Down To The Wire -- And May The Best (?) Man Win

"We know the disease. We social distance. We do all of the things that you have to do."

"If you get close, wear a mask. 'Oh, it's controversial.' It's not controversial to me. You get close, you wear a mask."

"Social distance, social distance."

U.S. President Donald Trump, Tampa, Florida -- Maskless audience

 

"They talk about the suburban women. And somebody said, ‘I don’t know if the suburban woman likes you.’ I said, ‘Why?’ They said, ‘They may not like the way you talk,’ but I’m about law and order. I’m about having you safe. I’m about having your suburban communities. I don’t want to build low-income housing next to your house."

"Suburban women, they should like me more than anybody here tonight because I ended the regulation that destroyed your neighbourhood. I ended the regulation that brought crime to the suburbs, and you’re going to live the American dream. So can I ask you to do me a favour? Suburban women, will you please like me? I saved your damn neighbourhood, OK?"

U.S. President Donald Trump

From the incredulity that was evinced by Democrats and the jubilation mixed with disbelief by the Republicans from the very moment it was clear that Donald J. Trump, businessman, entrepreneur, celebrity, man of wealth and television reality series-famer won the presidential election four years ago, a campaign to disinvite him from the White House was launched by leftists, the Democratic Party, feminists and any crank who gagged on the notion of this crude, crass man administering the executive affairs of the Republic of the United States of America. The campaign to smear and dislodge him gave no quarter and never ended.

An unprecedented campaign to smear him on any index of unsuitability to be president of the U.S. And they had plenty of help from their target who continually tweeted his opinion on anything at all, a man who resisted the pleas of those surrounding him at the White House in the hopes his bumptious rudeness could be tamed. He succeeded in alienating America's traditional Western allies by his negative comments on critical international alliances, leaving other government heads gasping for air and trying to puzzle out what the man's next move might be.

Highly unusual as it is that an incumbent president would not be re-elected for a second term, it certainly appears as though this is the direction this campaign is heading toward, with the Democratic selection for their version of a president with impeccable qualifications challenging the detestable Trump. To an outsider looking in, it appears as though there actually is no contest. Mr. Trump's challenger is not quite there. Oh, he's there, more or less, in his basement, purportedly coordinating things, while forgetting most other things, and he did appear for several televised debates with the president, but it seems he's not quite 'there'.

He is the conventional dummy, an over-the-hill politician who played second string to a hugely popular former president who, despite his popularity at home and abroad failed to distinguish himself and his country with his controversial and often unintelligible decisions. Now electors in America face a choice that is actually not much of a choice; between two faulty candidates. One of whom has done a fairly credible job of the presidency, the other agitating for his opportunity to overturn everything that his hated rival for the position managed to perform; both the good and the not-so-good.

COVID-19 has claimed over 225,000 U.S. lives, an astonishing situation for a premiere country of economic might and influence making it the sole superpower on the globe even under the condition that has led to its alienation from the tight little circle of Western allies. Mr. Trump has not distinguished himself in the manner in which he has personally led the challenge that COVID presented to the U.S. In his focus on restoring the economy, he has appeared to excel, however, even though the division between the wealthy and the poor in America continues to widen.

The political polarization in the country is staggering, however in its depth and vituperative distancing, an unhealthy failing that didn't start with Mr. Trump but certainly seemed to gain strength and ossify beyond the possibility of both political parties working together for the furtherance of the country's future fortunes. Should Joe Biden win the presidency, and that seems increasingly likely, the U.S. will finally secure a female president with the added bonus of a woman of colour. She will be nudged further to the left by the manipulation of other Democrats who have succumbed to the allure of  extreme 'progressive left' sympathies.

President Donald Trump, Iowa campaign rally (AP/Alex Brandon)

And although Mr. Trump's 'America First' campaign was seen as hostility in action with his trading partners, a President Biden, for as long as he will be around, will institute a focus on 'America First' that will make Mr. Trump's focus a watery pretender, revealing the new Democratic protectionist position in U.S. trade and industry. With a mere three days left to go before Americans swamp the polls in legendary numbers that will go down in posterity as a true voting anomaly, it appears as though Mr. Biden is in the ascendancy. 

And then, and then, Americans will live with the consequences of that decision for four years. It's just possible that the Republication reaction will be a mirror image of the Democratic reaction that served to divide their country far more than the Republican president is blamed for having done. But then, time will tell, it always does. That America will remain dangerously polarized, however, appears a given. That law and order that has slipped of late into crisis will continue its downward trajectory is certainly concerning.

The role of the media in the past four years has been resolutely and resoundingly anti-Trump but for rare occasions reflective of what is called 'right-wing' outliers. It is shameful that the media which should confine itself to delivering news in a neutral manner, has taken it upon itself to champion one candidate against another; true interference in the democratic process. All the more so that it has chosen to bypass investigating the connection between Joe Biden and his son's business arrangements in Ukraine and China in a questionable and certainly immoral and likely corrupt influence-peddling scheme.

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