Trump Versus Biden — An Updated View From Britain
Over here, we care. With our British government doing its insane worst to cut us off from our natural European hinterland, we need a big brother we can look up to, not look down on.
I watched some of the 2020 Democrats’ Virtual Convention. Aside from some good, coruscating attacks on Trump by Michelle Obama, the rest has been ho-hum. I can’t help thinking that, to use a soccer term, the Democrats have an open goal, given the disaster that has been Trump. I am very fearful that Biden/Harris, with the ball at their feet and with that open goal yawning, will miss.
Trump lives in the uber-luxury of the White House. He loves that. He has uniformed flunkeys at his beck and call, paid by the taxpayer. He just loves that. He flies all over the place (taxpayer again) in ‘copters and a huge plane kitted out like a rajah’s palace. What’s not to love? He demands state visits to countries all over the place and can be as nekulturniy as he likes with their leaders. How he loves that. He uses his position to appoint family members to important government jobs. Loves that, very bigly.
If a well-meaning madman is seen within a mile of him, he is bundled from nowhere to somewhere else by massive men with no necks. Loves that too. His peregrinations on land are in vast cars with armour plating which could stop a tank round. Exciting! Loves that a lot. He has his horse-like mane of hair tailored by the best hair-wrangler in Washington DC. That, he really loves. He has his McTrumpburgers delivered on a silver tray by a waiter with gloves on. Who would not love that? He gets to stand at podiums all over the place and talk nonsense while the world’s media hang on his every inarticulate syllable. He loves that, too. He gets to stand in front of Congress Assembled once a year and make like a king. Loves every second of that. A band Hails Him As The Chief wherever he goes. Oh, this he loves. And he gets to sit in that famous office at that famous desk where proper presidents have sat before. Wooo! Look at me loving this.
In a word, he is lovin’ it like a burger ‘n fries. All of it. And between now and November he is going to do and say whatever it takes to make damned sure that come January 2021, he is still loving all that good stuff. The fact that the current POTUS does not give a red cent about the US, its people, its reputation in the world or anything else but himself is no longer a surprise to anyone who has watched almost four years of his non-presidency. He is materialism made flesh, hedonism personified, concentrated instant gratification. America deserves better — much, much better — but does America see that?
Biden stands for comparative decency, honesty, diplomacy, literacy, experience, etc., — the antithesis of Trump. They hate Biden. So that’s all right, Trump thinks. Biden’s a whiter shade of pale and can never beat me.
As for Trump’s core support, upon which he is relying to have all that mindless tribal adoration send him back for four more years of living it extra-large? He lies. They love it. He cheats. He’s a serial adulterer. They love it. He talks balls. They love it. He grabs pussy. They love it. He refuses to release his tax papers. They love it. He fucks with the economy. They love it. He screws up on Covid. They love it. They love him the way the Germans loved Hitler. The way the Russians love Putin and loved Stalin.
The way things seem to be panning out politically in the USA, it is almost as if the Democrats gave up even before the primaries were complete. Thinking back on that process, I can’t think of a single wannabe candidate who filled me with confidence enough to be optimistic. We can’t compete with the Trump Show, the Democrats seem to have thought, so let’s just rely on a Democrat House of Reps to keep him in line as best we can for another four years and then we are done with him forever.
Over here, we care. With our British government doing its insane worst to cut us off from our natural European hinterland with Brexit, we need a big brother we can look up to, not look down on. America also committed a form of self-harm in 2016, and we live in hope that a Biden presidency will bind up the wounds and give America the restorative medicine it so badly needs.
