Democracy in America
#565
Is the world ready for the new Golden Age promised by President-elect, Donald Trump? It will certainly be golden for Trump and his wealthy buddies such as Elon Musk, who must feel they’ve now got their hands on the levers of power. It’s a great day for Putin and Netanyahu. It’s bad news for the environment and renewables. It’s chilling for Ukraine. It’s not good news for any woman who requires an abortion. It’s scary for those “illegals” (or even the legals) he has threatened to deport en masse. It may ultimately be a disaster for all those working class types who voted so overwhelmingly for Trump and should now fear for their health care, welfare, and jobs. Oh, and as a special bonus, Bobby Kennedy will bring back cavities and smallpox.
Will it mean the end of democracy in America? Obviously the voters didn’t take that threat too seriously, no matter how brazenly Trump telegraphed his authoritarian intentions. Although he said during the campaign that after this election “you won’t have to vote any more” -shades of the Nazis in 1933 - my best guess is that he won’t go full-on Hitler but full-on Viktor Orban. Trump’s ideal state would be a democracy in name only, where the system is so arranged that the other side can’t win and the press is placed under the heel of the government. It would also be a kleptocracy, in which the President and his pals can enrich themselves through manipulation of policy, drawing on the public purse and payments from interested parties – whether it be big oil, big pharma, or foreign governments.
Wealthy oligarchs, buoyed by massive tax cuts, will form a surrogate aristocracy. Trump, under the new immunity decreed by the Supreme Court, will have the status of an absolute ruler. The only question is whether he’ll take full advantage of those powers to have his political foes arrested and imprisoned.
The saving grace may be his extreme laziness. A more focused supreme leader would have a plan and stick to it, but it’s hard to imagine Trump doing anything vaguely coherent. He’d sooner be golfing than building concentration camps. The big worry is those loyal retainers, eager to reshape the country according to the Project 2025 playbook, which Steve Bannon has confirmed – post-election - as the blueprint for the next Trump administration. One major concern is VP, J.D. Vance, who is only one-too-many cheeseburgers, one massive coronary, away from the Presidency.
Like the rest of the world, I can’t begin to understand how millions of Americans could vote for someone so obnoxious, narcissistic, vulgar and ignorant – a 78-year-old candidate who bored his own followers rigid with his rambling monologues, although they seem to have enjoyed his racist and sexist remarks, and lapped up his never-ending stream of lies. There’s never been a politician so ready to just make it up as he goes along, saying the first thing that comes into his head.
No matter how bad the Democrats were, surely Trump was not a viable alternative! But this view has been revealed as nothing but wishful, naïve thinking.
Looking back on a debacle for the Democrats, it’s clear that every other issue was as nothing alongside the cost of living. Perhaps the most revealing map John King flashed up on CNN all night was one showing the places across the country where inflation hit hardest. In every instance there was a substantial swing towards Trump. Whatever noises the Democrats made about the threat to democracy or women’s reproductive rights, let alone Trump’s criminal cases, none of this struck home. Foreign policy barely registered on the radar, unless it was to discourage pro-Palestinians from voting for Harris. Great strategic thinking guys!
The Dems also suffered through the curse of incumbency, which is bringing down governments of all political persuasions. In today’s world, economies are global affairs, but voters seem to believe the government of the day is solely responsible for every hardship. Fed up with poor wages and rising prices, voters eject the party in power in the desperate hope that the other party will somehow magically fix the problem. Cue slogan: “Trump will fix it.”
The fact that no reputable economist seems to think that massive tariffs and deportations will do anything but tank the economy and raise the cost of living, made zero impression on the electorate. Trump said he’d fix it, didn’t he?
One shouldn’t discount the influence of social media and partisan cable TV, which encourages tribalism, ensuring that many Trump supporters heard only the good news about their hero. This electronic echo chamber is now such a blight on the world it has undermined the regular functioning of liberal democracies. In authoritarian states the Internet is strictly controlled, but the American cult of “free speech” acts as a shield for the most extraordinary lies, hate speech and conspiracy theories. It’s a terrible paradox that legal ‘freedoms’ seem to encourage the spread of illiberal sentiments.
When a sizeable group of the population was prepared to believe the Clintons were running a paedophile ring from the basement of a Washington DC pizza parlour, it seems a forlorn hope that people will have the wherewithal to work their way through false claims about the economy.
Finally, one shouldn’t discount the anger and paranoia of the American working classes over the identity politics that have become associated with college educated people and, necessarily, the Democrats – what is laughingly known as “the Left”. During his campaign, Trump spent a disproportionate amount of time attacking “transgender” issues, even suggesting that kids were being given sex change operations at school. It sounds ridiculous, but it played well with his audience.
It serves as a warning that the woke over-emphasis on such topics is a sure way of alienating the “commonsense” majority, driving them into the arms of right-wing ideologues. The stupid hypersensitivity of the Left, encourages violently hypersensitive reactions on the Right. Harris seemed to be aware of this, studiously avoiding provocative topics. She had barely a word to say about climate change, let alone transgenderism.
Bernie Sanders and others have attacked the Democrats for “abandoning” the working classes. Others have spoken of their “evangelism”, which essentially means patronising the masses ideologically, while not addressing bread & butter issues. Another relevant charge is that the Harris campaign was “tone deaf”, believing the greater polity would naturally conform to their own version of moral purity.
When it comes to arts and culture, it will be interesting to see if the new Trump administration tries to censor or ban things they don’t like – drag queens, perhaps, or half the books in the library. As the visual arts are mostly funded by private endowments, one need not fear any sudden withdrawal of government largesse.
Will Albo and his gang learn from the US elections? This election should set off all the alarms. Working class Australians are far more easy-going (and better-off) than their American counterparts, but the same forces are at work in local politics, the same attempt to portray Labor as the party of “wokeness”. Coming into an election, the government might do well to reign in its fondness for politically correct stunts and statements, and concentrate on hard economic issues.
The Democrats were unable to convince the electorate that their economic plans were working. Albo faces a similar uphill battle in this regard, pitching to voters with notoriously short memories. Although the shambles that was the Morrison regime should remain etched in everyone’s minds, the fact that American voters could fall in behind a twice-impeached felon who encouraged an insurrection only four years ago, should be enough to make our politicians take nothing for granted. Just bear in mind the image of a smiling Gina Rinehart sitting at Mar-a-Lago as the US election results came in, declaring she was having the greatest night of her life.
This week’s art column looks at the fourth Bangkok Art Biennale, which adopts the theme Nurturing Gaia. The contrast with America’s newly elected President could hardly be more stark. Since its inception in 2018, the BAB has been one of the most successful and stimulating examples of these mega art fests. This year keeps up the momentum.
As I’ve been under the gun again this week, and because it’s a quiet time at the movies, I’m skipping the film column for a second time. I promise to get back in the groove next week.
Instead, I’m printing a tidied up, slightly revised version of a public lecture I gave last week, What is a Museum (Today)? It rounds up quite a few hobby horses into one corral, but I think the points are worth making. As a freshly ousted critic I feel as if there’s nothing holding me back now that I don’t have to worry about what the newspaper might or might not want me to say. As this week’s events in America demonstrate so cataclysmically, this is not the time to be silent, believing that our duly appointed cultural overlords are making the world a better place.