The return of the Donald by John Morrissey
We Donald Trump supporters in
Australia who emerged from our all-day
vigil on November 6 watching Sky News
were much happier this time to witness
his clear victory.
Ever since the over-blown demonstration at the Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, it has been frowned upon, even in Australia, to suggest a flawed process in Joe Biden's election in 2020. However, there was good reason to suspect it in the pattern of voting in some swing states such as Pennsylvania. (See my commentary, "How the U.S. presidential election was stolen from Trump voters", Endeavour Forum Newsletter, No.176, April 2021).
Throughout the year, the former president had been under fire from prosecutions designed to force him from the race. The first blow in Trump's favour was landed by the Democrats on themselves when they nominated Joe Biden again, in what must have been full knowledge of his incapacity.
The collusion of the mainstream U.S. media to hide this reality from voters only became apparent when Biden was revealed in the televised debate earlier this year as incapable of framing a sentence, let alone a coherent response to a question. The awful truth was that for four years he had been President in name only, with the Administration and who knows which anonymous figures wielding the power.
Trump's stocks surged at this and his indomitable response to an assassination attempt, so that the Democrats realised their charade was in tatters. Whether there was time for a new presidential primary elections, as Barack Obama wanted, or it was legal to use funds donated for a Biden-Harris election ticket on another nominee, the party decided to run with the Vice- President, Kamala Harris, and a new running mate.
This involved elevating the profile of Harris, who had been nominated in 2020 only for her profile as a "woman of colour", despite a dismal performance in that year's primaries, and had been ineffectual since as border czar.
The mainstream media, public relations firms and Hollywood went into overdrive on an image remake. While her real time exposure to the American people was kept to a minimum, she was "prepped" for a second presidential debate, in which she was able to deliver some clear if not particularly well-focused lines, helped by Trump going off-script. Assisted by sympathetic fact-checkers and Trump's gaffe over "illegals" eating the dogs and cats of Springfield, Ohio, she was awarded the points in some quarters, although he was able to play his strong cards on the economy and border protection.
Encouraged by this success, Harris was exposed to the
electorate, with all her vacuous "word salad" oratory on display,
and anointed by luminaries such as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and
Oprah Winfrey.
Meanwhile, the Republicans' star Vice-Presidential nomination, JD Vance, humiliated Harris's running mate, the hapless Tim Walz, in a televised debate and Trump went folksy. His appeal to young male voters in a Joe Rogan wrestling podcast and releasing TV clips involving a garbage truck and serving at McDonalds were populist master strokes. Nevertheless, his basic question remained, "Are you better or worse off than four years ago?"
At the election, where early voting was massive but postal voting far less significant than in 2020, Trump offered the U.S. a clear choice. He stood for border security, jobs for Americans, opposing woke social engineering and Making America Great Again.
Harris could stand only on Biden's record, celebrity endorsements, a scare campaign on abortion and personal attacks on Trump as a "convicted felon". The early trend was decisive in those "swing" states and was not overturned by an avalanche of absentee votes. This might have been the result of the Republicans matching the Democrats on the ground with thousands of trained scrutineers at polling places.
A new administration will not be sworn in until January 2025, and the feasibility of some of Trump's policies must be in question. Can he deport millions of illegal immigrants? Sanctuary cities such as Los Angeles say no. Can he impose high tariffs on imports, or is the threat merely a bargaining chip? Will he be able to uproot the gender agenda from education, the military and women's sport? Can the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East be ended quickly?
What is certain is that Donald Trump is unpredictable and will have the world guessing as no other leader could.
John Morrissey is a retired secondary school teacher who has taught in government, independent and Catholic schools. He lives in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn with his blue heeler, Tammy.