I have avoided writing about the situation in the USA until now, simply because I believed that, with the advent of President Biden, things would soon return to normal. It is not that I particularly disliked President Trump; I was always surprised at the venom poured out at him even from level-headed Kiwis who know little or nothing about American politics – but I blame the media for that. It does show how malleable people are though. Just last week, I went to a friend’s place for lunch and mentioned that I was thinking about investing in Foley Wines Ltd (the makers of wonderful wines such as Mt Difficulty and Roaring Meg) and was greeted with a hideous chorus of “Not that Trump supporter!” I took a deep breath and, in a room full of National and ACT voters, asked why exactly they thought I should base my investment decisions on the politics of a business owner. I was greeted with sullen silence. That attitude will only make the share price cheaper in the short term so all the better, but the blinkered attitude was very disappointing.
But I just can’t ignore what is going on in the USA any longer, after the ‘storming’ of the Capitol and the venomous response from Democrats everywhere. Their hatred for Trump is palpable. I doubt if we have ever seen anything like it. And it casts a long, dark shadow on the future of the USA, land of the free… a people that is not, by a long shot, free any more.
Thinking back, it started with Hillary Clinton, who, as part of her campaign to become the leader of the free world, called Trump supporters ‘deplorables‘. It was a mistake that in part caused her election loss, but there is clearly no remorse among the Democrats. Their hatred for Trump and his supporters has only intensified in the four years that followed.
Trump, bringer of peace to the tinderbox that was once the Middle East, has never been given any credit for anything he has done. Trump had to be torn down at all costs. That was all that mattered.
Once the Capitol was ‘stormed’ by Trump supporters, the Democrats had their excuse to villify Trump once and for all. Even though he went on TV to ask his supporters to disperse and go home, it was never going to be enough. Conservatives like me watched as demonstrations outside the Capitol building took place, and wondered at the outrage and the rhetoric that was so obviously missing when angry mobs of Democrat supporters went on rampages night after night, looting and burning a few months back. Where is the horse drawn funeral carriage for the unarmed US veteran who was killed by police in the Capitol? Why is no one taking a knee for her? She was no criminal, but she was killed by the police too; but as the saying goes – Black Lives Matter, but it seems that only black lives matter these days.
The next day, with alarming echoes of Nazi Germany, Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants silenced the President of the United States for good. Twitter started deleting the accounts of conservatives. The President’s account was removed. Even the relatively new social media outlet, Parler, has been threatened with extinction. Conservatives are being hunted down. I wonder if we will all be forcibly tattooed to identify us as subhuman, as the Nazis did to the Jews? If you think that is a fanciful stretch, just wait and see how the next few weeks play out.
But silencing Donald Trump is not about doing anything for the greater good. The Democrats must be terrified of something. In the words of George R R Martin, relayed to us by Tyrion Lannister:
“When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”
George R. R. Martin
But the fact that tech giants can just silence the President speaks volumes about who holds all the power in the world. This would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, but it is a reality now. Tech giants do not care about democracy. They can do what they like, and they just did.
I fear for America. More than 70 million of its citizens are now pariahs, to be hunted down by vengeful Democrats, full of their own self-importance. But 70 million people cannot be silenced. This is a festering wound that will not go away any time soon for the USA. The swamp cannot be drained; it has become too powerful to be stopped, but just watch how they destroy anyone with the guts to try.
With 70% of Republicans and 10% of Democrats believing the election was stolen, all faith in the system is lost.
Americans no longer believe in their government or their political system. America looks no better than those countries where electoral fraud is rife; yet once upon a time, the land of the free would have found such claims unconscionable. America, the land of the greatest democracy, has had democracy stolen from right under its nose, and no one is doing anything to stop it.
America needs leaders to calm the waters, to bring unity to a fractured nation. Is Joe Biden the man to bring the country back together? Instead of sending a message to calm the rioters and try to resolve the situation at the Capitol (and show what kind of a president he is going to be), Biden addressed the country angrily, referring to the protesters as a “mob”, and fanned the flames of doubt and discontent. Then later, he compared Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Conservatives in the US must be worried; I am worried for them under the coming regime. ‘Sleepy Joe’ is not going to unite the country, nor is he going to govern for all Americans. America needs to heal. Joe Biden thinks Trump supporters, all 70 million of them, are ‘deplorable’. He is not the man to bring Americans together in peace and unity. He will make the divided country even more fractious long before his tenure is over.
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