…in America
There’s a lot of hype that Joe Biden’s election as US President would lead to “reversing” the divisions Trump created. So, let’s unpack that thought by first looking at the domestic situation. After all, didn’t one famous American politician – long serving Speaker Tip O’Neil – insist that “all politics is local”? And since “local politics” is all about local people casting their ballots, we can do worse than looking closely at who these locals are.
Can anyone really be serious to argue that in the first six months of 2016 that Trump took to win the Republican primaries, and another six to win the elections against Hillary Clinton, he was able to CREATE all these fissures? Not only “not likely”, but “impossible”! As we can tell from their name – the United States of America – they started as 13 separate colonies, and those divisions never really went away when they decided to get “United”.
Those divisions started when they herded the Native Peoples into “reservations” – where they subsist pretty much like Third World folks – and continued when Africans were hauled across the Atlantic as “chattel slaves”. The divisions rose to the surface during their Civil War in the 1860s, during which more Americans were killed than in any other war that American would fight to this date. The divisions between North and South are still raw. Then there were the folks whom the War was supposed to be fought over, because they were defined as only “3/5 human” – African Americans. Trump didn’t create all the inequalities against which they chafed for more than 150 years after the Civil War.
As for the Whites who were the majority…they’re all the descendants of immigrants from Europe, who were not all seen as equal. The Irish were initially seen as “White Negroes”, while the ones from Southern Europe – Italy, Greece etc. were brushed off a “white ethnics” who had to earn their way into the charmed (WASP) circle – “White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants” from the North. The Latinos who crossed over from the Rio Grande never really had the opportunity to even break out.
After the immigration laws were changed in 1965 to permit the previously banned Chinese and Indians, they created another wave to add to the medley. One could say with the greatest level of confidence that there’s a community of every one of the 200+ nations in the world in the US. That’s DIVISIONS for you!!
Finally, because of the decline in the US economic standing, after losing its technological and manufacturing lead, the descendants of immigrants turned against new immigrants.
Trump merely took advantage of the divisions – which Biden can never reverse!
…in the world
Now, what about the rest of the world?? Was it also divided by Trump?? Starting with the traditional allies of the US, Britain, with its “Special Relationship”, is the closest. If there was any speculation as to which country might have objected to Trump’s unorthodox style, surely it would’ve been the stiff-upper-lipped Brits. But here it was, PM Boris Johnson is as close a clone of Trump as you could get outside of the scientists who brought us “Dolly”!
Similarly, across Europe, leaders were thrown up also in the mould of Trump – they mightn’t all be running their countries, but they’re growing exponentially. What this means is that whatever factors – systemic or otherwise – might have thrown up Trump in the US, those same factors are in play over in Europe. Your Eyewitness would not even dissect Trump’s closing the divide with Russia – once the arch-enemy of the US. And China remains China.
What this means is Biden’s not gonna have much wiggle room for change – either domestically or internationally.
…in Guyana
Some – especially in the PNC – are betting the store that a lot has changed for them with Biden about to move into the White House. But what exactly has changed with US strategic interests here?
Venezuela? NO! Oil, NO! So there!
