Letter from America
January 13, 2024, 7:53 am , by Richard Lutz
Trump sweeps Iowa. But if he goes to The White House, the harm will be incalculable, says Ed Burke
We are in very strange, dangerous, fucked up times here.
An interesting question is whether Donald Trump is a driver, or a symptom, of things going on in America now. He is quite obviously a seriously disturbed human being, to whom the word “evil” can easily be attached. A few years ago I was listening to a series of lectures about evil in the western canon and, in the section on the Greeks, the lecturer’s description of Plato’s character who stood for evil in the Republic was the best description of our ex-president as I ever have heard. And the lecture predated his election by a number of years. But I digress.
I fear that the former president may be more a symptom than a driver: the wrong person in the right place at the wrong time. The harm will be incalculable. He can increase fear, suspicion, anger, hatred, divisiveness, beyond any measure that up until now would have been deemed reasonable, likely, or possible, because of his twisted and broken nature.
But I don’t think he has created the problem, just exploited it for his twisted self.
And the system we have here was not designed to handle him, and what has come to pass since Nixon took to the Southern Strategy, playing to the racist and grudge-bearing section of America. The Republicans have run with it ever since, and the Faustian bargain has now joined with the evangelical right wing and flat out fascist extremists to pose an existential danger. The “moderates” just cannot figure out how to handle them. The press for the most part has contributed to the mess by trying to maintain a “balanced” approach to reporting, which seems, even if not intended, to give equal credence to the whackos.
So many angry people, so little critical thinking or conversation, so little real leadership, and here we are.
Biden: old but sharp
The Dems have not helped. It would be preferable if the Old Guard had made room for the younger folks to move up and be taking their place, but such was not the case. As we know, the aphrodisiac aspect of power is dangerous.
Biden is old, but he is still sharp; he knows how to govern under the system that has existed at least since the 1950s. Unfortunately he may be the best candidate that the Democrats can put forward now.
So what do I think? All empires come to an end, and we may be entering the glide path to that end. Maybe not while I am still alive, maybe not even the next generation, but the cracks are beginning to show. The Republicans have cared more about winning and having power, the Democrats more about educating people to work toward equality and fairness.
And our electoral system does not award the winner of the majority of the vote, but rather favors smaller more rural states which are generally more conservative and have disproportionate power on the national federal stage.
If the Dems can pull their act together and get over their circular firing squad mentality they should be able to hold the fort this time. It worked in the last Congressional round, the inevitable Republican candidate has so many weaknesses and flaws that if they can just work together they should be able to eke it out again. But that is by no means what will happen.
OK, I could go blathering on. Honest pollsters will tell us that no poll matters until maybe late September, and even then, it isn’t over until the votes are counted.
The various court cases could have an effect, or not. The various wars, the idiotic House of Representatives, the economy, etc., could have an effect, or not.
I leave you with the latest issue of my favorite comic strip: https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2024/01/09
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Alan Holland
‘ The “moderates” just cannot figure out how to handle them’
Well one thing’s for sure and that is that all these attempts to ‘get’ Trump by dragging him into courtrooms as a political strategy have failed spectacularly.
He turns such things into show trials with him as a martyr and goes on to ever greater popularity.
Stop it. Put a manifesto out there which is more popular with voters than his, treat him with contempt. Use our natural weapons of intelligence, satire and ridicule to show him up for what he is.
Get in the ring with these people and suddenly it’s a dog fight. People love a winner. If you want to be the winner you need their ruthlessly thuggish skills and we haven’t got them, or are unwilling to use them.
In that fight he’ll win, and with it the next election.
Has Biden got the charisma and razor like intellect needed to do the job?
Absolutely not. If he runs, we’re doomed to Trump.
Katy Beddoes
It seems like there are more things that can hurt Biden than help him.
William Rice
We must, as Twain says, continue to “speak truth and shame the devil” and ridicule Trump in the public square, and laugh at him long and loud and get everyone laughing at him. Bullies and tyrants cannot stand to be laughed at. There is nothing very funny about Trump and his truly evil plans, but the man is such a grotesque monster that much merriment can be made of his stupidity and utter ridiculousness. I understand that he actually smells of shit constantly, so there’s something to work with.
Sue Hendry
There is a touch of the same thing going on in Boris’ England
Calum McAllister
Dump Trump
https://youtu.be/sxnKMKp06V0
Ginny
Well done, EJB III. Though I may be biased.
Dr Gareth Hamilton
I appreciated the comic strip
Scary times
Tony Fitzpatrick
I think the terminal damage will be done if he is allowed to stand…whether he goes on to win or not!
What that will say to the US and the wider world is that the US system allows for the most vile excesses of insurrection, racism, criminality and misogyny and that still doesn’t bar you from becoming president. He must, somehow, be prevented from standing.
Shelley Graham
There’s no doubt that the election will be Biden vs Trump, and it will be dirty and ugly. I think the result may hinge on Republican registered voters for whom Trump and his supporters are a step too far, and who abstain or even switch.
Bella Houston
May we live in a future that doesn’t prove to be ‘too interesting’ to misquote the Chinese proverb
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