THE NIGHTMARE CALLED TRUMP

A departure from music today. Forgive me, but if one US reader of my blog is swayed by this, it’s worth it. (The photograph of Donald Trump with a hollowed out space where his brain should be has been removed for aesthetic reasons [after a complaint].)

I am not the sort of person who would willingly read media that might be positive about Donald Trump so it follows that my views on his candidacy for President of USA are tainted by what I read in the Guardian and Observer, on Facebook, and internet links from there that lead me to satirical TV shows, unflattering graphics and more serious disapproving pieces about him, the best of which I’ve seen is by Andrew Sullivan in New York magazine (http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/andrew-sullivan-trump-america-and-the-abyss.html).

That said, I still find it difficult to believe that this very rich man, a real estate developer with no previous experience in politics and a rank outsider at the beginning of the race who no doubt joined it to get some free publicity for his business ventures, has got this far. It’s almost funny, except that it isn’t. The reality now is the terrifying prospect of this truly dreadful man graduating to the White House after tomorrow’s vote.

Trump is a cynical proponent of what I call the popular lie. He makes something up, shouts it out loud and, knowing that it resonates with their opinions, grins smugly as his gullible followers lap it up. In many ways this is no different from the lies peddled by Farrage and Johnson in the run up to our EU referendum. Sufficient people believed those lies and the result was Brexit, a catastrophe for the UK with shambolic ramifications that will rumble on for decades. I note that the Daily Express, the odious right-wing rag that peddled those lies more enthusiastically than even the Daily Mail, appears favourable towards Trump.

My concern, therefore, and it is one that is shared by many, is that the same thing might now happen on a far greater scale in the US. So let’s make no bones about this: Donald Trump is a jumped-up reality TV star, a con artist, a crooked businessman, a misogynist, a racist, a climate change denier, an opponent of gun control and abortion, a bully and an abuser of women. He’s a shameless tax dodger who favours the accumulation of private wealth and economic policies that benefit the rich to the detriment of the poor. He is a spoilt brat, unbearably vain and, as evidenced by the televised debates, a barely literate boor who repeats himself endlessly. With no policies of his own, he resorts instead to hysterical attacks on his opponents, a negative campaigner with a negative outlook. The only foreign leader he appears to admire is Vladimir Putin, a tyrant in everything but name and one whose ranks Trump aspires to join. Laughably, for someone who seems to have broken every commandment in the book, he’s even managed to deceive dim-witted evangelicals into supporting him. I thought the last Bush and cronies like Cheney and Rumsfeld were pretty dire but Trump and the sort of people that might serve under him make even Dubya look like a reasonable kind of guy.  

For the sake of our planet, for the sake of sanity, I would therefore urge all my American friends on Facebook and who read this blog, if they need urging and if they haven’t already done so, to vote for Hilary Clinton in tomorrow’s Presidential election. Thank you.