2 weeks Ago
How absurd the level of exaggeration and fearmongering in the mainstream media about the American election has proved to be. This is particularly so in relation to Trump, where we had daily breathless articles from commentators that he was Hitler, a threat to democracy; a criminal, unstable, xenophobic and so on. The American electorate didn’t think so in returning Trump with not only a clean sweep of the swing states but by winning the popular plebiscite with five million votes to spare – the greatest rout since Ronald Reagan’s in the 1980s.
In Trump’s first term, the world was a far safer place: we had no war in the Ukraine, no war in Israel, no Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion; these three disasters were aided by Biden, Harris and the Democrats. Trump started no wars, began the termination of American involvement in Afghanistan, instigated no sanctions against Russia – which, far from crippling its economy, have resulted in that country having by far the best and most powerful army in the world – and leading to the rapid rise of BRICS and the accelerating decline of Western debt-laden economies. Harris was never anything but a nodding catspaw for Biden’s backroom team.
She was drummed out of the Democratic caucuses in double-quick time in 2020 and was promoted with equal alacrity to be their presidential candidate, contrary to the standard requirement to make such a choice via the democratic majority vote of members. She was never anything but a ridiculously cackling, upwardly mobile socialiser with an eye for the main chance, but lacking any of the abilities of an Elizabeth Warren or a Jill Stein, for example. Trump quickly got rid of the main warmongering members of his entourage, such as John Bolton and Mike Pompeo; would that Biden had done the same with neo-con hawks like Victoria Nuland and Antony Blinken, who have overseen the ineffable genocidal slaughter of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Clearly, the average American saw through all of this. Traditional Democratic Party supporters, such as Latinos, black men and working white women, had grown tired of being lectured by out-of-touch elites when they could clearly see their weekly pay cheques being insufficient to keep up with the soaring cost of living. Maurice O’Callaghan, Stillorgan, Co Dublin Our own general election campaigning will be filled with ageism and sexism There has been much hand-wringing and whingeing across the political spectrum in Ireland regarding Donald Trump’s election victory.
It’s good to know we’re about to embark on a general election campaign that will be filled with ageism, with Micheál Martin being described in terms of his vintage, versus the youth of Simon Harris; we’ll see plenty of sexism, in that the women will be blaming the “pale, male and stale” brigade for all our problems, and of course that particular trope includes “pale”, which leads to issues of race. But then, we’ve just seen in the US that women didn’t come out in droves to vote for Kamala Harris, and an elderly white male appealed to the broadest section of American society. Peter Declan O’Halloran, Belturbet, Co Cavan Fingers crossed that next president will follow path of world peace and justice Whatever personal feelings we may hold about Donald Trump, one cannot but endorse the hopes expressed by John Glennon (Letters, November 7) when he asks that “God will guide him on a new path of peace and justice in the world”.
Fingers tightly crossed. Tom Gilsenan, Beaumont, Dublin 9 It’s time Democratic Party went back to its roots and returned to centre ground Donald Trump was somehow able to paint this picture of the US economy being in crisis under Joe Biden, even though the data didn’t quite back that up. Inflation in the US today is around 2pc down from this time last year.
It’s interesting to note that job figures have exceeded expectations and consumer spending seems to be strong. It seems Trump was never really challenged on this. We all lived through a pandemic that sparked inflation not only in the US but around the world, thus things are more expensive today in the US than they were when Trump was president.
I believe there is this notion among many Americans of feeling worse off today than they were four years ago. This feeling seems to be reflected in the presidential election results. There’s no doubt that many Americans feel very strongly about the things Donald Trump feels strongly about.
Like Trump, they want a secure border, they want a better economy and a crackdown on crime. At times Trump may have come across as being off the wall, but somehow his message resonated with people. I heard one American saying democracy is a luxury when you can’t pay your bills.
It seems many Americans were saying that what Trump was espousing on the campaign trail was not that crazy and that he had his finger on the pulse of what mattered most to people. I believe now is a timely reminder for the Democratic Party to start working on returning to the centre ground. John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary Biden left it far too late to step aside – and Harris was too weak a candidate Why did Joe Biden not announce last year that he wasn’t, as promised, going for a second term? That would have allowed other candidates to put their names on the ballot for the Democratic Party.
Sadly, Harris wasn’t a strong enough candidate. Damien Carroll, Dublin This could be opportune moment to begin building the Donald Trump Plaza Now might be a good time to start building the Donald Trump Plaza off one of our motorways. Brian Ahern, Clonsilla, Dublin World is sadder and more dangerous place following result of voting in the US After the energy and the hope of the past few weeks, the result on Wednesday morning has made the world a sadder, more volatile and dangerous place.
Dr Aidan Hampson, Artane, Dublin.
