Joe Biden score card

 

Subject: The Joe Biden score card.

The recent election results from Virginia were a massive poke in the eye for Joe Biden and his Democratic Party. Just when we thought we were moving from Trump mania, the spectra of him riding in like a gun slinger in a low grade western is once more upon us. Of course it's up to the Republican Party to choose its leader but Trumpism, that virulent form of political conservatism which appears alive and well in the USA and is part of the difference between us which we ignore at our risk. Because of heritage and language we often equate people in the US with Brits and Brits with Europeans and therefore  European values but  in fact they are fundamentally different. The classical liberal ethos is largely missing in the new neo liberal fundamentalism that pervades large tracts of America. The American attitude to guns and penal imprisnmcnt, abortion and the overall appraisal of black as well as white people in the society sets them apart from most Europeans.

One of the great achievements of the European Union has been the sense of cohesion it has achieved in holding extreme right wing politics at bay. The economic advancement which is offered by having a large consumer market and the financial power to plough on with a vision of society which is different to that in America or China is remarkable in a continent which 80 years ago used to be riven with conflict.

The comparison between individual entrepreneurial  talent as the  prime mover in seeking prosperity which the American views as success or the strict rule following authoritarianism of a one party state based on  communism is bridged in Europe by a softer more collegiate vision of a society bound by common needs and aspirations, not a the devil takes all philosophy.

We were perplexed by the American voters tolerance of the narcissistic hubris of Donald Trump, his gloating pontificated style, so reminiscent of Mussolini, which brought tears of joy to many of his supporters and still does. The egoistic self acclimation of his own intelligence and power to think creatively for the people was tied up with the glamour of his lifestyle and the riches he projected as being the example of success.

The Americans have exported much of the consumerist trash onto our television screens but we haven't yet become quite as obsessed with the garish lifestyle they portray. Our natural sagacity means our European feet are still firmly planted in an awareness of cohabiting with other people, although it must be said Boris Johnson's conservatism is making inroads into our traditional British values.

The conservative across the pond is much more inclined towards self interest and made of far sterner stuff. His ready acceptance  with horrific,  jail sentences, lasting decades, longer than a humans life, doesn't seem to bother them in its barbarity and of course depending on the State, many prisoners are executed by the death penalty. Torture and dirty tricks often used by the CIA to procure an outcome is apparently acceptable and  Guantanamo Bay to many, perhaps the majority, was acceptable. To be poor in the USA 🇺🇸 is to be without compassion, instead failure is down to your  mis-allocation of time and the poor decisions  you made, not the severely diminished opportunities of being born on the wrong side of the track.

Republicans, polished self made men and women have no truck with the social demise of the large groups of people who make up the citizenship. Money and power through advertisement messaging bombard the airwaves with false news confusing the most diehard libertarian into doubting his fellow man and once the dogs of doubt overwhelm the cry  for compassion then the stage is set for Donald to re-enter with his magical tour, systematically  dissembling truth and crating such confusion that people become insecure and primed for what ever he wants to make of them. Subliminal forces are at play unleashed by the reach of the internet into our very fibre, where truth becomes just a commodity to trade.

Biden for all his homily traits and his sense of honesty is not a physically  strong figure to hold the ring against the forces of Trumpism.  He belongs  to a derided past when the opportunity to put action before words was repeatedly  missed and the dark forces of a powerful financial lobby oversaw the political will and replaced it with political expediency.