CHARACTER MATTERS?

I don't know who coined the phrase 'character matters,' but apparently, while conventional people may think it should, clearly to a very large percentage of American voters, it doesn't.

I was really appalled in 2016, when over sixty-two million persons in the USA, including most white evangelical christians, voted for Donald Trump to become their president. For this was a man who had in his private capacity over the years: swindled dozens of small contractors who had done work for him; been accused of rape more than once; was a self-confessed sexual molester; was a chronic liar; had used the funds from his charitable foundation for his own purpose; had allegedly been involved in money laundering; had defrauded persons who signed up with Trump University and was outright and proven racist.

When the evidence emerged via the Mueller report that he had been assisted by the Russian government in becoming president of the USA, I thought that explained his ascendency to the most powerful position on the planet. (Powerful because of the vast nuclear power of the USA.) 

However, when in 2020, after he implemented many cruel and evil policies, yet increased his support from 62 million to around 72 million people, I must admit it has left me totally astounded and at a loss for a credible explanation. 

The evil and cruelty I refer to are, of course: his regime, even during the pandemic, making attempts to take away health coverage from some 20 million people,  including persons with pre-existing conditions who would never otherwise be covered by the insurance companies. (Today, the Republican-dominated Supreme Court begins to hear the arguments to destroy Obamacare again. This is the Trump regime's 3rd attempt to try and have the court overturn the Act); lying about the severity of the global pandemic and being reluctant to take the advice of the scientific experts, thus causing thousands of unnecessary deaths; grabbing away innocent children, including babies and toddlers, from their parents and putting them in cages.

I cannot think of an act in modern history that has been more depraved and foul than the latter. 

And look at what led to that unholy policy! Simply because a few hundred people living in poverty, illegally entered the USA, a country primarily built by legal and illegal immigrants, to try and improve their material condition. 

Under this policy, many traumatized parents have even been returned to their homeland without their children and worse, not knowing if they will ever see them again. At the time of writing, 11th November 2020, there are 666 parents and children who have no idea where their loved ones are or if they will ever see them again. Because the vast majority of Trump supporters, including ardent white evangelical christians, would move heaven and earth to try and keep America white, such an act of heartless inhumanity, has their full support. 

I am wondering just what will be the explanations given to sociologists and psychologists who no doubt will be studying this period in the USA for years to come. For previously, such acts of unthinkable evil would never have been expected from a country that had enjoyed good standing in the world for its decency, humanity, and magnanimity.

The good news, of course, is that in the long run, morality has prevailed, for, in the elections, the voting majority rejected the man who brought those unconscionable acts and policies to their shores and sullied the reputation of the USA.

It is sickening but often amusing, to see some Trumpists on television trying to fool the public about the real reasons why they support that leader......claiming that it is due to his outstanding economic performance. That is absolute baloney, for Trump inherited a robust economy from Obama, with annualized growth averaging 2% per annum after Obama inherited an economy in full recession. According to CNN's fact-checking, the economic growth under the Trump presidency only averaged 2.5% per year in the first three years, an anemic increase from where the Obama/ Biden team had left it. And if he had handled the pandemic effectively, the USA would not be in the economic doldrums it is today.

So, what economic performance?

7th November 2020, was celebrated like a day of liberation for the entire world therefore, for that was the day when it was formally declared that Donald Trump had lost his bid to continue to oppress the weak and helpless for a second term.

While some maintain that the world should not become too overtaken by what happens in the USA, the fact is that because the USA is so rich, powerful, and influential, the rest of the world does not have the luxury of pretending that what happens there is of no importance to the rest of us. 

So celebrations broke out spontaneously among the ordinary people throughout the world, as the news of his demise spread. I suspect that it was only because democratically inclined world leaders are constrained by diplomacy, why many did not join the masses celebrating in the streets in their countries. For Trump has managed to create such instability in the world because of his inherent dishonesty, unreliability, and lack of humanity, that hearing that the long-overdue end of his unstable regime had finally been confirmed, brought relief to them.

Despite the fact that so many degenerates, (to borrow an appropriate word from Hillary Clinton) voted to keep Trump in power, the positive news was that more than 76 million decent people in the USA, rejected Trumpism, choosing instead, a man who appears to be the very antithesis of Trump, to lead them for at least the next four years.

The incoming president, Joe Biden from all appearances and the reputation he earned after 47 years in public service, is a very caring, decent, human being. So apart from the public knowing he would never continue or even conceive of inhumane policies as the Trump regime had become notorious for, ordinary citizens can at least expect more equitable tax policies that do not only benefit billionaires, a more serious determination to deal with the pandemic and restart the economy, and in general, far more humane policies. And while it may seem trivial to some, parents who believe character matters can now stop worrying when their children set out to emulate the country's president in any way, shape or form!

Whether Biden, Harris, the new cabinet, and the decent majority will be hampered by the millions of Trump supporters, from quickly dragging up America out of the dangerous moral mire into which it had fallen, is the real challenge. 

The real issues

While the world waits with bated breath for the USA to determine who will be their president from 2021, their exit polls have some really interesting findings which should cause us to reflect on the position of the traditional media and the Democratic Party during the campaign. 

According to exit polls posted by CNN, the top three concerns of voters were; the economy, climate change, and the pandemic in that order, with the economy, mattering most to a third of those polled. This seems to once again, support James Carville's memorable prognosis in 1992, that "It's the economy, stupid. "  

That clearly remains of foremost interest to voters in  US elections.

To explain how it arrived at the results, CNN posted this statement. "Exit polling traditionally involves interviews with a randomly selected sample of voters conducted as those voters leave their polling places. Unlike pre-election polling, where voters can only be identified using screening questions or a history of voting on a voter file, meeting voters where they ensure that those included in the survey have actually cast their ballots." So while these results cannot  100% accurate, they at least provide a useful guide. 

These findings should come as a surprise to many in the mainstream media who have been pushing the narrative that with the USA having such a high rate of infection and death, the poor and delayed handling of the pandemic by the Trump regime would have made the election a slam dunk for  Biden. It is however easy to say it is not so, even at this early stage where the final outcome of the election still hangs in the balance.

While I could never support Trump because of his uncouth manner and especially his disgraceful behavior towards women in general and women of color in particular, I have always supported his stance on the pandemic which boils down to; learn to live with it!

No, I didn't swallow the sale's pitch that he came up with at the end of September, that he had been infected by the coronavirus, had been cured and had risen from the ashes, to become almost superhuman physically. I think he lied about being infected, just as he lies about every other thing. For had he been, with his pre-existing conditions, he would have been far more ill and slower to recover.

But I digress.

The real point is, Trump, has always maintained that the economic disaster caused by locking down the country would be far more devastating than the health effects, despite the high death rate from the virus. 

While many challenge this approach, I have always maintained that this is indeed true, especially in poorer countries where people do not have a wealthy state to subsidize those on the fringes who have lived on the verge of starvation long before the pandemic. And even the World Health Organization now recognizes this as they see the rapid rate at which poverty is growing worldwide. 

I currently reside in Florida where the pro-Trump republican governor has opened up the economy totally, and where the Trump re-election win is not at all in dispute. The fact is that the vast majority of people here are happy to be able to go about their business.  But people are personally responsible, so understanding that the pandemic remains a serious threat and since they do not wish to become ill,  most are taking the necessary precautions. So despite the governor warning that public health measures should not be legislated, individuals and business people almost everywhere you go,  are all following the advice of the scientists. 

Most people are therefore fully masked and socially distancing. Yes, there are still some nonbelievers trying to resist these sensible measures, but they are being shunned and prevented by most others.

The fact is, we have to learn to live with this virus until there is a cure. Full stop.

As a postscript to Tump's win in Florida, let's look at the issue of socialism. While I stood up and fought diligently to resist the possibility of socialism being introduced into Jamaica in the 1970' s,  I  am not convinced by the charge that a win by Biden would cause socialism to be introduced in the USA. Yes, you have the fringe element led by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Cortez-Ocasio, who would fight tooth and nail to introduce this backward economic philosophy here, but capitalism is just too entrenched in the psyche of the American population for them to succeed.

However, I will not fault those whose roots were in Cuba, Venezuela, and Columbia who are the main anti-socialist campaigners in the state.  Those three countries suffered for decades and terribly because of socialism. While in Colombia, socialism was never introduced fully, the Revolutionary Armed Forces which was a Marxist/Leninist guerilla group, caused thousands of deaths and stymied the economy there from 1964-2017. So it is no wonder that Colombians who managed to escape to the capitalist USA would want to leave all tinges of that retrograde philosophy behind them.

So now, we wait to see how the referendum on the Trump presidency, pans out in the overall USA.