Election USA

 At this moment the result is hanging the balance. Donald Trump has cried "foul" and "stop the counting". He has alleged electoral misconduct perpetrated by the Democrats. These allegation are as yet unfounded, unsubstantiated, lacking in any evidence. But that does not matter. Trump creates truth by stating things. Millions of Americans go along with his versions of reality, no matter what they happen to be. A quip on the BBC Comedy Quiz show, "Mock the Week", went like this: "It's not that we have underestimated Trump. We overestimated the American voters." His statements are no longer lies, exaggerations, misrepresentations, equivocations or even opinions. They are facts. This is the way the world now is. 

People want their political heroes to be like them, not above them; to be seen to be flawed because then we don't have to trust a sham, a hypocrisy, a veneer of nobility. With Trump you see it all. He is the average voter (who votes for him). If he throws a hissy fit at the prospect of losing and throws metaphorical plates against the wall, then heck, he has a right to defend himself and his hard won position. The noble gestures of the candidates for the White House who in the past resigned as they saw before the finish that the game was up are not for Trump. Those who control their emotions, their words, are doing simply that. Trump says it like everyone thinks it. That's why he is as he says, a winner.

My take? This election will go to the wire, Trump will not vacate the White House and the litigation will wear everyone out and will damage the USA in ways which it will on an optimistic reading take decades to repair. The Chinese and the Russians argue that democracy is weak and you need a strong leader to hold a country together, bring peace, and economic prosperity. Maybe they are right, But these strong leaders do not last forever, nor do their dynasties. The relatively recent history of Yugoslavia that was, and Libya now tell a story of the frailty of holding things together by ruthless despotism. Rome gave the empire a few centuries of peace and prosperity, but in the end, collapsed. However it may be that Trump has bought the strong leader argument, and we will yet see a more horrific scene play out in our time. I've said this before on this blog: please let me be wrong.