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It was England in October 1951. The first election I remember was coming up. My dad supported Labour and unwittingly, I am sure, filled by childhood head with horror at the thought of Labour losing. I recall being comforted by the thought that such a bad thing wouldn’t happen. Alas it did. After the initial shock I turned to other things. And the sky didn’t fall in. Not then.
Déjà vu. Another election and again I am fearful. This time of Trump losing and Sleepy Joe winning. And this time the sky might well really fall in. However, when I opened my weekend paper there was Paul Kelly arguing that global stability required a change in the White House and Greg Sheridan suggesting that American voters had a wretched choice to make. So, it wouldn’t be so bad then?
Sure, Sheridan thinks Trump doesn’t deserve to lose to Biden; though he does deserve to lose apparently. Yet proving that indeed doublethink can exist in the mind of a journalist, Sheridan lists some of Trumps “big achievements.” He took four column inches. And these are achievements to write home about, including “a staggering three Arab-Israeli peace treaties.” But in Sheridan’s mind these have to be measured against Trump’s “grievous deficits.”
I read with anticipation. What had Trump done that could conceivably offset all of his big achievements; one might say, huge and profound achievements. Here’s most of the grievous offsetting deficits.
First up, “he lies frequently and easily … is foully abusive of political enemies and in the past especially of women.” While no examples of his lying or abuse most foul are provided, let us suppose that Trump has transgressed against good taste in his time; and, as Sheridan claims, is also guilty of at times of being erratic and unpredictable, if John Bolton is to be totally believed; and, to boot, has at times expressed admiration for awful dictators, has allowed the budget deficit to grow, and has not been friendly enough to America’s allies.
None of it, including the bits I left out, amounts to a hill of beans. Currently Trump is on the parapets, having fought off the barbarians, and is preparing to do battle again against overwhelming odds. Meanwhile, well back behind the front lines, those who should support him are sniping away. He’s cussing too much; his tunic is unbuttoned. They are a problem. They are the problem.
Those of us on the conservative right and centre right need to understand the character and intentions of the modern Left. We cannot afford to undermine our champions – well, in these times, our only champion. This doesn’t mean being uncritical. It means we don’t snipe and snipe away at every opportunity.
Whatever faults Churchill had – and apparently, according to some, they were many – they paled against the need to combat the onslaught of Nazi Germany. Equally, we need to combat the onslaught of Biden and his Marxist puppeteers. Who do we have to stand up against them? I might have missed something or someone. Will those who find Trump distasteful please enlighten me?
The Left hate Trump. Most journalists are hacks openly or covertly of the Left. They are either invested in the collapse of our values and civilisation or they are useful idiots wedded to a left-wing ideology that has long since been overtaken by Marxism and green zealotry. Nothing can be expected from them except misinformation and bile. Those journalists not occupying the left side of the political spectrum – an endangered species — need to infuse their journalism with an appreciation of the threats we face.
Exactly what’s hard to understand about the threats posed by the Green New Deal, the destruction of America’s fossil-fuel industries and energy independence by a death of a thousand regulatory impositions? By opening borders to allcomers, giving citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants, stacking the Supreme Court, sucking up to Black Lives Matter and Antifa, undermining the traditional family and demonising America’s past? By reducing military spending, cosying back up to China and Iran and by ‘reimagining’ policing? By compromising religious freedom and restricting free speech; and by much, much more?
Does anyone of any sense think that the rest of us will be fine in a world in which American values have been destroyed from within? Those who do must live in cloud-cuckoo land. Fortunately, Trump will surely win. He must. A clear majority of Americans will see what some prissy journalists, concerned with Trump’s personality, showmanship and language, apparently can’t.
A lot of what Trump calls “dark money” backing Biden – China, EU, UN, left billionaires (Twitter, Facebook, etc.).
Given MSM/social media censorship, and with less campaign funding, Trump has taken the rally path. So we have a contest between Democrat $$$/media advertising and what one US commentator called the President’s “ground game”.
The “optics” at his rallies have been powerful, suggesting a Trump victory is possible despite polling data and betting agency odds predicting the opposite.
One Democrat pollster, who- naturally – sounded persuasive, gave him “ a 10% chance”. In 2016, voter turnout was 137 million. Pollster expecting at least 160 million this time.
If Trump does win, it surely will be the greatest “outsider” win in US electoral history.
The polling is dire, but apparently based more on anti-Trump than pro-Biden sentiment. Intuitively, enthusiastic Trump supporters are more likely to turn out than disgruntled Trump haters. As Peter points out, Trump has an impressive list of achievements. The economy is bouncing back. And it is unusual for a President not to get a second term. It took a Ronald Reagan to deny Jimmy Carter his second term and Biden is no Ronald Reagan. Admittedly Trump is vastly more than Carter, who presided over the US Embassy debacle in Iran. I was very surprised and very delighted when I woke up the morning after the 2016 election to find Trump had won. For lightning to strike twice (in the form of dodgy polls) would be asking a lot but I’m hopeful. And I share Peter’s dread of the adverse outcome.
> “Most journalists are hacks openly or covertly of the Left”
Yes. It has proved impossible to extract from them any detailed policy preferences, yet they continue to sneer at voters who disagree with them. They are characterised constantly by ugly vanity, abuse of power in manipulating the information flows and seemingly spite ‘n envy. Hypocrisy isn’t a crime, not even a tiny misdemeanour, so they indulge it freely.
Lincoln got the same treatment from the press of his day.
Much of Trump’s treatment of political enemies is objected to because it breaks the mould of the polite disagreement, while his political enemies seek to undermine him unethically at every turn with their own mendacity and distortions. Trumps language is usually a political play and nice to see a colourful politician at work. None of it is personally nasty, only rhetorically arresting or mocking. Precisely what is called for, IMO.
So much depends on the integrity of the vote lodgment and counting, and there have already been examples casting grave doubt on said integrity.
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As reported in “The Advertiser”, a Sth Australia family claimed to have voted 159 times, including 31 times by a 17 year old, in a recent election. Even the AEC, which in the past has buried its head in the sand, conceded it is possible, and if it’s possible, it is done, with only the extent being in question, and it’s sure that fraud is possible in the US election. I have no reason to believe the US election will be any better representative of voters’ intentions than are Australian elections.
Just heard an ABC announcer talking to Trump’s niece. The former advised us that Stanford Uni has just released research that Trump rallies have led to 30,000 cases of WuFlu and 700 deaths. This is true but the research is not peer reviewed. It is also not accompanied by any similar research into the number of cases BLM and Antifa protests generated.
Little to disagree with here, Peter Smith. I’m prepared for the worst though, and in anticipation of the Trojan Horse’s appearance inside the gates, I can’t resist a little Mencken schadenfreude: “Democracy is the theory the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
Irrespective of whether Donald Trump stays as US President or not this week, I expect that some type of “New Green Deal” will be enforced over western countries within the next 3-4 years.
There is simply too much a critical mass of groups, political allies, large corporations, MSM outlets, universities and legal pufferies to stop now. Voting is of no use when there is no real choice, and in any case an increasing number of voters are turning city electorates the colour of chlorophyll.
Added is the obvious example of C-19 emergency tactics, now tried and true, that can be used to introduce “climate emergency” regimes. A considerable bulk of the population are amenable to that, it seems. Those that aren’t will be shot at by dibber-dobbers.
This will be very destructive, of course, but it will be meant to be so.
It is sad to see how far The Australian has fallen into the leftist sewer. Their contribution to the US election today – Cameron Stewart telling lies about the polls to cover his backside (the ‘official’ polls are in fact still predicting a Biden landslide – the actual votes counted are not); and some filth from Bramston titled, ‘Time to Tip Trump into history’s bin. Trump has lied, is divisive, deranged and has been a threat to the lives of Americans. In short, he is their worst president’.
Peter Smith, as the Americans would say, Trump has got this.