AND HERE WE ARE
Keith Boag
Since the dawn of 24 hour “talking-heads" election coverage, TV political pundits have bloviated their way through roughly a quizzillion hours of speculation prompted by a single, simple question: “What will you be looking for on election night?” This year’s US election programs could be the first to abandon windy cliches in favour of a succinct and blunt response: “I’ll be looking for how quickly Donald Trump lies and claims he won.”
Because of course he will, if that's what it takes. Truth, grace in defeat, respect for the will of the people — Trump has no use for any of that.
Last election he announced himself the winner shortly after FOX News projected he’d lost the pivotal battleground of Arizona. Trump brushed off the ominous news and said “Frankly, we did win this election,” thus laying the predicate for the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th 2021, and the enduring myth of “The Steal”.
If he tries to pull that stunt again, “We are sadly ready,” said Vice President Kamala Harris last week, implicitly acknowledging the predictability of Trump's social pathology.
Trump has run an ugly, old-fashioned, race-baiting campaign updated with some ridiculous riffs on Haitians — “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats” — and some innovative promises that patronise women while also threatening them; he would “protect” them “whether (they) like it or not” — because he knows better than anyone what’s best for women, obviously. “I think the women love me,” he whimsically adds.
A rally billed as his “closing argument” at Madison Square Garden in New York a week ago turned into a jamboree of vulgar, racist misogynistic and antisemitic slurs that Trump and his team assumed — understandably — would leave their MAGA audience drooling for more. He is the model for how far a bigot can go in America.
Later this month the Republican candidate for President will be sentenced in a New York courtroom for his 34 felony convictions related to a conspiracy to cheat in his first election — an important part of his strategy for winning the White House in 2016.
There is also the matter of the 80-some million dollars Trump was ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll after a jury unanimously found he had sexually assaulted her in the changing room of a department store, and then repeatedly defamed her as a liar because she told the truth about what he did.
Nevertheless, the former president is now the first presidential candidate who is also a sexual predator with a criminal record. Yet, the odds are even that he’ll win the White House this week. If he does win, scores of criminals, maybe hundreds, could be released from prison, pardoned for the crimes they committed on his behalf during their January 6th assault on the Capitol.
That couldn’t happen without the complicity of the leadership of the Republican Party, who had the power to remove Trump from office and end his political career after he was impeached for inciting the insurrection in 2021.
Because his seedy moral character has been on display for so long and everywhere — in the courts, on the campaign trail, in media around the world — the election is now a test of the character of a nation: Is there enough respect left for the institutions of democracy, for the rule of law, for common decency so that America’s defenders might prevail?
As it happens, the burden of the defence falls on the shoulders of a woman — a woman of colour, it’s important to note — who was just “the understudy” three months ago. From every perspective, it is an enormous thing to settle on her, but any fair reading of history will show this is not the first time Black men and Black women have stood up for America and fought harder than anyone for the ideals it claims to cherish: liberty, equality, justice.
Harris has displayed a talent for political jiu jitsu, turning Trump against himself in their debate and leaving him on the floor. She has been most comfortable and passionate as a champion for the freedom of women to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, and that seems to be driving them to the ballot box.
Still, other voters' priorities remain: the persistently high prices for everything, immigration and the border. Issues that favour Trump. Any other nominee running on all of that against an incumbent would likely have a comfy lead in the polls by now, but not Trump. He has never been broadly popular. Through his entire presidency his approval rating idled below 50% — a failure no other president has suffered, but a tribute to the judgement of the reality based community.
And so here we are, on the edge of our seats, waiting for “the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November” to see who will be the next leader of the free world.
The tragedy is that Trump's overwhelming unfitness for public office blocked out the sun and obscured the importance of his rise at this moment in history.
He has exploited the weariness of many ordinary Americans who are frustrated after nearly a half century of Republican and Democratic consensus on the main thrust of economic and social policies: the shared faith that the free movement of goods, capital, information and people across borders and around the world was the incontestable natural order of things.
The result was a widening gap between the haves and the have nots; the export of high paying manufacturing jobs to low wage countries; a hollowing out of the middle class, and a younger generation that might have to work longer hours just to have less than what their parents had.
At some point it all requires a serious discussion, and Trump may claim credit for having provoked that. But he is conspicuously not the person to lead it.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Keith Boag - The US presidential ticket is set: Trump + Vance versus Harris + Waltz. And to cover that election, we're bringing our readers and listeners a brilliant journalistic mind and political correspondent legend, Keith Boag! Keith was with the CBC for more than 30 years, including as Chief Political Correspondent. His career included work for many years in Washington, D.C., and as Ottawa Bureau Chief. Keith covered seven federal elections in Canada, ten party leadership campaigns, as well as several US elections. Keith will regularly offer his written analysis via "QUOTES" at Air Quotes Media.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Air Quotes Media. Read more opinion contributions via QUOTES from Air Quotes Media.