Trumped Again

Think of the time we all wasted before the recent US elections reading poll experts and pundits all agreeing that it was too close to call, with the narrowest of margins or whatever other nonsense they dreamt up.  We became experts on electoral college voting, swing states, gerrymandering, humungous party advertising budgets, Trump’s various crimes, court cases and a whole raft of other bad stuff, none of which looked anything like democracy.

So, my first conclusion is that the U.S. polling industry should go away and die of shame. As an ex market research manager myself, I would suggest mass hara-kiri as the modus operandi. The only explanation for the incorrect poll results I’ve read is that the voting punters in the US have become so paranoid that they won’t even tell their truth as anonymous respondents in a survey. If so, Americans are truly living in a post-truth world.

As for why those punters re-elected His Trumpness, I reckon it comes down to a relatively straightforward psychological mechanism of transference, which has nothing to do with rational policies, avowed political values or the character of candidates. 

Trump is an avatar on which dissatisfied citizens project their emotional thoughts or urges – to drain the swamp, boot out illegals, lament the loss of traditional employment, their own impoverishment, etc. His election promises don’t have to respond to their actual self-interest, which is often trumped, pun intended, by their paramount leader.

Middle-aged white women, hispanics en masse voted for him. He is the anointed receptacle of all their anger and frustration, and he himself can do no wrong. Trumpness is indeed the answer. As a multiple sinner he can apparently even channel fundamental Christian believers, perhaps as a bulwark against the ‘other’ aka migrants, etc.

Cognitive dissonance on steroids right across the star-spangled spectrum.

As it turned out I was actually in the good ‘ol US of A on election day and shared the drama with my son and daughter-in-law as the results rolled in on the screen, and those optimistic hopes for a first female President were soon unequivocally dashed. 

At a basic level this election again demonstrates why the US system is not world’s best democratic practice. Why should one person accumulate so much political power? Worldwide we are now all in thrall to whatever random and dangerous ideas this capricious ego-maniac tries to put into practice for the next four years. Talk about reality TV gone mad.

With Republican control of both houses and compliant Supreme Court, my son reckons let it rip: give the punters a full Trumpian make-over to see how they like it.  H L Mencken is apposite as always: ‘Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard’.

As noted previously, in my view our Westminster-style parliamentary system is better at keeping check on over-reaching political leaders, by retaining collegial control of Prime Ministers, who are after all only the first amongst equals (primus inter pares).

I would go so far as to say that concentration of political power in one individual is anathema to modern democracy. The French Fifth Republic suffers from similar design faults as the US system, with an over-weaning share of power in their President’s hands too. But at least some French pundits are discussing possible revisions to the Constitution, not so in the US.

Anyway, ‘Que sera, sera’, as Doris Day put it so sweetly.