Why I wouldn't vote Trump if I was American. Or anyone else.

In a blog, far, far away, someone made this accusation about me;

"Dr Bell diagnoses an extreme case of Trump Derangement Syndrome in Clive. The causes are not, as yet, established", 

He speculated that one of the possible causes of this was my Calvinist beliefs.

Well I'm not a Calvinist.

No, I would argue that the root cause of my antipathy towards former President Trump, is an old fashioned belief that a man who boasts about sexually assaulting women, ridicules the disabled and has a questionable attitude to his marriage vows is not suited to high office. 

The multitude of reasons, in my view, that disqualify him from high office form an extensive list. This includes his conduct while his supporters caused chaos in Congress, and his involvement with sex workers.

The best his supporters seem to be able to say is "well what about Clinton"? As if that gives Trump a get out of jail free card.

Well I'm willing to say I wouldn't vote for Clinton either. I believe that integrity matters and neither of these former Presidents showed any.

But the worst thing about US politics, and it's the same here in the UK, is not Trump, but the way left and right demonize their opponents. So you're opponent is no longer just wrong, or even misinformed, no they are malicious, evil, actively working for the end of democracy, the American dream or wish to dismantle the Constitution. 

Or depending on the fevered imagination of the individual, they are sell outs to the deep state.

Unlike the UK, the American Constitution is a written document and is often revered, particularly by those on the right of US politics, as sacrosanct. Those who have watched Glenn Beck during his tenure with Fox News effusively praise the document, declaring it to be the most beautiful object in the world, will understand this sentiment. What with the tears, the whole spectacle was both embarrassing and hilarious.

As is the reaction of his studio audience, hollering and applauding the old ham.

This demonisation matters. We all have to rub along together, treating each other respectfully. If we don't the tensions become intolerable and violence follows. And to use a biblical analogy, a house divided against itself cannot stand. 

And this fracturing of society seems to be affecting all aspects of it, turning the young against the old, black against white and women against men.

To no one's benefit. Of course some of the fault lines were already there, race has been a difficult issue for centuries, but now the attempts to unite the different races seems to be faltering, whilst those fermenting division seem to be in ascendency.

So now it is acceptable in some quarters to say that, in almost Calvinistic terms, that white people are born racist, that they are inherently racist and that the sins of their fathers are so great that reconciliation is not possible.

Such a nihilistic approach can only lead to a dead end and more violence.

So where are the politicians in all this. Well we currently appear to be blessed with a bunch of incompetents, at a time when more then mere competency is needed, The challenges both domestically and internationally seem almost to be historic in scale.

The response of our politicians to the Covid pandemic is revealing, blind panic littered with poor decision making resulting in a disastrous response. A response limited simply to give the appearance of wishing to avoid deaths, with little or no consideration as to the impact of this response to the economy and our long term ability to finance our spending on health, education, defence, and other key requirements.

Because it was argued only lives matter, in the face of the pandemic, the economy and our finances don't.

In short only a cold hearted bastard cared about the cost of the response and whether it could be afforded.

Wrong. and its not even as if there is any evidence that our respective governments responses were as effective in saving lives as they were intended to be. Governments all the time have to balance risk with benefit, the knowledge that some people will die. That is, without permissible risk, longer term our lives and our children's lives will be the poorer for it.

We acknowledge that our transport system, despite its benefits, comes with inherent risks such as speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or diminished cognitive abilities, all of which can tragically result in fatalities.

But without the risk, there will not be the benefits. Better health enabled by the ability to transport food, medication, goods around the country. And besides people wont not die. It's just those who die will be more invisible and belong to different categories. 

Grown up politicians know when to make difficult decisions, not as an opportunity to exhibit their machismo, but because it is required. Few during the pandemic seemed to recognise this, preferring to hide behind the platitude "we are following the science".

Which is utter guff. If you are lucky, the science will be able to give you the result of a course of action, but the politician has to decide which course of action is better long term.

Which may mean that short term fewer lives will be saved.

So where is Trump and the like in all this. Sowing  division, fermenting anger, driven by personal ego, with little care for how their behaviour and rhetoric impacts on the communities of their country, not making the country great again, but weaker.

Don't get me wrong, this problem isn't limited to Trump. The left can be just as bad.

Why the left hates you

Whilst I was also unhappy at Trump winning, I did enjoy this. There's something about their smugness and sense of entitlement, that makes this highly enjoyable!

It is notable that women, blacks and Hispanics in particular are viewed with contempt if they don't follow the party line i.e a woman can only vote for Clinton, because to steal their logic for a moment, she has a vagina.

I wonder if they get the irony of this?

So I am more than happy to stand by my opinion of Trump. Nothing has changed since 2016.

But those who say that he is the problem, don't understand what the problem is

Why is our nations, communities, societies fracturing? Why are we so fearful of the future.

Trump is maybe exploiting these issues, but he didn't create them.

And there are players out there, like Putin, who are using the increasing domestic division for their own purposes.

And so far, quite successfully.

We only have ourselves to blame if the response is a Trump, or a Marinne Le Pen, because it shows we failed to ask the right questions.