behind political advisers. What you see is what you get.

In this day of carefully groomed, mannequin-esque politicians, this resonates. (That the US economy is performing well under Trump's watch is another important plus point.) 

It's a question of, 'Who do you really trust: Somebody who comes across as "holier than thou" or a guy seemingly showing us his warts and all?'

"Now name calling does hurt us."

Trump's presidency and other similar eschewing of the standard political system elsewhere have been the inevitable backlash against the over-the-top political correctness we've had to stomach for the last couple of decades.

Where did our childhood act of defiance towards hurtful words go? You know, the old schoolyard rhyme, 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.'

We realised back then that acts of real violence could be lethal, but name-calling? Whatever. We could rise above it.

Now, however, many of our law-framers and influencers have become too cool for school. 'You can have your free speech but you can't say this and you sure as hell (OMG, did I just say "hell"?) can't use that word.'

We're in the process of creating an impotent, sterile bunch of human beings. Like the announcer at the bumping cars — do they still exist or have they become too unsafe, imparting evil habits in our young? — at a funfair used to say 'one way round only', now it's 'one discourse only', even if it goes against biology, to name but one area of contention. (How many genders do we have now? It's difficult to stay, um, abreast of the accepted pronouns these days.)

The British intellectual, amongst many other things, Stephen Fry has a refreshing approach to all this craziness. At a debate on political correctness earlier this year he said that if somebody wants to call him a 'fagot' — he is gay — then so be it. It's not the end of the world. There are far greater things we should be crusading against.

It's not the case where we want things to become overly verbally abusive — radicals or fundamentalists on all sides are adept at that already — but we don't want people having to consult a lawyer every time they want to speak lest they offend some unsuspecting bystander.

Fry's common sense view is nothing more than we'd expect from a man of his standing. Yet, worryingly, he doesn't seem to be in the majority in the intellectual world.

In Colombia, one of the refreshing things about life here is how it's normal to call somebody by their outward appearance. So you have people being affectionately called 'fatty', 'blacky', 'thinny' and so on.

Imagine how that would go down these days in most "First World" countries. The courts would be on the go 24-7.

With all that in mind, we're now just over two years away from the next US presidential election. The big question is, if he survives all the scandals and potential impeachment, can Trump get re-elected?

A lot, of course, will depend on who he's up against. 

The danger for the Democrats is that in their desperate bid to win back the White House they'll opt for an everything-for-everybody candidate. A product of our one-size-fits-all globalised world. 'Tell us what we want to hear, regardless of the reality.' Ah yeah, that makes it all better.

The Democrats would be doing us all a favour, everywhere, if they look more towards the centre-ground.

Alas, the radical left will do their bit to make sure that doesn't happen. Trump will happily toot to that.

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The Trump card

It's been quite a year so far. In the sporting sphere, people have called it the year of the underdog. 

The biggest representation of that was Leicester City Football Club's remarkable triumph in England's Premier League; from 5000-to-1 outsiders to top dog in the space of nine months. You also had unheralded Iceland, with a total population of just over 300,000, light up Euro 2016, going all the way to the quarter-finals.

Switching codes to rugby, my own province of Connacht, a region not traditionally seen as a stronghold of the sport with a franchise that was almost disbanded by Irish rugby authorities a few years back, impressively claimed the league title contested by sides from the Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Will Team Trump be celebrating next month? (Picture from Facebook.)

In the political world, it's also been somewhat strange. We've had the much talked about Brexit in the UK, Colombia's 'no' vote to the historic peace deal reached between the government and Farc followed by President Juan Manuel Santos' winning of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts despite this big setback. 

Even back home in Ireland, there was a protest vote of sorts when the electorate returned in numbers to a party that was seen as the chief culprit of everything that went wrong during and after the Celtic Tiger boom years. We're a forgiving bunch, it seems.

In such an environment, a Donald Trump US presidential victory would seem to fit the narrative, as unlikely as that now appears this late in the game. 

Nonetheless, in less unpredictable times, a brash billionaire promising to 'make America great again' (just the United States of America that is, not any other part of it and especially not Mexico) would appeal not just to rednecks but plenty of city dwellers as well.

Thus, with a strong whiff of anti-establishment air whirling around, it's easy to see how the Trump card is attractive to many. 

He represents the giving of the middle finger to the old tried-and-trusted way of doing things. The system needs a little bit of a shake-up, a shock, and Trump would deliver that, both at home in the US and abroad. 

That's the thinking (and the hope for some, the fear for others) anyway. Yet didn't the outgoing Barack Obama offer a (sort of) new approach as well? (Then again, don't they all?)

Throw in the fact that Trump's main rival, Hillary Clinton, doesn't exactly inspire confidence — even though if she is elected, as polls predict, she will become the first woman president of the self-proclaimed greatest country on the planet and therefore a significant new departure in itself — and the ingredients for a Trump triumph are clearly there. The US's Electoral College system could also work in his favour; lose the popular vote but still make it to the White House.

So as much of the rest of the world looks on with trepidation at the chances, decreasing as they are, of Trump becoming the de facto leader of the free world, is it really a huge cause for concern?

He does hum to a different beat than most politicians, but were he to take power, how much of what he says he is going to do would he actually carry out? A good bet is not much at all. 

Indeed, he's more likely to become the best-known figurehead on a stage of other political figureheads who in reality kowtow to the real movers and shakers of this world; the money men, of which Trump is one, of course, but only one.

In fact, he might find out that he was able to exert more of an influence behind the scenes than being centre stage.

In the end, by going "radical" as some see it with Trump, the US might just be opting for the 'same old, same old.' And exactly how the real powers want it to be. Plus cą change. 

Oh well, there's always sport to provide us with the novelties.
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