Tag: Biden

All That’s Political Come To Pass

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

With this day comes the final seven day countdown to my last piece on here. In the last day or two I’ll write something self-indulgent about the whole experience but in the mean time I want to use today to mark the end of what feels like a series of pieces on the US election and Trump. Naturally with these words he will do something ridiculous tomorrow and I’ll be left no choice but to comment on it but it would be nice not to allow him to take up the last week of something that is not supposed to be predominantly taken up with politics and especially not Trump.

I would like to draw your attention to a video I discovered by independent media organisation Double Down News. I’ve mentioned them before because I find their videos to be highly agreeable and I want others to agree with them too. It’s called spreading the word or something like that. I’m not someone who spends hours watching videos online, I come across them more then anything, and will always call out people who call watching videos on YouTube ‘research’ or try to use them as evidence of anything. They are an easily accessible medium though and it is no surprise YouTube has become a battleground of sorts.

This short video discusses the issues facing the Democrats and how they’re incapable of dealing with them when their core donors expect a continuation of neoliberal economic and political choices. It discusses the similarities between the Democrats / Labour and Sanders / Corbyn and the self-destructive response from establishment figures within the parties. This feels like a video which successfully encapsulates my beliefs but it’s important for me too to understand whether my beliefs simply encapsulate the ideas put forth in this video and many things I read. Narratives do exist and while we’re capable of conscious thought as well as forming opinions objectively by ourselves, we’re easily convinced of things and it’s not always clear what comes first.

The video is only ten minutes but it is interesting and gives insight into the rumblings inside my head if my previous words over this year haven’t. There won’t be another year to clarify. In fact, there won’t even be anything this time next week. Everything has a time, all things come to pass. That includes political ideologies and that in a way feels like a reassuring thought at the very least.

Still Counting….

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

It’s close. As I write these words we’re talking 224 for Biden and 213 for Trump with 270 the victory target. It’s very close. Trump has won Florida which is a big moment as well as Ohio which has a habit of picking the Presidents. While California became a Democrat stronghold as the Latino vote in the state increased, Florida is the opposite. With so many Cuban and Venezuelans fleeing their Socialist governments the accusation that Democrats are somehow socialist has pushed them into the hands of the Republicans these last two elections. The concept of socialism is so utterly manipulated and corrupted in America. Ohio being a big rustbelt state is suffering from the effects of neoliberalism as industry is shut down and moved to Asia. Trump played on ideas of nationalism and American jobs here once more. I’m sure these people would be just as happy, if not more so working in the renewable energy sector than down a coal mine.

But as I said it’s close and it’s likely going to depend on the outcome in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Both Biden and Trump have declared themselves victors, with Trump a little more vociferous in doing do. He has already sounded the fraud alarm and been heavily criticised for doing so by both sides. With the election being this close it is inevitably going to be contested by the losing side. We are potentially left with the situation that if Trump loses and contests, the conservative leaning and Trump filled Supreme Court could play a big part. Imagine for a second they found grounds to overturn it and award the election to Trump. Either way this isn’t going to be resolved anytime soon, expect potentially weeks of uncertainty and inevitable unrest.

What we must remember and this is perhaps even more concerning than discussing the actions of a corrupt court, or childish gangster-like President, is that in the previous election over sixty million people voted for him and the figure is likely going to be similar this time around. The fact that despite these last four years the result is going to be close is in itself scary but he may just be elected once more. Over sixty million people believe he has done well these last four years and is a person worth following. That’s one hell of a cult.

If one accusation of Trump is that he’s divisive, and it’s used as a criticism, that means the other side, the accusers, believe they aren’t. Everyone likes to believe they’re better than the other side, you have to otherwise you wouldn’t believe in what you do, but we’re going to have to put that aside. It’s not just the Americans it’s all of us. It takes both sides of course, and that can be the hard part but all we can really do is lead by example, prove we are the bigger people. Until the moment we give up the idea of being morally superior and that the inferior should come to us, or that we can convince them by berating them, this polarised divide will only increase. Some people like Trump and his hardcore following are untouchable, you can put Brexiteer loonies in that group too, but it’s the average person out there who is suffering and scared after forty years of economic devastation. We forget this because they distract us from the truth, but we’re all in this fight together. It is time to come together. This election is proof of that at the very least.

The Big Vote

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

Today is the day. The calm before the storm. It may feel a million miles away from our lives, and in many ways it is, but for the sake of politics as a sport you’ve got to root for something. It always feels a little strange, or like it’s none of my business who votes in another country. I’m not American and doubt I’ll ever live there but with it’s tentacles in a lot of pies worldwide it is something that will have a lasting affect on us all. That isn’t to say one is a good guy who warrants support and the other the bad, this isn’t Hollywood or the Bible, but it’s clear there’s an issue of morality involved. The deeply immoral one versus the one with a politicians sense of morality. It is also unclear whether voting one way will have a beneficial influence upon the politics or economy of my own country. Our government are on their knees begging not to be screwed over too much in a trade deal with the Americans but there’s little reason to suspect the outcome will vary greatly depending on this election. What it will affect though, is who has been emboldened these last four years.

It is clear that around the world we have seen dramatic shifts to the political, cultural and economic right. In some countries they have succeeded, think Trump, Brexit, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Bolsonaro in Brazil. In others they didn’t quite manage it, think Marie Le Pen, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Matteo Salvini in Italy and following recent elections, Bolivia too. What Trump does is embolden not just the right, American politics in general is right wing already, he gives belief to the previously dismissed fringe elements outside his own borders too. The idea of Brexit had always drifted around the edges of British politics but more like a threat, even those campaigning for it seemed surprised by the outcome. You can’t blame Trump on something that occurred before his election, but it is important not to dismiss the influence his election has had since and on the belief of those who previously believed such things as impossible. There may be differences between Biden and Trump regarding healthcare, renewable energy and foreign policy, or at least on the surface, but Trump must not be elected because his mere existence in politics empowers those who should never even believe themselves capable of power let alone holding it. It may be easy to belittle and ridicule the crazies of the world but their current existence in world politics is having a lasting effect on us all.

This will not be resolved today by voting him out. Likely the election itself will not even be called by this time tomorrow. With Trump spending the last few months convincing his supporters postal voting lacks legitimacy, his approach to the post-election is already clear. The possibility that he has a lead denied him as these votes trickle in is very real and it’s a very believable line for him to take with a support already firmly entrenched in the world of deep state conspiracies. This is set up perfectly and he is not a man to go out with a whimper. Even if he accepts initial defeat, imagine for a second his Twitter feed is currently in someway shackled by those around him, can you imagine how a free unhinged sore loser Trump is likely to start behaving. With the passing of this election he is not going to simply disappear and could in theory become even more dangerous as he desperately tries to court an ever diminishing but increasingly devoted core support. He may be a ridiculous man but he’s dangerous too and stepping further into the unknown with such a person is a worrying prospect for us all.