US Election 2020: The fierce battle for the soul of America

 On Tuesday, the American people, in their time-honoured four-yearly ritual, will be going to the polls to choose a new president or extend their employment contract with the incumbent president for another term.

record number of them, more than half of all registered voters, have already cast their ballots either by early voting or by mail-in ballots. By any and all standards and recollection, this election is extraordinary and virtually unprecedented.

It will be a contest between those who believe that their victory in 2016 was an act of God that must be sustained and those who, whomever they voted for in 2016 feel, in their hearts and in their bones, that the last four years have been a nightmare, a disaster, a tragedy of misplaced trust and unvisited hope, a calumny of untold proportions, a profound error of choice that must now be rectified at all cost in a matter of a couple of days.

Americans are deeply divided, and so is the world at large. Left to an overwhelming proportion of people around the world, President Donald Trump should be hauled out of the White House, clothed with only whatever he may have round his waist at the moment the results are announced, possibly with a little less. A 97-year-old very dear friend of mine has very graphic ideas of Trump’s exit from the White House. Notwithstanding what appears to be this global consensus, in the United States there is a not insignificant number of people who, despite the gruesome cacophony of the past four years, would extend Trump’s rule for at least another four years at all cost. Some of them have armed themselves to the teeth, ready to fight to keep him in office if he loses.

Trump himself has instigated, aided and abetted this threat of violent revolt against America’s democracy in order to keep him in power at all cost by various statements   made in recent times, most important of which has been his statement repeated countess times that if he loses the elections, it can only be the result of the elections being rigged. Translated into common parlance, this would mean either him or nobody else, a common refrain that the United States government has so often claimed to be unacceptable when proffered by leaders of other countries, especially in the developing world, and in response to which it has engineered the overthrow of such governments.

Trumps effort in Venezuela even where the incumbent president has made no such claim, but instead insisted that he fairly and constitutionally won the elections, is a ready case in point and has raised the thought that if Donald Trump was the Head of State of any country other than the United States, he would be overthrown by now by the CIA for the very suggestion

Despite many calls by responsible leaders in and outside the United States that he withdraw this threat, renounce all violent reaction to such an outcome and pledge himself to a smooth transition should he lose the elections, Donald Trump has refused to do so or even to call on the violent vigilante groups that support him to stand down at the risk of being arrested and prosecuted.   As a result, many extreme rightwing groups have formed themselves into vigilantes determined to keep him in power no matter what. They have appeared heavily armed in public in Democratic   states where the right to openly carry weapons in public is legal.

plain or barely camouflaged coded messages, Trump has directed them to obstruct legitimate authority such as when he called on them to “liberate” states with rival Democratic Party governors. This led, for example, to armed militia invading the Michigan State Government House in Lansing.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a fortnight ago, the FBI announced the arrest of six or seven people and charged them with conspiracy to kidnap the governor of the State of Michigan and her family, with the possibility of executing them after their interrogation.

They are accused of having actually commenced to execute their plans, including the purchase of explosives and carrying out practice sessions in preparation for their assault. In response to this shocking revelation that put fear in the minds of Americans throughout the country, the President not only did not vigorously condemn the threat of violence to innocent people carrying out their political duties, but instead unleashed a virulent attack on the Governor so threatened, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The Republican Party leadership barely uttered a word of criticism or condemnation. Such has been the remarkably unusual circumstances of America’s political leadership over the past four years. FBI and other national intelligence officials have formally warned the President of the dangers posed by domestic rightwing extremist groups as being the foremost national security threats. Trump has simply dismissed these reports.

In the general polity, many maneuvers have been made to prevent or disrupt   the ability of people deemed to be pro-Democratic Party such as Blacks and other minorities from either being able to vote or to have their votes counted. In the State of Georgia, the Republican Governor reduced the number of ballot collection boxes made available to the voting public to facilitate the collection of their ballots to one per county resulting   in one of the largest counties in Georgia and in the U.S. as a whole, requiring voters, including the elderly, to travel almost 30 miles to go drop off their ballots. In other states, such as in California, fake ballot collection boxes have been placed in public places and marked “Official”.   Plans and efforts at voter intimidation abound.

all is said and done, five things have become clear that will have a decisive impact on the outcome of this election:

1.         Donald Trump’s outsized ego and his deep-seated narcissism that has created in him an almost unnatural desire to get all the attention in the world, in fact, the only one to get any attention. Anger at anyone on his team getting any public acclaim. Donald Trump needs to learn that accolades for a job well down is a mathematical infinity. Divide it by a million, everyone still gets infinity a piece—-an important lesson for all political (an even corporate, government and indeed all team leaders.
2. His single minded focus on being re-elected at all cost, which, curiously appears to be why he has neglected all his responsibility and leadership role in response to the Coronavirus, thus reneging on his sworn undertaking to protect t=America and the lives of its people
3.         His inability to feel passion or show emotion on things that are affecting his citizens and where his leadership would clearly have made all the difference
4.         His jealous need to possess all the attention and all prospects of praise and credit for any positive accomplishment, a disposition that makes his resentful of any attention that   might be paid to those who serve him, leading him to immediately seek to   dismiss and humiliate them. Perhaps the height of this which might aunt him for years to come is his calling Dr, Fauci an “idiot” in response to the latter expressing opposition to the false use of a quotation by him as part of the advertising for Trump; reelection campaign.
5.         Trump’s overall penchant for rudeness, abuse, insult of practically anyone, at will and at any time. Trump’s automatic denial of courtesy, respect and decency in any political dialogue in which anyone holds an opinion other than his, so much so as to endanger the lives of those who do not agree with him.