By Raúl Antonio Capote on June 13, 2020
As the crisis in the U.S. deepens and the protests that have erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder take on a broader tone, old and new wounds of a society in need of profound change are dramatically coming to light.
The makeup that was intended to cover the worn-out face of American “Liberty” is slowly fading, and the truth is making its way into the minds and hearts of the people. A protester in New York asks in front of the cameras of a TV network covering the protests, “Where is the greatest country in the world?”, and then he answers his own question with anger and pain, “It is not here.”
Despite the fact that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo boasted of being an accomplished liar and recalls during an interview at the University of Texas A&M when he was director of the CIA, his image as a supposed strongman is not respected either.
The head of U.S. diplomacy is still the same cynic who said, “I was the director of the CIA. We lied, cheated and stole. We even had training courses on it,” which drew applause from those present, who must have included some of those who are now most likely obeying Trump’s advice about gargling with chlorine to combat COVID-19.
But you can’t fool all the people all the time. The Trump Administration is responsible for more than 112,000 deaths from the pandemic, rampant unemployment, loss of rights, hunger for many so deep that they can no longer hide it, a lack of medical care for the majority of the people and wholesale racial discrimination.
The man already considered by many to be the worst president in US history is covered in a deluge of criticism, while sending out a rain of lies through Twitter, a kind of “counter-water” strategy that seems to make no sense, but it does.
Donald Trump speaks only to his bases, to those who voted for him in the previous election and hopes that they will do the same, on November 3. These are secure bases that have remained faithful to their mandate, despite the defection of a layer of the less firm.
Who will vote for whom?
Voting for Trump this time around will be those who consider him a “winner” who will achieve success for America, those who admire his showmanship, his misogynistic poses, his image as a rich, powerful man, with a lot of luck with women.
Those alienated by conspiracy theories will do this, including those who believe that health reform and 5g seek to control the American population, oppose vaccination, believe that the left belongs to an alien invading race that wants to dominate the world, and a thousand and one other unhinged theories.
Trump gloats over the unconditional love that many of these ultra-nationalists, religious fanatics, racists, white supremacists, and separatists have for him, to whom he presents himself as a political outsider.
Trump and his team estimate that many of the people who oppose his re-election will not vote for Joe Biden either. They believe that the most radicals, who want a profound change in the country, will not vote for him or the neoliberal group that the former vice president represents. Many millennials and Z generation people do not see Biden as a viable option for the solution of the country’s problems, according to the followers of the magnate-president.
Therefore, faced with the possibility of a small voter turn out, motivated by the lack of valid alternatives and the security of the vote of their bases, the followers of the current president trust that they can win again.
An uncertain future
However, the situation is getting darker for him. Important figures of the Republican Party, prestigious military and hawks with voices and influence, are beginning to close ranks against a possible reelection.
Colin Powell, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the last of a series of retired senior officers to publicly criticize Donald Trump. “We have a Constitution. And we have to follow that Constitution. And the president is walking away from it,” Powell said in an interview with CNN, in which he accused him of “lying about a lot of things.”
Powell, who served as secretary of state during the George W. Bush administration, and according to the Pew Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, can influence independent voters, who make up 38 percent of the electorate.
Among others, Trump has received criticism from former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Powell has been joined by the voices of several prominent military figures, including his now-former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who said Trump is not “a mature leader” and accused him of “deliberately trying to divide the country.”
Former U.S. Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired general who served in the government, called on the American people to “look carefully at who you elected.”
Another uniformed man who spoke out against the White House tenant was retired Navy Admiral William McRaven, the commander who led the military operation in which the U.S. killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
“It’s time for new leadership in this country, Republican, Democrat or independent,” adding that “the president has shown that he doesn’t have the qualities to be a good commander-in-chief.”
Current Secretary of Defense Mark Esper criticized Trump’s actions during the protests: “I do not support the invocation of the Insurrection Act. These measures should only be used as a last resort, and in the most urgent and extreme situations.”
Prominent intellectuals, renowned artists and sportsmen, workers, unemployed, African and Latin American people, businessmen and ex-soldiers, small landowners ruined by the crisis, young people from all walks of life, have joined in the protests across the U.S.
Many talk about giving everything so that the current administration is not re-elected. It looks bad for the president’s mogul. Whatever he does, history is will inevitably show who he really is.
Source: Resumen-Cuba, translation North America bureau