I like to daydream and this time my daydream was for the Republicans. Taking a leaf out of the Democrats’ collective prudence and drawing on the cue given by Biden - allowing the next generation to take over - would they too prevail on Trump to withdraw? Trump had already boasted that Kamala would be easier to defeat! (A left-handed compliment to Biden in his last days in the White House?)
Decades ago, the movie ‘It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’ had been a box-office hit, throwing movie goers of the world into hysterics. Replace Mad by Mud and you will get a picture of the US politics - particularly of choosing the next most powerful individual of the world. Some days back I had said that the American voters’ choice was limited to a soft thug and a brash thug! With the withdrawal of the soft thug (Joe Biden) from the fight at pressure from his own partymen, Trump - a thug as brash as you can imagine - is going gaga. Just like someone in our own country who boasted to have won the top job hands down even before votes were cast. I need not name him, Mr. ‘Known to All’! As Biden’s deputy Kamala Harris looked certain to replace him, I felt that presidential campaign would tone itself down into a decent, civilized mode. Chivalry could not have died in the land of freedom, I told myself. I was wrong: not only the campaign remains as brash as ever but is now getting sexist and communal as Harris calls Donald a felon and he returns the mud by saying that she will be a poor cry in world politics. Adding insult to injury, Trump vomits “voters already know what world leaders (all male) would say to themselves when they have one look at her!”
Outrageous!!
We all know that the US rightly prides itself as the world’s most liberal (sic permissive) land and the greatest champion of individual liberty. Yet it gives the decent minds shudders when the presidential campaign sinks to this level. On the one hand we have to congratulate the Democrats for the historic pressure they exerted upon Biden to withdraw. In any case he had very little face (as it is he has a small face) to show the Americans and the world after his helplessness to contain the raging Israel-Hamas conflict. Even as Kamala was setting up her campaign, she had, along with a significant number of democratic biggies, declared that she would not attend Netanyahu’s address to the Congress. Moreover, public demonstrations to end the Gaza war were mounting. Worse still, nobody was enthusiastic to fund the Biden campaign. So the error in candidate selection was rectified in time. There was also the talk of whether Biden could continue in the White House even as his nomination had been rescinded; but that did not spread too much - to Biden’s great relief. Well done Democrats! Kudos to you!
I like to daydream and this time my daydream was for the Republicans. Taking a leaf out of the Democrats’ collective prudence and drawing on the cue given by Biden - allowing the next generation to take over - would they too prevail on Trump to withdraw? Trump had already boasted that Kamala would be easier to defeat! (A left-handed compliment to Biden in his last days in the White House?) Even as Trump was taking the new rival lightly, Kamala’s support was growing. Within days 100 million bucks were added in support. Then there came the trump - card. I cannot resist calling it (Donald) Trump Card - The much-advertised shooting incident. A bullet ‘slightly’ grazing Trump’s right (how ironical!) ear. Drawing just ‘enough’ blood to show! What an assassin! What poor aim! The shooter shot on the spot! And the hush hush after the shooting. Hurried resignation of the national security chief. All this beats even a B(H)ollywood cheap thriller!
Trump going to voters with a bandaged ear and suddenly ‘nightmaring’ that Americans’ freedom would be threatened, Communism would be back and world politicians would not take Kamala seriously (as if they took him seriously five years ago!) If there was a whiff of fresh air after Biden stepped down it has sunk in the mud of personalized, pointless slander.
As I write, these things continue on a downward course in the US. After he used gender as a weapon to chide Kamala, Trump has now played another dirty card: he has turned racist! There is absolute guarantee that he will have dirtier cards up his sleeve till the votes are cast. Trump has now pointed out that Kamala, who till now called herself Asian-American is now presenting herself as Black. This is socially too risky because there seems to be a conspiracy in the Trump camp to divide the non-white vote by setting all coloured groups apart. Trump is turning history on a reverse course after Americans had lived happily and fairly harmoniously under Obama. It is also interesting to see that Kamala can emerge as an obvious non-white-minority icon. She was born to Inter-racial parentage : Tamil mother and Jamaican father, has a Jewish husband and can easily appeal to other non-white, non-European communities and efficiently derail Trump’s ‘sons of the soil’ non-sense! The only strategic error on her part could be not choosing a younger, more attractive running-mate around whom fresh, first-time voters would have loved to ‘Waltz’!
US has a remarkable tradition of presidential debates where the two principal contenders put their case to the voters. The Harris-Trump debates will, presumably, start in September. I am a bit apprehensive about what fare will be served to US electors this time. The onus will be on Kamala to keep the interaction at a decent, civilized pitch. Trump is a brash, spoiled cowboy who in fact has no business to be there as her rival after his guilt has been proved. So he will bank on ‘every sinner has a future’ and continue to sin in those debates.
Kamala should resist the urge to reply Donald in ‘his own words’ (take literally). His mud-pit is already overflowing and he will try to drag her into it. He will not think twice before throwing slanderous insinuations at her. He will go hammer and tongs to humiliate her. She must refrain from falling into the Trump-trap like Hillary Clinton did and like they both ended up mimicking cats and dogs: all mews and woofs from future presidents. Like the white (wise?) man’s burden, Kamala has to carry this ‘true democrat’s burden’ and appeal to thoughtful, sober and positive voters.
Since Trump and our own NaMo are almost twins in their modus operandi there are lessons for Donald in the recent general elections in India. NaMo and his NDA were reduced to unrecognisability. This was all NaMo’s doing: he almost ran aground the BJP-NDA ship by unnecessarily communalising what in essence was a routine election. He talked too loud, spewed too much venom on opponents, challenged their patriotism only to fall in the pit he dug for them.
Same could happen to you, Donald. For sure, I want it to happen to you. But since you showed previously that no matter victory or defeat: Trump shall be Trump; this will be your chance at redemption - a Trump wizened in defeat.
Now the icing on the cake. I daydreamed that Republicans should emulate democrats and ask Donald to withdraw; naturally unsuccessfully! But, to continue in the same vein for our country, could both NDA and INDIA ask NaMo and Rahul to take a step back and make room for others? No matter the age difference, the two thrive on one another; and have reduced the political discourse in and outside the parliament to the mew and woof level of Clinton-Trump…
- Vinay Hardikar
vinay.freedom@gmail.com
(The writer has been working in the public sphere of Maharashtra for the last five decades. His versatile personality has several dimensions, but the primary ones remain to be that of an established writer, journalist, editor, critic, activist, and teacher.)
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