I don’t know who coined the phrase ‘character matters,’ but apparently, while conventional people may think it should, clearly to a very large percentage of American voters, it doesn’t.
I was really appalled in 2016, when over sixty-two million persons in the USA, including most white evangelical christians, voted for Donald Trump to become their president. For this was a man who had in his private capacity over the years: swindled dozens of small contractors who had done work for him; been accused of rape more than once; was a self-confessed sexual molester; was a chronic liar; had used the funds from his charitable foundation for his own purpose; had allegedly been involved in money laundering; had defrauded persons who signed up with Trump University and was an outright and proven racist.
When the evidence emerged via the Mueller report that he had been assisted by the Russian government in becoming president of the USA, I thought that explained his ascendency to the most powerful position on the planet. (Powerful because of the vast nuclear power of the USA.)
However, when in 2020, after he implemented many cruel and evil policies, yet increased his support from 62 million to around 72 million people, I must admit it has left me totally astounded and at a loss for a credible explanation.
The evil and cruelty I refer to are, of course: his regime, even during the pandemic, making attempts to take away health coverage from some 20 million people, including persons with pre-existing conditions who would never otherwise be covered by the insurance companies. (Today, the Republican-dominated Supreme Court begins to hear the arguments to destroy Obamacare again. This is the Trump regime’s 3rd attempt to try and have the court overturn the Act); lying about the severity of the global pandemic and being reluctant to take the advice of the scientific experts, thus causing thousands of unnecessary deaths; grabbing away innocent children, including babies and toddlers, from their parents and putting them in cages.
I cannot think of an act in modern history that has been more depraved and foul than the latter.
And look at what led to that unholy policy! Simply because a few hundred people living in poverty, illegally entered the USA, a country primarily built by legal and illegal immigrants, to try and improve their material condition.
Under this policy, many traumatized parents have even been returned to their homeland without their children and worse, not knowing if they will ever see them again. At the time of writing, 11th November 2020, there are 666 parents and children who have no idea where their loved ones are or if they will ever see them again. Because the vast majority of Trump supporters, including ardent white evangelical christians, would move heaven and earth to try and keep America white, such an act of heartless inhumanity, has their full support.
I am wondering just what will be the explanations given to sociologists and psychologists who no doubt will be studying this period in the USA for years to come. For previously, such acts of unthinkable evil would never have been expected from a country that had enjoyed good standing in the world for its decency, humanity, and magnanimity.
The good news, of course, is that in the long run, morality has prevailed, for, in the elections, the voting majority rejected the man who brought these unconscionable acts and policies to their shores and sullied the reputation of the USA.
It is sickening but often amusing, to see some Trumpists on television trying to fool the public about the real reasons why they support that leader……claiming that it is due to his outstanding economic performance. That is absolute baloney, for Trump inherited a robust economy from Obama, with annualized growth averaging 2% per annum after Obama inherited an economy in full recession. According to CNN’s fact-checking, the economic growth under the Trump presidency only averaged 2.5% per year in the first three years, an anemic increase from where the Obama/ Biden team had left it. And if he had handled the pandemic effectively, the USA would not be in the economic doldrums it is today.
So, what economic performance?
7th November 2020, was celebrated like a day of liberation for the entire world therefore, for that was the day when it was formally declared that Donald Trump had lost his bid to continue to oppress the weak and helpless for a second term.
While some maintain that the world should not become too overtaken by what happens in the USA, the fact is that because the USA is so rich, powerful, and influential, the rest of the world does not have the luxury of pretending that what happens there is of no importance to the rest of us.
So celebrations broke out spontaneously among the ordinary people throughout the world, as the news of his demise spread. I suspect that it was only because democratically inclined world leaders are constrained by diplomacy, why many did not join the masses celebrating in the streets in their countries. For Trump has managed to create such instability in the world because of his inherent dishonesty, unreliability, and lack of humanity, that hearing that the long-overdue end of his unstable regime had finally been confirmed, brought relief to them.
Despite the fact that so many degenerates, (to borrow an appropriate word from Hillary Clinton) voted to keep Trump in power, the positive news was that more than 76 million decent people in the USA, rejected Trumpism, choosing instead, a man who appears to be the very antithesis of Trump, to lead them for at least the next four years.
The incoming president, Joe Biden from all appearances and the reputation he earned after 47 years in public service, is a very caring, decent, human being. So apart from the public knowing he would never continue or even conceive of inhumane policies as the Trump regime had become notorious for, ordinary citizens can at least expect more equitable tax policies that do not only benefit billionaires, a more serious determination to deal with the pandemic and restart the economy, and in general, far more humane policies. And while it may seem trivial to some, parents who believe character matters can now stop worrying when their children set out to emulate the country’s president in any way, shape or form!
Whether Biden, Harris, the new cabinet, and the decent majority will be hampered by the millions of Trump supporters, from quickly dragging up America out of the dangerous moral mire into which it had fallen, is the real challenge.
