US keeps me rather amused
I GREW up in post-war Britain when we boasted that we won the war. Of course we didn’t. Without American military might we would have spent at least a generation under the Nazi jackboot and history would have looked different.
I’ve always liked Americans. I like their energy, vitality and sheer size. They gave us Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, James Dean and Harley Davidson, so what’s not to like? Who can forget JF “Jack” Kennedy, the Cuban missile crisis and so what if Marilyn Munro was his girlfriend. What a guy!
The jaundice set in about two years ago at the start of the election campaign. Although the date was an aeon away, the Great American Road Show got under way – a kind of never-ending political soap opera that only Americans understand and appreciate. The democratic candidate was always Hillary Clinton, the experienced politician who had been around forever. A safe pair of hands everyone agreed, and after an embarrassingly long interval, even Barrack Obama backed her. Clinton was a shoo-in.
Her democratic opponent, Bernie Sanders, suffered from an image problem – an old man with young ideas which didn’t work. He lacked an attractive wife and two pretty children, a mandatory requirement for a president, it would appear.
On the other side of the aisle, the republicans threw in everyone, including the kitchen sink, as their candidates. This was whittled down to a few and finally to a guy who was an egotistical showman who built hotels. Clinton looked even more of a shoo-in.
Donald Trump talked to the forgotten Americans – the blue-collar workers who had lost their jobs when their great industries started to rust away. He struck a chord and people listened. He talked of making America great again and I thought of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. It sounded good.
The US election system is arcane. If anyone says they understand it, they’re lying.
Imagine everyone’s shock and horror when, after winning the popular vote by three million, Clinton loses. This was shock and awe on a different level. Eventually after what seemed a lifetime, Trump was sworn in and campaigned again as if he had forgotten he’d won. Where to now?
Mexico is going to be walled off, every trade deal is going to be torn up, and watch out North Korea, the tomahawks are prepped and ready to fly. Any other business?
There is the small matter of who said what to whom. Did Trump ask FBI director James Comey to back off investigating national security secretary Michael Flynn for his cosy connection to the Russian Embassy? The democrats, who were baying for Comey’s blood for sabotaging Clinton’s campaign, are rushing to his rescue. Both men have since been dismissed and The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN smell a big rat. They have been at war with Trump since Day One and are hurling the word “impeachment” around.
Amid the shouting, few in the media mention that Trump can hire and fire whom he likes, rather like someone else I know. I predict that the newly-appointed special investigator Robert Mueller will find a case of “he said, he said” and nothing will come of it.
In the meantime Trump will be Trump and keep us amused. I don’t think America has become a joke but it has become more entertaining.
He campaigned again as if he had forgotten he’d won
Parklands