With opinion polls suggesting that early voters are much more likely to be Democrats than Republicans (62% to 28%) it is surely good news for those of us who agree with Noam Chomsky that Trump deserves to be voted out of office.
Surely a nation with well over eight million COVID-19 infected citizens and rising in forty-eight of its fifty states, and a death rate the highest in the world at just under 225,000 cannot re-elect a man who consciously lied about the threat of the virus as revealed in the recent Bob Woodward book and throughout the last eight months has pedalled myths and nonsense in an attempt to cover up his own political inadequacies in relation to taking action to save American lives.
Trump Lied About Covid19 and Failed to Protect American Lives
Amid a pandemic that has claimed more US lives than the disastrous Vietnam and Iraq wars combined this science denier first claimed at the beginning of the pandemic that it would be only a temporary phenomenon that would disappear soon:
“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle—it will disappear.”
That ‘miracle’ claim on February 27th this year was followed by incoherent ramblings and embarrassing piffle about sunlight and ultraviolet light being able to defeat the virus and how the internal consumption of disinfectant could be the way forward:
“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute — one minute — and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?” he asked. “Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that”
The leader of the so-called ‘free world’ actually suggested human beings should ingest disinfectant to combat Covid19!!! Anyone who doubted his intellectual capacity for the highest office in the world is surely now in no doubt that he just isn’t up for the job. I sincerely believe the whole Covid19 contraction was an elaborate ruse to try and win sympathy in the midst of disastrous polling figures. If you doubt, he is capable of telling such a massive lie and getting hired professionals to back him up then you simply haven’t been paying attention to his administration over the last four years.
Trump Is Unfit to Run a Bath Never Mind a Country
Donald Trump is unfit to run a bath let alone a country. His pathological lying is a matter of record and runs into tens of thousands of untrue statements. His term in office has been characterised as a ‘tsunami of lies’ as his litany of untrue statements reached at least twenty-three a day covering every major issue and topic:
"Over the last 14 months, as events have unfolded around the Mueller report, Trump’s impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd, Trump has averaged 23 false or misleading claims a day.”
Many citizens both inside and outside the United States will argue with justification that on major policy issues Joe Biden is just as reactionary as Trump. Biden supported the illegal invasion of Iraq. Biden supported the illegal and insane destruction of Libya. Biden was Obama’s Vice-President while he ordered thousands of deadly and illegal drone strikes that made a mockery of his human rights and rule of law rhetoric. And of course, Biden was in government while millions of ordinary workers saw their living standards reduced while the share of wealth commandeered by the richest 1% grew to obscene levels. Trump’s defence of his immoral tax-evading practices during the first presidential debate was to highlight the fact his only crime was to utilise the many tax loopholes the Obama administration created for rich people like him to benefit.
Choose the Lesser of Two Evils
So, I cannot with a clear conscience call for ordinary Americans to vote for Joe Biden for positive policy reasons, but I can with a clear conscience urge them to adopt a lesser of two evils approach to this election. I appeal to Americans who possess an ounce of brain matter and a dollop of common decency to rid yourselves and the world of a man who is demonstrably unqualified and incapable of leading one of the most powerful nations on the planet. Trump’s personal failings are a matter of record. From greed and dishonesty to ignorance and inherited privilege. From sexism, racism and Islamophobia to selfish intolerance and complete moral bankruptcy. This is a man who delights in mocking disabled citizens and suggesting a woman interviewer asking him to account for referring to woman as "fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals" is angry because she is on her menstrual cycle. Is this really the man ordinary Americans want to represent the country on the world stage?
Opinion polls suggest Trump is toast and I sincerely hope they are accurate this time. CNN yesterday broadcast a show suggesting Biden has a solid 290 electoral college votes, 20 more than the required 270 to declare victory. It projected Trump on 163 electoral college votes with only an outside chance of raising that number to 247 and therefore falling short even if he holds on to swing states which he narrowly won in 2016.
But here is the warning. That CNN show also ran a segment of their show from exactly four years ago on October 18th, 2016. It showed the polling projection had Hilary Clinton on 307 electoral college votes and was unassailable with Trump on only 179. Two weeks later Trump was elected to the White House with 2.8 million less popular votes than Clinton but 304 electoral college votes to her 227. The national polls had Clinton ahead but the crucial swing state votes went to Trump and he won a shock victory.
Reassuringly all the crucial swing state polls have Biden beating Trump consistently and within the margin of error, and crucially women are much more likely to vote for Biden than Trump. There is even polling evidence from that CNN Show suggesting that the Democrats also have a lead amongst white voters which is unprecedented. But nothing can be taken for granted. Trump still has an enthusiastic base of supporters. Polls suggest that base is smaller than 2016 and millions of black and Latino voters who weren’t enthused to turn out for Hilary Clinton are intent on turning out for Biden but more as an anti-Trump vote than a pro-Biden endorsement.
The truth is America is a one-party state. It is run by the big business party which always ensures its interests are put first. That party has two factions called the Republicans and Democrats and they share the White House but do the bidding of the military-industrial complex which is the real centre of power in the US.
Even though I recognise and accept the weaknesses of Biden and the Democratic Party and believe America desperately needs a real workers party to pursue the interests of the millions, not the millionaires, I still hope Trump is comprehensively dumped in two weeks’ time. Given his courting of white supremacist and reactionary militia groups and his unfounded attacks on the legitimacy of the postal votes and voting process, it is best for all that a narrow result is avoided. Violence and possibly civil war scale conflicts could result from a narrowly defeated Trump camp refusing to accept the result. So my appeal is to Americans who normally vote Democrat and those who choose not to vote because they are disillusioned with the political system. This time use your vote and ensure the outcome is indisputable and America gets a new president after November 3rd.
Noam Chomsky Demands Respect and Should be Listened To
Anyone with doubts about the danger Trump presents to humanity should read in full the interview Noam Chomsky gave to the Smashing Magazine less than three weeks ago. Chomsky was voted the world’s top public intellectual fifteen years ago and has remained a leading and courageous critic of US Foreign Policy and gunboat diplomacy throughout his adult life. He is an intellectual colossus who inspires activists across the world to oppose injustices and expose the hypocrisy of the powerful who preach about human rights and the rule of law but daily abuse both, particularly the United States.
Chomsky is a man whose views command respect and contain lessons and education for us all. For him protest is patriotic and his opposition to the Vietnam War and US involvement in Central America, South America, the Middle East and across the world is based on a firm belief in human freedom and opposition to undemocratic imperialism.
He labels Gaza the ‘largest open-air prison’ in the world and insists the US bears full responsibility for Israel’s failure to recognise United Nations resolutions demanding the cessation of settlements and recognition of Palestinian rights and territory. He is no apologist of Joe Biden and fully appreciates the Tweedledum Tweedledee nature of American party politics but he is calling on US citizens to dump the man he calls a ‘sociopathic maniac’ because he believes Donald Trump represents a very real danger to all of humanity.
Identifying nuclear war and environmental destruction as the two biggest threats the world faces in the 21st Century Chomsky says:
"The Trump administration is basically alone in the world with a few outliers that not only are refusing to do anything about this imminent crisis, but are dedicating their efforts in making it worse. He’s doing everything he can to maximize the use of fossil fuel and just a couple of weeks ago, opened up a major reserve in the United States for drilling by the energy corporations. It’s ridiculous because the price of oil is so little, they don’t even want to do it. But he’s pressing them to try to destroy the world as fast as possible. At the same time, these corporate executives that he’s put in charge of relevant parts of the government are busy dismantling the regulations that provide some degree of protection from the devastating effects of global warming and that protect the population from toxic chemicals and the severe pollution which has a deadly effect because it’s coming on top of major respiratory infections. Recently, they again reduced emissions controls all in the interest of profit for a very small but powerful sector of the economy and improving Trump’s electoral prospects. So it doesn’t matter how many people you kill, how much you destroy the environment, just keep going because there are more important priorities like profits for the fossil fuel companies and Trump’s electoral prospect. That’s it. It’s so hard to find words to describe it. There’s no such vicious malevolence in human history. Literally, no one you can think of has been so evil that he’s dedicated to destroying organized human life on earth for his own benefit. No one."
Educate yourself. Read the whole interview. But if those words do not convince you that the world is a better place with Trump out of office, nothing will. Please America, do the right thing on November 3rd.
