Earlier this year while out for drinks with some members of the NUJ one of them said to me he that he no longer wanted to be in my company as I had expressed indifference to the outcome. His reasoning was that it was a battle between a democrat and a fascist and everyone should get behind Biden, to which I retorted that it was a contest between a fascist and a genocide enabler. Dictator Don or Genocide Joe, how would the children of Palestine tell the difference? Off he huffed, mumbling something about it all being the fault of Hamas.
As he was the type of pompous prat nobody would want in their company to begin with, I eagerly encouraged him to follow through on his unsolicited but welcome undertaking to cancel himself from my presence, suggesting to him that he should become chair of JADO - Journalists Against Different Opinions. I prefer to exist in a dolt free zone, being conscious of what was said in an 1878 edition of The Rochester Evening Express: 'Don’t argue with a fool, or the listener will say there is a pair of you.'
Biden backers can be unfunny like that. They too, like Trump tails, liked to be wagged around by any old guff spewed by their leader of choice, and get equally as grumpy and intolerant when they meet with push back against their opinion. When Trump beat Hilary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, an American friend took great umbrage at me for saying Clinton had been responsible for war crimes and Trump's foreign policy would hardly be worse than hers. She too huffed off but has since relaxed.
Not that I ever want to see the Republicans win. Backed by a gaggle of Pharisees they stand for untrammeled greed in line with how JK Galbraith characterised the type
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
In the Clinton presidential bid Horrid Hillary's blinkered followers could not contemplate that Michael Moore might have got it right when he predicted a Trump victory in the nascent stages of his MAGA quest for the Oval Office. Moore pointed out that few of her own supporters believed her. It wasn't misogyny that defeated Clinton, or a racist surge for Trump. I was of the view at the time and still am, that had Michelle Obama threw her hat in the ring she would easily have defeated Trump. Hilary 'it's my turn now' Clinton was not the candidate to field against him.
Despite knowing that it is within their own ability to stop Trump, rather than him possessing the ability to 'trump' all comers. the Democrats have once again fielded a candidate who Trump will walk over. Much like the Fianna Fail leadership feared Gerry Adams being replaced by Mary Lou McDonald, Team Trump dread Biden dropping out of the presidential race. Any replacement, even one plucked from the nearest bar stool, will be younger, more vibrant, less incoherent, more focused, less slurred than the senile sentinel on whose watch the genocide of Gaza unfolded, his defence of which he cannot explain without stumbling and fumbling.
Trump is no spring chicken but Biden has managed to make him appear young. The sharply contrasting images of Trump immediately after an assassination attempt, where he be captured the imagery of Iwo Jima while Biden is seen to be doddering off and onto planes, sends a powerful message to the US voter: strength trumps weakness, firmness trumps frailty.
Even if Biden achieved something during his time in office for poorer Americans such as capping the price of diabetes prescriptions in the face of Big Pharma opposition which along with the wider Affordable Care Act is likely to be scrapped by the GOP, every utterance of Biden is amplified, every hesitant step forward magnified to Trump's advantage.
Team Trump now feels so emboldened that it is confident enough to risk handing the Vice President ticket to a white male, J.D. Vance, who has made no secret of his desire to shackle females with a ban on abortion from the moment of conception.
The Democrats will most likely move to replace Genocide Joe, but the American aphorism comes to mind - a day late a dollar short.
 |
| ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre. |
No comments