Dan Boyle: Donald Ducked

at

From top: US President Donald Trump; Dan Boyle

I chose not to register to vote this time. I have voted in three previous presidential elections. My vote on neither of those occasions made any difference at all. Despite that I enjoyed the opportunity of taking part.

It is likely that the votes I sent at those elections were never counted. The state where I registered, Illinois, had a rule not to count overseas votes unless and until the counting all other votes was done, and only then until if the amount was greater of any difference that existed.

That never happened with any of my votes. It wouldn’t have happened this week either. If my vote was registered in Wisconsin or Michigan it might have done.

Not fully participating this time hasn’t diminished my interest in the outcome of this election. Despising Trump hasn’t been my only motivation.

Despite detesting almost every aspect of his being, I find myself oddly in admiration of Trump’s campaigning skills. Outside of his contempt of not exposing anyone to unnecessary COVID risks, the gusto with which he threw himself into the last ten days of the campaign undoubtedly helped him regain lost ground.

His tactics were as reprehensible as ever, but resonated with his supporters. He successfully portrayed Biden (someone who politically is to the right of Fine Gael!) as a rampant socialist. As a reds under the bed scare it worked.

Another scare that seemed to work was portraying Biden as an anti-fracker. It was a crude caricature of someone who in his eight years as Obama’s Vice President did as much as anyone to promote fracking.

In Trump’s World green is as bad as socialist. Both seen as good dog whistles for his base.

Trump’s innate anti-environmentalism won him his biggest prize of green disdain, the day after votes determining his future were cast. On this day the US became the first country to turn its back on the Paris Accord on climate.

For that alone Trump deserves all the contempt in the world. I had hoped for a Biden landslide, but I think how it is working out might be even better.

For someone who is so cruel in nature and character, there is something quite piquant in having Trump coming so close to retaining office. Being so near but so far is a deserved cruelty.

He ain’t gone yet nor is he likely to go quickly or willingly. His exit will prolong all our agonies. It may the last indignity the US and the rest of the world might have to put up with. Soon he can be placed on the proper side of history.

His impact won’t be as easily eradicated. Others will follow his template. That patented mix of narcissism and arrogance will be emulated by many as the way to get ahead.

I’m thinking dignity can make a comeback. I’m hoping it will. What Trump has personified in the American character will continue to linger.

Biden won’t be a panacea but he can help bring about a kinder, gentler America. That’s a deliberate reference, being a speech note from George Bush Snr. For Biden to help bring the US together, philosophically at least, he needs to reach out to sane Republicans.

This wouldn’t be about establishing a new coalition. It would be about helping to establish a more humane discourse. We not only have to end the madness, we have to make it go away.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator and serves as a Green Party councillor on Cork City Council. His column appears here every Thursday. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle

RollingNews

Sponsored Link

Related posts:

Steeling Themselves When Free Trade Goes Bad Houses Divided The Notion of Nation

22 thoughts on “Dan Boyle: Donald Ducked”

  1. Lilly

    ‘help bring about a kinder, gentler America.’

    Tell that to Roderic O’Gorman. Kindness begins at home.

    2. GiggidyGoo

      Yep. Dan should focus his attentions to his own party here, and why more and more people are coming to despise it.

  2. eddie blizzard

    Is the SF / Paddy Cosgrave take down of Leo Varadkar the new & evolved version of Trumps draining the swamp. The nuttin squad of the digital age if you will.

  3. Harry

    Fracking? Climate change? A more humane discourse ?
    Wouldn’t it be nice if Ireland had a party that was ecologically sensitive , puts social justice at the heart of its policies, instead of a party that boots the poorest and consumers rather than the producers of carbon , that prioritises homelessness over bicycle lanes and listens to and treats institutional abuse victims with kindness rather than smug condescending contempt.
    Dan, how about a feature on a party purporting to be Green but has totally sold itself out for ministerial pensions and deservedly (in a quite piquant way), lost public support and is losing its own members at a rate of knots

    2. Nigel

      Wouldn’t it be nice if these issues weren’t the concern of one tiny party slaving away in a corner while all the rest shrug and carry on as normal? That way the parties could work together on these issues rather than dropping the occasional crumb as a concession here and there while the publc bizarrely hold that one tiny party completely responsible for an entire government’s actions, or failure to act.

  5. Bron

    Since Boyle is actually an American maybe he can explain these Election night events?

    Between 3:30-4:30AM, they “ found” 140,000 mail in ballots for Biden in Wisconsin.

    Between 3:30-5:00AM, they “ found” 200,000 mail in ballots for Biden in Michigan.

    Between 2:00-4:00AM, they “ found” 1,000,000 mail in ballots in Pennsylvania.

    All for Biden. None for Trump.

    Is this normal, possible or even probable?

      1. Johnny

        ……but,but if they stop counting,Joe wins.
        So it’s a recount in Wi,but stop counting in a Ga:)
        He had the entire federal govt at his disposal,he’s lost try be a little gracious.

          2. Nigel

            Perhaps it concerns the voters who voted against him. It would be nice if they were treated like they actually mattered, too.

          3. Junkface

            @V
            Get outta town!!
            I think we all know that by now.

            Trump was elected on the basis that he would help the working class and middle class communities in the mid west and rust belt get their jobs and factories back, and also stick two fingers up to the establishment at every chance. Mostly a massive con.

            Not only did he not rescue their factory and mining jobs, he gave tax breaks to their already wealthy bosses who shipped their jobs overseas. They were played, they were rubes. He also filled his cabinet with scummy wall st grifters because thats the kind of people he knows. He’s a conman

    2. Junkface

      The US election commission has said that it was happy so far that it was a fair election. Unless there has been a massive investigation launched in the last few hours. Where are you getting this information from? A valid source? Because that would be the largest case of voter fraud in US history. How do we know that it was not part of a dirty tricks campaign from Trumps side to muddy the waters? It’s possible. I would hold on for the results of the investigation if the reports you mention have any truth.

Comments are closed.

Broadsheet.ie