No. 178 – Next Tuesday: A Momentous Day for Democracy? And One of the Worst for Boris?

Dear James, 

They say it is darkest just before dawn. For four years we have watched,  dumfounded, the humiliation of America by its own President. We have seen the damage that he has done to allies and treaties across the world while he has pandered to the autocrats, state assassins and the hydra headed Russian mafia that infects our globe. This reality TV star has made America into a television soap opera with ever more ridiculous plot lines. But just perhaps, we may be entering the final plot. The one of his own demise? 

But Trump is not going out like a lamb. Like all political narcissists in history, he will take as many down with him as possible. Even perhaps American democracy itself. His latest bid for ‘power beyond the grave’ is the Senate’s appointment of Amy Coney Barret to the Supreme Court. She is a constitutional ‘originalist’ who may help to block future ‘progressive’ ideas in Congress. Donald Trump has tested the US Constitution to the point of destruction and only that final recourse of any constitution, a general election, will decide whether the destruction is complete or that the real America, the ‘good America’ returns to repair itself and blossom once again. 

The criticisms of this president have been continuous from the start. Even from people who have tried to work with him in the White House. Perhaps the most profound was that of his former White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”

True to character, Trump is trying to brazen it out. And particularly on  Coronavirus, the issue he is desperately trying to ignore. After three days in Walter Reed hospital he recently returned to the White house, theatrically removed his mask to the world and in true Mussolini style, told the world that he had taken on Nature and won. Here was ultimate Trump in pure Messianic mode. “As your leader, I had to do that. I knew there's danger to it, but I had to do it. I stood out front, and led." In his video, a mask-less Trump told the American public: "Don't be afraid of it. You're going to beat it." But only his base believe him. The White House had already become a hotspot for Covid-19 and a gathering in the Rose Garden on September 26th is suspected as a possible "super-spreader event". Today the USA is approaching nine million coronavirus cases, and yesterday more than 20 states had record levels of infection and announced 81,181 new cases and 1,016 deaths. This caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop 943 points, or 3.4%, its worst performance since June. On the plus side, over 80 million US voters, over half the electorate, have already voted. Many of those want rid of this malign maverick misanthrope. The writing is on the wall for Donald Trump.

Next Tuesday, November 3rd, the American people have a chance to reset the course of history. Two days ago our very own Nigel Farage was in Arizona with the President lauding his ‘achievements’. Boris Johnson, friend of all things Trumpian, however, is keeping very quiet. Boris knows that if Biden gets in, project Brexit will look even more tenuous than it already is. Biden was always against Brexit and being an Irish American, he will already be very sore about Boris’s threat to break the law regarding the Irish border. But next week, if Biden comes to power, the tipping point in the populist madness of the last four years may be reached and the frustrating, messy and Angst laden process we know as democracy may live to fight another day. 

 The last time democracy was threatened to this extent was in 1939. We are not at that stage yet but the auguries are not good. China’s Xi Jinping is crushing dissent in Hong Kong and Xinxiang. Russia’s Putin, the world’s ‘bovver boy’, is fundamentally weak but armed with nuclear weapons. India’s Modi is crushing Kashmir, Turkey’s Erdogan is fomenting war in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eastern Mediterranean and Bolsinaro is running amok in Brazil. All have been encouraged by Trump’s example and the vacuum left by him on the world stage.

Next Tuesday could be momentous James. Biden has said it all. “Today we are engaged once again in a battle for the soul of the nation. After all that America has accomplished, after all the years we have stood as a beacon of light to the world, it cannot be that here and now, in 2020, we will allow government of the people, by the people, and for the people to perish from this earth.”

It may be darkest before dawn James, but there’s a light at the end of my tunnel. How about yours?  

Kind regards, 

BH – Your Concerned Constituent