Is pantomime of outrage behind us at long last?

The KM Group columnist with his own look at the world

So, it’s all over bar the shouting (and the extensive litigation). The problem being, in this particular case, that the shouting is going to be long and loud. It will also take many forms: We have the shouting of Donald Trump’s wounded supporters, who seem incapable of conducting a TV interview at anything like a normal conversational volume; there’s the shouting of the gleeful Democrats, who speak in one breath about ‘healing our nation’ before loudly denouncing one half of it for failing to share their political beliefs. Then there’s the deranged shouting of Trump himself on social media, with his random use of the Caps Lock key to amplify his message. Most of us in this country will probably be glad to see the back of the outgoing

US President for many reasons, not least to escape the pantomime of outrage that has followed his every movement and utterance for the past four years. An awful lot of people are going to be utterly bereft come

January without their favourite villain to rail against on Twitter.

Many will no doubt continue to get upset by his provocative outpourings but when he is no longer speaking as President, it might be wise to remember that they’re basically getting annoyed by a rich bloke with a big following but no political power.

To his credit, Joe

Biden has gone out of his way not to gloat and to stress his wish to govern in a way that acknowledges the fact that he wasn’t everyone’s first choice. A bit of humility will hopefully go a long way at a time when tribalist divisions and rigid party politics are increasingly juvenile and destructive. All of the people who ‘took to the streets’ in the wake of the US election to either claim Trump had been robbed of a rightful victory, or to send him impolitely on his way, are part of the problem with 21st century political ‘discourse’. If Trump’s defeat means people might start to grow up a bit, it will have been worth the painfully long wait for those votes to be counted.

‘An awful lot of people are going to be utterly bereft come January without their favourite villain to rail against on Twitter’