Filenews 5 November 2024 - by Timothy L O'Brien
He sought some kind of perfection,
and the poetry he devised was simple, understandable.
He knew human folly like the palm of his hand,
and showed great interest in armies and fleets.
When he laughed, venerable senators burst into laughter,
and when he cried, young children died in the streets.
- Weinstein Hugh Oden, "Epitaph for a Tyrant"
American voters go to the polls for one of the most decisive elections in recent years, and Donald Trump has given them plenty of food for thought over the past week.
He has made little mention of his economic vision, much less of affordable health care and housing. It has hardly touched on critical issues such as reproductive rights, national security, international diplomacy, education, improving jobs, the climate crisis, American competitiveness or the hope for new opportunities.
However, as if the priorities are different, he focuses his speech on a number of controversial issues. Somehow, the electorate has found itself wondering if Puerto Rico is a "floating island of garbage," whether the U.S. is being sabotaged both "by the enemy" and "from within," and whether Vice President Kamala Harris is ultimately a "Samoan-Malaysian with low IQs." As the week progressed, Trump, who has previously been found guilty of sexual assault, commented that he would protect women "whether they want to or not." He also asked voters to consider how his Republican opponent, Liz Cheney, would react if faced with "nine guns pointed at her face." Hannibal Lecter" and congratulated himself as a "genius" for his often incomprehensible and intolerant rhetoric.
On Friday night, he pretended to perform sexually suggestive gestures into a microphone in front of his supporters. Two days later, he took the stage visibly shaken by a poll showing that Harris had overtaken him — possibly because of women's concerns about abortion bans — in the race in the previously "confident" state of Iowa. In his favourite practice, he resorted to the well-known attacks and allegations of voter fraud. Moreover, in a speech in Pennsylvania, he admitted to his supporters that he was wrong to leave the White House when he lost the 2020 election. Finally, he joked that journalists would be the best "shield of protection" from the bullets of would-be assassins. And all this in the space of just one week.
Set of words, arguments and deeds that voters are not used to seeing in the final stage of a presidential campaign. This, of course, was true of Trump from the beginning. Its great strength – and weakness – is to subvert expectations. But in order not to get carried away in prevarications, these are not mere contradictions and surprises. Trump is a deeply disturbed man, a juvenile delinquent who is so attached to fantasy, conspiracy theories, racism, violence, and fascism that he is truly unfit for the White House.
In addition to his rhetoric, Trump has recently adjusted his appearance. He chooses a black coat, a black hat with the "Make America Great Again" logo and the soundtrack of the veteran professional wrestler "The Undertaker" when he gets off the plane or enters an event venue. The former president makes no secret of his adoration for the sport, hence Hulk Hogan's repeated appearances at his rallies. What should be noted, however, is that this musical theme is nothing more than a variation of Frédéric Chopin's "Mourning March", suggesting something deeper than stimulating fanaticism and masculinity. Trump chose to accompany his closing arguments before Election Day with a mournful march tailored to gladiators, bearing the shadow of violence and death.
And if to some it seems like a caricature, in reality it is something much more dangerous. Donald Trump is making clear threats and in the event of defeat he will not hesitate to launch the plan to challenge free and fair elections.
In recent days, he has referred disparagingly to Kamala Harris by calling her "dumb," whom he would not put in charge "even in a kindergarten classroom." The message he wants to get across to his constituents is that he is a miracle manager, despite actually presiding over six corporate bankruptcies, avoiding personal bankruptcy thanks to his father's fortune, and failing to run a casino profitably.
During a campaign speech in Virginia, he stressed that if Harris is elected, "she will collapse, lose control, and millions of people will die." And if the number doesn't matter, we shouldn't forget that more than 1.1 million Americans died during the Covid-19 pandemic, a crisis that Trump initially faced ignoring, until he collapsed and began to lose control.
Trump's leadership style "is impulsive, confrontational, petty and ineffective," wrote Miles Taylor, a member of his own administration, in a 2018 New York Times op-ed. "Meetings with him deviate from the topic and derail, he engages in repeated attacks, and his impulsiveness leads to sloppy, ill-informed and sometimes dangerous decisions that need to be revoked."
Don't expect that to change in his second term.
John Culver, a former CIA analyst with decades of experience, posted on social media Saturday a letter from a bipartisan group of more than 1,000 senior national security officials who said they supported Harris because Trump posed a threat to democracy. "Where Vice President Harris is prepared and strategic," they wrote, "Trump is impulsive and ill-informed." Culver said he agrees. "I've been in the same room with Trump many times," he wrote on X. "Vote for Harris."
If he wins the election, Trump will be 82 when he leaves office. However, it is not only the obvious signs of an elderly man in decline, accompanied by the inevitable decline in physical endurance and mental clarity, that undermine his claims to administrative competence. What voters need to keep in mind, just before they go to the ballot box, is his immaturity, narcissism and mania.
"There's something about him that's always youthful," the late secular writer Liz Smith once said of Trump. "It's hard to believe he's an adult who went to college."
Isolated for decades by wealth, celebrity, and then the presidency, Trump has never had to learn from his mistakes, nor has he had to correct course. He continues to try to "go to school", but not grow up, with taxpayers' money and citizens' votes.
But Trump is not just a child. It's a kid playing with matches in the garage next to the gas tank. Voters must extinguish the flame.
