PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

The current turmoil, and personal distress, is only alleviated by the partial failure of the Republican Party in the United States to gain ascendency in the Federal Government. What has happened will clearly make things difficult for the next two years, despite some of the small, but effective, advances of Mr Biden’s government. He has difficulty enough keeping his own party on board, and according to polls, he is not well appreciated, and the disgruntled have expected more from him. Whatever economic package he has enabled is clearly not enough to rally the troops. 

 

I cannot claim to be fully conversant with what is going on in America, save that the election results were not as bad as some thought they would be. What I am aware of – the defeat of Kari Lake and the success of various democratic politicians in holding on to or gaining office – is actually pretty minimal, given the size of and scope of the mid-term elections. 

 

I am also out of touch with the activities of the Vice President. She does not seem to be very newsworthy in the UK and I find it difficult to subscribe to US online newspapers (It’s really about spending pounds for dollars and my meanness). Given the age appropriateness of running for President in 2024, I would have thought Trump and Biden would be out of it. This would leave Mr DeSantis or some other Republican stalwart against a Democratic candidate, which, all being well, should be Kamala Harris. As Vice-President she would be best placed to carry on; however, what the current view of her around the country might be, is a question. Would she have the appropriate backing in two years’ time?  She seems absent at present.  

 

Whilst, I appreciate Mr Biden would like a second term, his age and condition, I would have thought, should make him pause and reflect. He really should step back from another term and do what he can to assist the next Democratic Party candidate in being elected, whether that be Ms Harris or some other younger and worthy candidate. It would be sensible to start the process now and raise a few profiles before the electorate. I do not know if that is feasible in the time, but common sense dictates that ought to be the next course of action for the party. 

 

To have a rehash of 2020 between Mr Trump and Mr Biden is a colossal disaster in the making. Who knows what infamy Trump will stoop to, to get elected. He has already started with sarcastic references to Ron DeSanctimoniuous. I doubt if he even knows what it means. In any event any prospective candidate would have more moral integrity than Mr Trump who has none at all. Actually he is a match for integrity with Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Matt Gaetz, Kari Lake. Indeed, so many republicans lack any character whatsoever. which is why one would have thought the Democratic Party would have little worry about regaining a comfortable majority in both houses of Congress. 

 

Given the current nature of the political scene in the United States, common sense or logic, have no place. The gullibility and deliberately stubborn ignorance of a large number of voters is staggering. They have swallowed the lies and deceit promulgated by Mr Trump and his acolytes, with gluttonous gulps, like giant vultures shoving smaller predators aside. The unfortunate carcass left behind is the Constitution of the United States. 

 

It is difficult to predict or assess just how things will progress across the country in the next couple of years, but the very fact of Trump blowing his trumpet, followed by the brown nosing crowd referred to above, will be a colossal distraction from whatever beneficial program Mr Biden and his government might deploy. If that distraction is allowed to succeed due to over attention by the media, then any success the democratic party might enjoy will dissolve.   America will become a fantasy land, a broken country in the hands of the barbarians.

 

It is a shame all this is playing out during a particularly difficult time for the rest of the world, what with the crisis in the Ukraine, problems in the European Union as a result and the current seemingly unsolvable mess in the United Kingdom. Just at a time when strong cohesive leadership from the United States and its allies would be a saving grace things have fallen apart.

Internal problems in the UK are near catastrophic and hence any attention directed outside this state of affairs is virtually non-existent. Any current British government has little choice but to concentrate on the home front, to try to bring some form of cohesion and stability back. Only then can whatever skills it might still possess be applied to problems beyond its borders.  The isolationists still hold sway as a result of which the United Kingdom has suffered beyond expectations. The blind refusal to accept the disaster of Brexit coupled with foreign pandemonium has brought the country to possible ruin, with inflation and recession apparently beyond control. We are stuck with an ineffectual government which refuses to give way for at least another two years and there is nothing within the current constitution to force a general election for change before that time is up. When it does finally give way, the next government will be very hard pressed to do anything to save the situation and save it, it must. Just what the Labour Party can or are hoping to do, remains a mystery. Like Lawrence of Arabia and his fifty men seizing Aqaba from behind to work a miracle for Prince Faisal in the First Great War, Keir Starmer (should it be him) and his cabinet must find a way to work a miracle for the people of Britain,  Finding the way and getting there will be just as great a task.