Trumped

Much of the world appears to be shocked at the election of Donald Trump as US president this week. I thought I would be as well but I find myself actually more bemused. Part of the bemusement is that the American people have elected a fart as a leader. OK that is just my puerile mind but the main bemusement is the fact that many seem to think that there was some huge difference between the two presidential candidates. In terms of policy, the choice of presidential candidates usually comes down to picking between Pepsi and Coke. I don’t think the difference is that marked this time either it’s just the style that differs. Hillary was the standard measured stateswoman, well-rehearsed in presentation. Trump, on the other hand, is a clown from a television show. The American people have just gone and elected Krusty the Clown.

In fact, I think a closer parallel would be with former Italian leader, Silvio Berlusconi. He is so far beyond the pale that no standard political scandal can touch him. In fact it would appear that the more outrageous and controversial he is, the more his appeal to a certain demographic increases. There was a campaign in the UK for Jeremy Clarkson to be prime minister which even Clarkson found to be idiotic. By comparison to Trump, Clarkson is the model of understatement but I suspect that it is the same people who take Clarkson’s self-mocking oafishness seriously that support Trump, Berlusconi, Farage and any other pseudo anti-establishment figures. The problem is, of course, that the likes of Trump (white, privileged billionaires) are about as establishment as they come which many blue collar Trump supporters are about to discover as he gives huge tax cuts to his billionaire brethren whilst they get jack.

For someone who is a wanton lefty like myself, Trump doesn’t worry me rather than causes me despair. The United States is protected in a rather conservative manner by its constitution. This means that whilst genuine reformers like Obama struggle to get their reforms to healthcare and gun control through congress, it also stops demagogic clowns from running amok with every vacuous whim that their brain farts (or is that trumps) out. The constitution can be changed, of course, but this is a glacial process that requires the co-operation of all 50 states.

The despair comes from the fact that the world is stuck with what will be a major roadblock to combat the worlds increasing problems. Maybe we will be in luck and Obama will discover, like Jimmy Carter did in the past, that they can be far more effective as an ex-president than as a serving one. As for Trump, I can’t see him lasting that long. His appeal may have been about “sticking it to the man” but now he is that man he will be under intense scrutiny and, unless I am mistaken and he actually is some kind of political genius, his promises will be proven to be as vacuous as his speeches. Unfortunately the effect of the hatred spilled from those speeches is likely to last longer than his presidency.