November 3, the official Election Day for the US presidential election, is only two months away. The US Democratic Convention ( recently held on line, the first of its kind) nominated Joe Biden, vice president under Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris as their party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates. The lack of live audience, due to COVID-19, was sought to be enlivened with the participation (on line) of present and past Democratic heavy weights, including former Democratic Party presidents. And they didn’t hold back in their attack on President Trump, as if they were waiting to unload all that had been piling up.
President Obama said so much and so economically about the disaster that is Trump. To quote one relevant paragraph: “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead [in the pandemic and rising], millions of jobs gone; our worst impulses unleashed; our proud reputation around the world badly diminished; and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
And for many, after Obama’s critique of comprehensive failure and grim future under Trump, there would be no alternative but to get rid of him and replace him with Joe Biden. Indeed, some on the Republican side would wish the same but Trump’s conservative base is so solid that saying so publicly would be committing political suicide. However, General Colin Powell, secretary of state in George W. Bush’s administration, has no such compunction. He reportedly said, “Joe Biden will be a president we will all be proud to salute. With him in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends and stand up to our adversaries-never the other way around.” In other words, the US is in dire straits, both internally and externally,
He is a danger to its democratic traditions and institutions, for causing deep polarization, his coarseness, and lack of empathy during the continuing COVID-19 crisis in which 180,000 Americans have died
As vice-presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, summed up her partisan (though seemingly honest assessment), “The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone…”
And for the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, his pitch is that he will seek to unite the country after one of the worst polarization period in its political history. As Biden reportedly said in his acceptance speech, “This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment…America isn’t just a collection of clashing interests, of red states and blue states. We’re so much bigger than that. We’re so much better than that.”
In all these speeches, a pattern emerges. Which is that under Trump the US has not only gone backward but that he is a grave threat to the country, whichever way one looks at it.He is a danger to its democratic traditions and institutions, for causing deep polarization, his coarseness, and lack of empathy during the continuing COVID-19 crisis in which 180,000 Americans have died (and still rising), the largest of any other country in the world. President Trump still talks glibly that a vaccine or a miracle is just around the corner to take care of it all.
And in terms of the US’ relations with the world, this is the only time, since WWII, that the US has question marks about its friendly relations with allies. In the pandemic phase, the economy is going downhill with unemployment rising and more and more Americans living in destitution. Looking at it from whatever angle, the American dream is turning into a nightmare for many of its people.
With their President living in his delusional world, he still has a solid constituency which want to share his delusion that he will not only save America by lifting it out of ‘swamp’ but will make it great again. And he says that his administration has already achieved so much in these four years (whatever that is) and that much more is coming in the next four years. Indeed, he tells his followers that if you want to drive his opponents crazy, nominate 12 years of Trump’s successive rule— underlining his totalitarian instincts of upending the country’s democratic system.
And he is serious because he knows, on the basis of his experience so far, that he can get away with so much by way of President’s executive authority. And that he is somehow above normal standards of morality against groping women or telling plain lies. For instance, President Trump claims to have done more for African-Americans than any other President since Abraham Lincoln. He says all this against the backdrop of continuing killings of blacks at the hands of White police and vigilantes. At a time, when polls put Democrats ahead, it would still be foolish to rule out another Trump victory. Why is that? I might explore it in my next article.
The writer is a senior journalist and academic based in Sydney, Australia