By Ron Cheong | Editorial credit: Tomas Ragina / shutterstock.com 

Ultimately, it came down to a choice between Harris’ strongly pro-democracy stance contrasted against Trump’s fascist behaviors, her commitment to a woman’s right to decide on healthcare concerning her own body, her plans to build the middle-class, and her positive hopeful positive message; versus Trump’s dark, divisive unhinged treats, anti-immigrant crusade (despite two of his three wives being immigrants) and his agenda to slash the social safety net while giving billionaires more tax breaks.

Despite all this, the American voter nevertheless chose Donald Trump to be the 47th President of the United States.

The Unfolding of the Campaign

Just 16 days after President Biden pulled out of the race after his poor performance in the debate against Trump, Harris clinched the Democratic nomination for President. With only 75 days to go between the end of the DNC convention and election day, she hit the ground running with a well-organized, well-oiled team and a theme of “Joy” as the overarching attitude of her campaign.

Less than three weeks later, on September 10, 2024, she stepped up to challenge Trump, a seasoned campaigner in his third presidential run, on the Presidential debate stage. This was Harris’ first foray at this ultra-high-stakes level, though she brought much experience, talent, and discipline.

She was obviously feeling her way for the first half-hour of the debate, adjusting and finding her footing. But she was well prepared with a well-conceived strategy to attack Trump’s Achilles heel—his deeply dysfunctional narcissistic vanity.

About the half-hour mark she struck; pivoting, she prodded Trump’s vanity and obsession with crowd size, directing her words to viewers, she said:

“I’m going to ask you to do something really unusual. I would like to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies because it’s a really interesting thing to watch. You will see during the course of his rallies that he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about how windmills cause cancer. And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies out of exhaustion and boredom.”

The narcissistic injury was too much for Trump, and he launched into a tirade about Haitians in Springfield eating people’s cats and dogs. From there, the debate for Trump was all downhill. He could not look at Harris who turned her head towards him with a look of bemusement. This also marked a spiraling down in his campaign, which became weirder, darker, and more incoherent. He could not stay on message despite the pleas of his handlers and just stayed stuck in vitriolic personal attacks and name-calling.   Trump refused to debate Harris again, spinning it as if he had won the debate (63% of debate watchers said he lost), and victors never ask for a rematch. 

Following this came another watershed moment for the campaign at Madison Square Gardens, at which speaker after speaker denigrated Puerto Ricans, Palestinians, Blacks, and Latinos, among others, to cheers, laughter, and clapping from those assembled. Trump threatened “the largest deportation program in American history” and to continue fighting “the enemy from within.

Things continued to become more unhinged with dark threats, including threats against Liz Cheney: “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

He also declared he would not mind if someone shot through the press box at his rally and attacked his staff when the microphone malfunctioned.

On the other hand, Harris continued with her positive, hopeful vision for the future, promising help for home buyers, child care, lower food prices, and strengthening the border. She welcomed all into her tent, including disaffected Republicans who did not agree with her policies but could no longer put up with the unhinged Trump and decided to put country before party. But all this was to no avail.

The Voters Spoke

Stunningly, Trump’s disgusting conduct documented wrongdoing, and chaotic campaign rallies have been rewarded, according to The Associated Press, with 277 electoral votes, representing 51% of the total votes as of the time of going to press, and the title of President-elect of the United States of America.

His win seems to line up with Gallop polling from a month ago, which said Trump was slightly favored in the economy (54%), immigration (54%), and foreign affairs (52%). 

The 5 top voter concerns reported by BBC from a voters exit poll of are:

The State of Democracy 35%

The Economy 31%

Abortion 14%

Immigration 11%

And Foreign Policy   4%

Concerns about the state of democracy, which the BBC reported as the highest concern of voters in the exit poll, were not a showstopper for him. Nor was his involvement in the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Roe v. Wade decision, which stood for 50 years and had ruled that the decision to end a pregnancy is an Individual’s right, not the government’s.    

In addition, the Republicans also took back control of the Senate and looked to retain the House.

The Free World Will Sleep Less Well

It was hoped that the election would start reversing Trump’s normalization of lying, conning, criminal activity, and misogyny. Instead, it seems that the country will be saddled with Trump for another four years. There is little consolation in that if Trump is unable to serve his full term due to his advancing age, JD Vance will be his successor.

One small glimmer of hope in this for the future of the country is the extraordinary actions taken by a number of leading Republicans, former cabinet members and aids who came out and publicly repudiated Trump as unfit for the Presidency, including a number who pitched their support behind Harris despite not agreeing with their policies. They put country before party. 

Trump remains the defendant in several court cases, including handling classified documents from his last term. NATO allies have to be worried. All countries in the free world will be European allies, trading partners, the G7, the G20as, and Ukraine.  

Putin has already begun to play Trump. He has not yet congratulated Trump on his victory, but through his press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, he said, “It is practically impossible to make things worse. Relations are historically at their lowest point.” Peskov further craftily inserted a prod surely directed at Trump, that America was still an unfriendly country that was directly and indirectly involved in the war against their state. Let the head games begin!

Trump will be looking to settle many scores. The only thing is that instead of being with those who would harm America’s interests, he would be with those he calls the “enemy within.”

All will sleep less well as this news breaks. Life goes on but with some trepidation.

____________

Ron Cheong is a retired banker with extensive international experience, including the Caribbean, originally from Guyana and now residing in Toronto, as a Fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers with a BSc from the University of Toronto.

  #2024Election, #AmericanVoters, #BillionaireTaxBreaks, #DemocraticChoice, #Election2024, #ElectionChaos, #ElectionChoice, #FascismVsDemocracy, #Harris2024, #HistoricCandidacy, #ImmigrationDebate, #MiddleClass, #PoliticalDivide, #ProDemocracy, #SocialSafetyNet, #Trump2024, #TrumpAntics, #TrumpVsHarris, #Women’sRights