Farrukh Dhondy | As a felon reaches the White House… God help America! Is it beyond saving?
“If I were just a flower
What would I simply need?
Watered earth to feed each part
Sunlight over the entire bower
And busy bees to breed
By sucking pollen from my heart...
And of course I’d want the daily breeze
To flutter and flatter my separate flakes
--Petals that humans feign to adore
And hypocritically cut and squeeze
To place in vases, conversational stakes
For dining guests--
our deaths the score?”
From The Ballad of M.T. Pilly, by Bachchoo
This week, gentle reader, I was going to write about the breakage of the plastic handle of my clothes iron, though before I put finger to keys I awoke to the news of the universal breakage, the shattering of several hopes, faiths, futures and credence to Winston Churchill’s contention that democracy is the worst form of government -- except for all the others.
Yes, Donald has beaten Kamala and will be the next US President. The states of the United (for now?) States of America, through its constitutional provision gives, as I write, Strumpet 295 electoral college votes to Kamlately’s 226. Even if the few as-yet-not-assigned votes all go to her, he still wins.
One of the world’s supposedly leading democracies has, perfectly constitutionally, voted to the presidency a criminal convicted of fraud, of falsifying documents, of paying hush money to a porn star, a maniac who asserts that immigrants eat innocent citizens’ cats and dogs, an alleged rapist, avowed racist, feral misogynist, a constant and public liar, a failed businessman… OK, gentle reader, you and the world know all this, so I’ll stop, though there’s much more.
So, what happens in January? He has promised to Make America Gaga Again. It has been the slogan of his campaign and the iconic abbreviation and dog-whistle for all his supporters. And from the “policies” -- if one can call them that -- or intentions that he has outlined, he certainly will.
During the campaign, he openly said: “If you vote for me, you won’t have to vote again”. Did he mean he will abolish the Constitution now that he has, during the same election, a Republican majority in the Senate? Will he ditch the clause which says Presidents can’t serve more than two terms? I don’t know if the word “consecutive” is included in this clause or whether it just says “two-max?”
Does he mean that democracy can evolve into his very own dictatorship? If he does, then it is a grievous fault and grievously have some answered for it.
He has also vowed to pardon and set free all those who were convicted of violence and armed rioting during the attempted insurrection he instigated on January 6, 2021, after losing the 2020 election.
Donald Trump constantly talks of punishing those who openly disagree with him. That would, of course, mean dozens of those whom he appointed to senior posts in his last administration from 2016 to 2020, who have since openly stated that he is a liar, a dumbo and some have even used the word “fascist”. You don’t have to be Hitler to be called that -- Joachim von Ribbentrop will do!
Now, Nazi Jo was Hitler’s foreign minister and as the world knows Nazi Germany’s policy towards most other nations, with perhaps the exception of Japan and Italy, was not “very friendly”.
Of course, Trumpet, whichever sycophantic chamcha he appoints as secretary of state, has declared his admiration for both Vladimir Putin and for Kim Jong Un. Should this admiration make the Ukrainians and Nato nations (apart from the USA) wary and nervous? And South Korea (where the dogs are already nervous)?
Then there is his unswerving regard for selling American arms to Israel. Can his foreign policy make things for Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians and other Middle Easterners any worse than they are already? Are there degrees or levels of genocide?
What about poor old “special cousin” Brexit UK?
Barack Obama made it clear, during his term as President, that the “sceptred isle, earth of majesty” will be at the back of the queue. When Joe Biden became President, he made it clear that he disapproved of Boris Johnson’s deal with Northern Ireland, considering it unfair, ambivalent and redeemable -- so not much loving flow in the special relationship.
Which prompts me to ask, in analogous form, the question that Donald asked the American electorate and one which, pollsters say, induced them to vote for him: “Do you feel you are better off now, is there more money in your pockets, than when I was President?”
Our Question: Was Brexit Britain in any sense better off when the Trumpet was in office? I can’t recall Theresa May or Boris Johnson enamoured of any policy or largesse that Mr Trump initiated or showered upon the self-isolated country.
Now it’s perfectly possible that Donaldo will appoint to positions of power the eccentrics and weirdos who supported him with praise and cash. Master Musk, the world’s biggest billionaire, pronounced after right-wing racist riots that Britain and indeed Europe were on the brink of civil war. He also believes that aliens from outer space are even today amongst us. He wants the unions crushed…
Gaga it is!
Democrats eating babies? Haitian immigrants eating pets? Injecting bleach cures Covid? Expansion of fracking and fossil fuels is ecologically beneficial?
God saves Trump and kills an innocent bystander while doing it? And so on...
God help America! Is it beyond saving?
