So the Orange faced one had been voted out…and a new era is upon the DSA. Congratulations to Joe Biden and to Kamala Harris. I do not envy them their job.
The Senate is still Republican, so all the fine ideas Biden has for tackling Covid, Climate Change and the economy are going to face the same constant braking effect that Obama struggled with.
The outgoing president shows no signs of going out without kicking off the 2nd civil war and “his” people (nearly half of those who voted remember) are convinced that the election wasn’t fair…no idea yet why, but that is not the point…and they are livid. I predict riots at best, civil war at worse and global war at absolute worst.
The federation is polarised – as is most of the world: On the one hand Trump style fascism, in the form of the UK Conservative Party (and smaller right wing groups like UKIP, Britain First, EDL etc), Bolsonaro in Brazil, Orbán in Hungary etc etc, with the support of the Alt Right (Bannon, Breitbart, Farage, QAnon and so on), supported by Russia (though I think only in order to destabalise the West. On the other the self-devouring centre left in the form of the EU, Starmer’s Labour in UK, and the almost (but thankfully not quite) unelectable Joe Biden…I say self-devouring because the right has been gifted power so many times recently by in-fighting (look at the fate of Corbyn in UK), excessive political correctness (those on the left don’t dare anything for fear of being labelled ant-something…the right have no such problem) and an incomprehensible dedication to Neo-Liberalism.
Trump has been demonised by the centre and the left…and that demonisation has led credibility to his claims of persecution. There was no need to pile so much hatred upon him – his own words condemned him several times a day. Yes, he appears to be an absolutely horrid person, and his politics are of varying quality. But furthering the polarsiation of the nation by continually painting him as the main villain are unhelpful – The extreme right can point to bias in the media against him and sow doubt about everything else that is written. And his followers will (and do) point out that he is the first US president to actually do most of what he promised to do, and the only one (or at least one of the only ones) not to start a war. And the real villains are behind the scenes – the likes of Bannon and the corporations that have guided his political choices.
I – as many others – am very glad to see him go (assuming he does) and hope Biden & co can bring peace, unity, prosperity and decency to America. But 70 million still voted Trump. The danger is not past. And we really can’t hope for a return to the pre-Trump days: insane neoliberalism, unending warmongering and religious extremism, wrapped up in patriotism for a federation that appointed itself the policeman of the world in order to further its colonialist ambitions.
A new world order is emerging – America’s time may be over. Trump may have been the final nail in the coffin. We’ll see. Whatever happens, it won’t be boring. Unfortunately.