Midnight in America

Richard Seymour has written an opinion piece - How did the US's mainstream right end up openly supporting vigilante terror? - on how the mainstream right in the US has reacted to the vigilantism shown in Kenosha and what it says more generally about that side of politics.

It is truely depressing, highlighting a party that is increasingly out and out endorsing conspiracy theories and violence while ignoring the legitimate concerns of systematic racism, inequality and police brutality. Not interested in leading or governing, just winning by any means and at any cost. A political party become a self-consumed personality cult.

Elsewhere, I am generally not a fan of Chris Uhlmann but his latest piece for The Age Donald Trump could win the US election for the same reason he won last time is on the money. While he might be too kind to Australian politics, his summation of the American situation and Trump's potential path to a second term speaks all too accurately.

"Trump could win for the same reason he won last time: he tapped into the rage in America's heartland. Trump's supporters are the losers from radical globalisation, an idea championed by idiot savants who really meant it and who spruiked all the benefits while ignoring the costs. The benefits accrued to the rich, the costs were borne by blue-collar workers who were reduced to abject poverty as their jobs were shipped offshore."

To be fair, the Democractic Party is pretty much in a no-win situation. Any realistic solution they propose will and has been labelled as radical socialism by their opponents. And particularly in America there is a large proportion of the electorate very ready to reject anything with even the slightest whiff of such communism talk.

Hence the dilemma of most progressive/left leaning political parties around the world today - dealing with the Cognitive Dissonance of an electorate downright angry over the effects of the last 40 years of economic theory yet at the same time still won over by its promises.

The dark possibility is that the Trump will be able to hold onto enough of this sentiment - along with the comforting thought that the country isn't actually racist - to retain power. Even if Biden manages to win the Presidency, this sentiment will remain. Meaningful change will be difficult, enthusiastically opposed by many whom would actually benefit from it.

Few political parties around the world have worked out how to package such reform into a politically winning formula. The Democratic Party is attempting to steer a moderate path, trying to avoid the fate of parties in other countries with more radical agendas. The worry is that the Democratic Party will see a return-to-the-status-quo Biden term as a win. The right will likely seize of the lack of change and the anger at that status quo to return with a vengeance.