Harris v Trump: into the void
A day ago , by Richard Lutz
RICHARD LUTZ watches The Big Show
Donald Trump does a five minute ad hoc schtick about a broken microphone like a second rate lounge room comedian. Kamala Harris fronts a sketch on Saturday Night Live for the US tv couch potatoes.
And so it goes. American politics may theoretically be about the economy, abortion and immigration. But it’s also about the Big E…..and that’s entertainment.
If you can’t convince the American voters with facts, just go for the laughs. Trump is the villain in the British pantomime shows. The bad guy comes onstage and everyone boos and hisses. And, boy, it’s fun to shout at The Nasty onstage.
Kamala Harris does the wry comic turn on SNL and America sees the earnest word-heavy neighbour you’d want around the kitchen table sharing coffee and cake and having a chat about politics, the weather, who’s coming over for Thanksgiving.
Which do you want? Stage villain with the foul mouth or the candidate you’d want to have a chat with?
A promise of a poisoned void …
On Tuesday, US voters will tell us. And whatever happens, whoever wins, there’s going to be hell to pay.
Trump takes it and there’s a demented man in the White House. Harris takes it and she’ll definitely face a Trump legal machine that’ll tie up the vote for weeks if not months with arcane arguments and flimsy lawsuits that’ll ensure no one wins except the lords of chaos.
Add into this concoction the ludicrous ten week hiatus between the vote and the actual inauguration. This void is a license to poison the American post election atmosphere.
In the UK, for instance, when a national election picks a new government, the old boss is out the next day and at noon on Day One of the new regime, the newly chosen Prime Minister is in situ in Downing Street. The changeover is fast, surgically ruthless and efficient.
But somehow in the States, a nation addicted to 18th century rules and process, it takes a more than two months to get a new tenant in The White House.
And in that black hole, the US will stew, shout, ignore the world as it turns in on itself and make a mess of the democratic ideal.
So, God bless America, folks, and God help it too through this winter of discontent.
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Bella Houston
Yep
Ellen Vaninn
God only knows what is about to happen.
MML
This won’t be pleasant
Jay Kermode
spot-on assessment – may the Lord preserve us all from Trumpmania, but I’m not quite sure what He’s offering as an alternative.
Dave Simms
once the cat is out of the bag it’s not going to feel that good
TLL
everyone I know is voting Harris so I can’t see anything other than a complete landslide. Probably 99% to Harris
TonyF
It’s just awful and I genuinely fear for the USA and the implications for wider ‘democracies’ (as they were once know). Your TV show analogy is spot-on…the problem is, I don’t know how you roll back from all of that. As you say, under the US system and regardless of the result, this will play out for months, the behaviours will be amplified and consolidated and may morph from a tacky TV reality show to something closer to a nasty computer game ??
Trying to find some hope…I wonder if looking at the UK recent experience offers any solace. We seem to have shifted from a 3/4 year period of ‘celeb-style’ culture war and comic farce and settled back (quite quickly) into something like serious politics and public policy discourse…at the moment anyway?? Dare we imagine the same across the pond??
William Rice
It’s true we have some very archaic an frustratingly antiquated glitches built into our system. The interregnum between election and installation has way outlived any reason for being, now it’s just a time for plotting mischief or worse. Another little bit of awfulness is the electoral college, which has devolved into a method to enshrine the tyranny of the minority, as in two of the last three elections. I hope we can get over ourselves sometime soon.
Jeff Carmen
Let’s just hope he loses
Spooky men
please share this song. and especially, if you know people in the united states, please send it to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzfjmcPXqkg
From- Sensemaker
A convicted felon and serial bankrupt found liable for sexual assault and under federal investigation for his part in an attempted insurrection would not ordinarily be a plausible candidate for the White House.
Tina Travel
Ten weeks before a New president is installed !
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