Bidin’ His Time - Joe Vs Donald

The image of a bleeding Donald Trump doing a fist-pump with a belligerent call to “fight, fight, fight”, after the young assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ rifle shot nicked his ear, will make him the poster boy of the Republican Party with greater zest.

This shocker at an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has added another layer of gory patina to the history of political violence in America. Till this attempt on his life, all eyes and ears were riveted on the goings-on of the rival candidates heaping vituperations and the usual barbs on each other. Trump, of course, is a master craftsman in concocting excoriating phrases.

The spectacle of watching rather two old horses running neck-and-neck in the race to get the guerdon of being the helmsman had a déjà vu air about it. The focus was on good ole Joe Biden refusing to leave the race despite showing signs of a faltering neural network.

But the shot, which rang out at the Trump rally has introduced a whole new aspect to this game of thrones.

Not to make light of this grave and shocking situation, a golfing meme places Trump one ‘shot’ ahead of Biden. The sympathy wave for Trump because of the close call is a distinct possibility.

From being vilified as a ‘convicted felon’ by the Democrats, Trump now is gaining shades of heroism amongst his followers and perhaps sympathy even from fence sitters.

Ironically, Trump has been a big supporter of the gun lobby. And has denied time and again that the many horrifying attacks on school children and mall shoppers in America are because of mental health and societal issues and not because of the easy availability of guns.

Purportedly, even Mathew Crooks was bullied mercilessly by his peers in school and he could be carrying the mental scars even now. He was denied entry in the school shooting club because he was a very bad shot, mercifully for Trump.

But this attack with a near fatal shot should shake up the pro-gun lobby that life can't always be ‘guns and roses’. So time for Trump to bite the bullet and address the gun-control debate afresh to tamp down gun-happy Yanks. Alarmingly, nearly one third of American adults own a gun.

The television debate debacle in which Biden’s articulation, or lack of it, made even dyslexic Trump sound better. So the alarmed Biden supporters and admirers urged him to step aside in the interest of the Democratic Party and the health of the nation.

George Clooney, the actor and a staunch democrat, in an open letter, bordering on a billet-doux, confessed his love and admiration for Biden’s shining record. And yet he urged him to drop out in favour of a younger Democrat.

Many more, including some PACs (political action committees) like Future Forward, are freezing campaign donations after seeing Biden’s weakened focus. Rather worried that with Biden losing his grip, this may turn the situation to a ‘future backwards’.

Amazing that gerontocracy rules in a land with a robust youth demographic, a magnet for the young globally to chase their dreams in a land of opportunity. The American Dream, people of a liberal mind-set think, will turn into an American nightmare if the brash and rash Donald occupies the White House again.

Tricky Trump managed to trick death by a whisker and an innocent man attending the rally paid with his life. This attempt on his life has given more fodder to his acolytes to believe more fiercely in the narrative that the liberals are hounding a man who should preside over the destiny of this great country.

The attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, mounted by some fanatic Trump followers was the result of dog whistles encouraging violence. Trump’s propaganda platform, ‘Social Truth’ is far from the whole truth.

The far right Republican supporters continue to be gaga over the slogan , MAGA (Make America Great Again), adapted from an earlier one. This paranoid stance to make America insular will only rob the country of its vibrance and its image of a land that’s been a great melting pot of civilisations and cultures from lands far and near.

Societal polarisation, whether political or religious, if fanned by demagogy creates a forest fire that singes everything in its path. This advice is to be heeded by India and other countries too, where civility in politics is expunged at the altar of vote catching.

Ushi Kak aka Kashpundit, is an author who revels in wordplay and satire couched in humour. At times she deviates into gravitas. Views Expressed are the writer’s own.