American Presidents pay a great deal of attention to the way other presidents treat their people: they still remind their voters that Joseph Stalin sent them to Siberia, having accused Syria’s President Assad of raining down chemical poisons in his struggle against Islamic terrorists. Recently the president of oil rich Venezuela has been blamed for mismanaging the oil that allows him to feed his people. Only American presidents put their people first.
And yet, the worst president America has ever had doesn’t care how many citizens die of the Covid 19 virus, as long as the epidemic isn’t fatal to the stock market, and the country can get back to work quickly in order to save his November re-election.
Having failed to have Trump convicted in an impeachment trial by a Republican-dominated Senate, the Democrats latest hope is that his irresponsible handling of the pandemic that has killed thousands of Americans will be the nail in his coffin. But they can’t think of anything more effective than to launch an investigation into ‘what he knew and when he new it, a favorite American political tool. That may be why voters are finally be coming to the conclusion that they may have to take to the streets, rather than trusting the mantra of ‘one man, one vote’ to get Donald Trump out of the White House.
As voters’ inboxes are daily assailed with requests for money to fund opposition to Trump and his policies, it is considered unnecessary to inform contributors as to how, exactly, their money is being spent by the seemingly endless succession of ‘progressive’ organizations all seeking to reverse the tide. Meanwhile, the media, although finally realizing that the President is substituting live rallies with daily Corona updates, continues to cover them, fact-checking his often ridiculous assertions and outright lies, as he sidelines the experts standing next to him.
In what may be referred to in future as ‘the Trump phenomenon’, it’s becoming clear that the principle of one man one vote is not as efficient as democratic theory would have it, for most pundits agree that it is unlikely to result in a loss for the president’s base. On the other hand, one could say this proves that neo-liberal Democracy guarantees rule by ‘the people’.
Although most voters recognize the power of persuasion, Donald Trump illustrates the power of theatrics, his years of experience as a television star substituting for the legal baggage that most Americans acquire before entering the political arena. From the image of Trump and his wife Melania gliding down the escalator in his 5th Avenue building to announce his campaign, to the real-life succession of ‘You’re fireds’ modeled on his television show touting competition that have punctuated his presidency, to his live insults of journalists asking questions, he exhibits to lesser educated voters a dominance they will never achieve. And that is why he could continue to be ‘their man’, however poorly they are served by his policies.
When a country’s education system (not to mention its junk food) throws up a voting public that reads nothing but cartoons, then barricades universities, there are real chances that a consummate clown could win a new lease on the White House. After all, in the quadrennial ritual between a president and his people, the 1% can only cast one percent of the votes. And not even the unlimited election contributions granted to business by the Supreme Court are likely to beat the magic of a clown pretending to be a tough guy.
Deena Stryker is a US-born international expert, author and journalist that lived in Eastern and Western Europe and has been writing about the big picture for 50 years. Over the years she penned a number of books, including Russia’s Americans. Her essays can also be found at Otherjones. Especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
