I have to confess to feeling a little protective of Hillary once it was clear the Trump would be her opponent in this election. Here in the UK we’ve watched with growing incredulity that such a narcissistic, mouth-breathing bully could be selected to represent a national political party of a country we hold dear. Divided by a common language we may be, but united in a strong shared sense of fair play, of decency, and of loyalty. So when someone as transparently unsuited to run so much as a whelk stall, is allowed to strut the national stage, spouting hatred and ignorance, we over here held our breath. Could the Americans really do it this time? Could they really elect this idiot to represent them on the world stage? Oh we know that there are a lot of people over there who say “I like Trump because he speaks his mind — tells it like it is” What they mean is that they are experiencing that frisson of delicious excitement that comes when, for the first time ever, someone so big in the public eye, someone representing a national political party, can shout out their own worst prejudices as loud as he likes. What they don’t realise, and what is the first reason Trump can never win, is that the bigots, the angry white men and their “gender equality denying” women enablers, he gives voice to, are a small proportion of the US electorate. He’s talking to his base. The rest of the USA is not listening to him, except in abject horror.
The other reason Trump cannot win is that he is the first candidate that I can ever recall who not only allowed his opponents to define him as unfit for public office, but also actually colluded in proving them right with ever utterance from that sneering gob of his. He also must be the first presidential candidate to fall under the weight of so much “friendly fire” from his own party. Do you know, I can even see Georgia falling….
Remember I said I was feeling a little protective of Hillary, at the thought of her having to “debate” with this person? Well I needn’t have worried. Not only did she demonstrate, with such grace under fire, that she was the only adult on that platform, but that she was the one, out of the two, who possessed the real cojones. Mini Mano Man flailed himself into a froth of fake outrage, while Hillary talked right over his beige head to America.
As a friend over the water, I can’t wait to see how she turns out as president. I have a hunch she will be the most reforming since Lyndon B Johnson. Imagine what she will do for kids, building on what she’s done already. And Trump? Well I’m training a new puppy, and at first I got a perverse satisfaction from getting him to poop at the command “Trump!”. But, you know, I realised that Trump is only this years news, so I’ve changed the poop command to something more durable.