Observations of an Expat
Despair
By Tom Arms
My overwhelming emotion in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump is despair.
My crushing depression is not caused just by the attempted assassination. It has been triggered by the host of events that led up to and followed the shooting in Pennsylvania.
See AlsoOF BASTARDS & DRAGONS || Alicent Hightower - 18 • BROKEN HEARTS - Page 3The favourite: Seven days that shook America and reshaped Donald Trump’s election campaign'House of the Dragon': Vhagar's Long History Explained‘The Boys’ Season 4 Episode 8 Recap: It’s finale timeIt started with the Republicans thirst for power at any price. Between 1933 and 1995 they were the minority party in the House of Representatives for all but four years. Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich had the answer. He embraced wedge politics by unjustifiably labelling Democrats as “traitors,” “communists,” or “un-American”. Republicans were “patriots,” and the only “true Americans.”
It worked. Republicans have held the majority in the lower house for 22 of the past 30 years.
Then in 2009 along came the Tea Party with its demands for lower taxes, a reduced national debt and federal budget and decreased government spending.
The Tea Party was followed in 2015-16 by Donald Trump. He married wedge politics to the populism of the Tea Party. At first the Republican old guard opposed him. Then he started to win with a mixture of wedge rhetoric, scapegoating, and dangerously over-simplified answers to complex problems.
After winning the presidency in 2016 he set himself up not as the leader of the Republican Party but as THE Republican Party. If you wanted to secure the Republican nomination for an elected office you first had to pledge fealty to The Donald and his increasingly right-wing policies. If you refused you were branded a RINO (Republican in Name Only) and destined—in many cases—to fail at the first hurdle.
Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 should have been the end of the cult of Donald Trump. It wasn’t. He kept it alive by donning the mantle of victimhood and claiming-- without a shred of evidence—that the 2020 election was stolen by Biden and that he was the real winner. On January 6, 2021, a mob incited by Trump’s lies and rhetoric stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to thwart the peaceful transfer of power.
During the riots there were calls for Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be hanged. They escaped. But five people died. 1,265 were arrested and tried. 460 were jailed. Trump says he will pardon all of them. One of the hallmarks of a democracy is that the loser graciously accepts defeat and allows the peaceful transfer of power. Trump refused to do either in total defiance of the US constitution and his oath of office.
Out of office, Trump continued to exercise a Svengali-like hold over the Republican Party and its nominating process. He also faced four court cases with charges ranging from fraud, unlawfully keeping secret documents, racketeering and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Only one of the cases has come to court and Trump was found guilty on 34 charges. It now seems highly unlikely that any of the other cases will ever be aired in a courtroom. Trump has successfully delayed their prosecution and if elected, will simply pardon himself.
But it is too easy to place all the blame on Donald Trump, American conservatives and the right-wing of the Republican Party. The extreme positions taken by some on the left-wing of American politics has driven moderates into the arms of the extreme right. They fear that their very identity is under threat.
Cancel culture, political correctness gone made, wokeism, LGBT and transgender rights, climate change and, of course immigration. Universities are under attack by conservatives as hotbeds of liberalism. But in many ways universities that allow the cancellation of conservative speakers or the dismissal of conservative professors could not be less liberal.
There are fewer dinner parties in America these days because they are a social minefield. Many older people were raised in the belief that hom*osexuality was a sexual perversion. Now it is a sexual norm. Then there is the issue of whether a person is a she, he, or they? And if gender politics aren’t confusing enough there is the problem of transgender people. Should they be allowed to participate in the sport of their chosen gender? Which toilet facilities should they use? To which hospital should they sent? Who decides when a person transitions from she to he or vice versa?
Immigrants can be a social positive. They refresh our culture and provide workers that drive economic growth. Many of America’s entrepreneurs are immigrants who by their very nature our adventurers and risk-takers. They had to be to leave the social safety net of family, friends and a known culture. But immigrants also threaten the sheltered hom*ogeneity of a single race or dominant race culture.
Almost everyone now accepts that climate change is happening. Not to do so would be to deny the evidence of their own eyes. But is it as bad as many say and is it manmade or a natural climactic shift? Either way, it is difficult for American society to adjust. Its twentieth century success is built on fossil fuel-driven motor cars and aeroplanes. Shifting away requires painful economic dislocation of the sort to which most people have a natural aversion.
Socially speaking the world has become a bewildering—almost frightening-- place. Many are embracing change and the freedom and diversity it brings. But just as many are seeking sanctuary in conservative norms which are exploited by even more conservative politicians.
Perhaps the Democrats greatest failure is to successfully manage the centre ground of American politics. Joe Biden is one of the best and worst presidents in American history. He has created jobs; brought down inflation; boosted American manufacturing; helped the green economy and fought tyranny. All great successes. But he has failed to convince the American public of his achievements. Communication is the first required tool of politicians.
But Joe Biden’s greatest failure has been his stubborn refusal to relinquish power. He is too old to be the leader of the Free World. He is too old to save America from a Trump presidency. His debate performance was the final proof. Yet he stubbornly clings to power and the arrogantly mistaken belief that only he can defeat Donald Trump.
It now looks as if Trump will be elected president in November. If he only delivers a fraction of his campaign promises then he faces the threat of a violent backlash from the American Left. He will almost certainly meet that response with even greater violence. Violence begets violence which is why I am in despair.
Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and the author of “America Made in Britain” and “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War.”
