Wow. Just wow. I’m not American and would never be presumptuous enough to tell a US citizen how to vote, but boy, even the most fervent Democrat would have to agree that its party’s political campaign for presidency was one of the most lacklustre and substance-free in recent times. So many are reeling from the huge Trump victory and asking how it all went wrong for the liberals but it’s not too difficult to find the answers. They’re pretty self-evident. I may have been watching events unfold from across the pond, like a member of a chorus in a Greek tragedy, but all I saw was a never-ending car crash for the Democrats. Truth be told they picked the wrong candidate – a woman who had no back history or clear policies and who flunked nearly every interview she had.
Kamala Harris seemed hopelessly out of her depth most of the time, unable to answer the simplest of journalistic questions and put in the invidious position of having to answer for the mistakes of the previous four years of government under Biden. How could she hope to convince a seething electorate that she would do things differently when she was part of the existing problem, as vice president? Coupled with that, she cackled hysterically – no doubt nervous energy – whenever put on the spot and uttered gibberish in place of clear and commanding media responses. What the heck was her communications team doing? She should have been briefed to death beforehand but somehow she seemed left to paddle her own sinking canoe.
Of course the other huge mistake of the liberal elite was to patronise the ‘ordinary’ American, telling them how to vote, how to feel, how to live and grossly insulting their intelligence. Completely tone deaf, they failed to read the room, to take on board the sheer unadulterated rage and indignation of millions struggling economically, all sick and tired of being told by the wealthy left to accept the status quo and suck up their pain. So, no wonder it all backfired spectacularly.
Disastrously, and underpinning her lack of intellectual rigour, Kamala chose luvvies and pop singers to back her cause such as billionaire Taylor Swift (millions of followers but all aged 10+ and unable to vote), Beyonce and the likes of Oprah (old news now) and Cardi B (who?). Blisteringly astute comedian Ricky Gervais mocked the ‘celebrity’ endorsers in a hilarious TikTok video, proving the point.
Meanwhile, Trump had backing from some of the most influential figures globally who dominate social media such as Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan. Put it this way, with more than 203 million followers on X, bombarded with pro Trump messaging, Musk proved to be Trump’s genie and campaign hero. Tucker Carlson, a maverick US journalist with a huge and devoted following of 14.5m followers on X – and one of the few Western press to cadge an interview with Vladimir Putin – trumpeted Trump tirelessly on his channel as did numerous other Republican orientated media. Where the Democrats failed to gain traction was in people driven platforms and the free-thinking, non-legacy media such as Rumble and X. That’s where the Trump camp scored time and time again, garnering a huge swell of followers and disaffected black and Latino voters too.
Like his politics or not, Trump rarely stalled on the campaign path, after a rocky and inauspicious start: I’m talking about that Ohio cat munching story. All the same, once his ingenious marketing team geared up, they offered an unstoppable and slick machine backed by heavy rollers with millions of supporters. Then there was that vote-winning McDonald stunt and the response to Biden’s voter ‘garbage’ comment when Trump turned up in a trash truck. Just too clever and mischievous for words.
The turning point in his run to political victory surely had to be the attempt on his life? Here was a man in his eighth decade standing firm after bullets whizzed past his head at a rally, punching the air defiantly with the words, ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ and he certainly did, right to the bitter end.
Kemi cuts deep
After the shock Trump win, Keir Starmer inhaled deeply on his smelling salts and managed to get out a dignified statement opining how much he was looking forward to working with Donald Trump. Meanwhile, David Lammy, Foreign Secretary, who’d called Trump a fascist and sociopath (and those were some of his nicest comments) desperately tried to backpaddle by issuing a squirming statement on X about looking forward to working with the new US president. But Kemi Badenoch, incoming new rottweiler leader for the Tories, was having none of it. She humiliated both Lammy and Starmer in the House of Commons, calling for them to eat their words and issue Trump with an apology. Starmer must have had the day from hell. Even I felt a twinge of sorrow for the beleaguered PM.
What a load of rubbish
As the UK is increasingly accused of restricting personal freedoms and treating law abiding citizens like criminals with constant monitoring and intrusion, it came as no surprise to read about a selfless, law-abiding pensioner, who was issued with a huge fine and threatening letter after he went out litter picking in the countryside with elderly chums. The kind hearted elderly man absentmindedly left his much-needed walking stick on the ground as they all drove away. CCTV cameras were scrutinised by the though police at Walsall Council and the poor old chap was accused of littering the zone. Any person with the semblance of a brain at the council would have seen quite clearly in the footage that the man had simply forgotten to pick up his walking stick. After a brouhaha and full media coverage, a sheepish council spokesperson had to issue a grovelling apology and confirmed that there would be no fine. What a sad state of affairs. No wonder the UK is such an unmitigated mess.