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The biggest heist on earth

November 5, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Wednesday, 4 November, 2020: at this time of going to press, we don’t, in fact, know the results of the American election. The last note from the CBC is that Biden has 234 electoral votes and Trump has 213. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan are under the microscopes of the world, watching for every nuance, every single vote – they hold the key to the White House.

Leaders do use emotion to govern the populace; they run on the presumption that emotion is stronger than intellect and, by and large, that proves true- otherwise, why would people throw themselves into dire danger by going to war, or to a protest march where harm is very likely, “peaceful” or not? Any action against something, someone, will likely be met by a similar or greater reaction, logic dictates.

Last night and this morning, Donald Trump, at present behind Biden in the electoral college, is declaring himself the winner. “I don’t want to see them finding ballots at four o’clock in the morning,” said he. “The count should stop now.” 

Standing in front of the White House, “We’ll go to the Supreme Court -” which the Republicans just packed- “and insist they declare we won.”

People who voted for him praised his difference; claimed that when he said he would do something for them, he did it. He put money in their pockets, they told reporters – cared for the little man .

“He loves this country,” said a young woman into the microphone held for her by a press person. “If he loves this country so much, why wouldn’t he make the best leader?”

No matter: this very moment when a President of the US demands a stop to ballot counting; stacks the Supreme Court to make him President, regardless; has a complete disregard for what he said last week or two minutes ago; lies; misinforms; encourages militant white extremists; breaks the law for all to see; on and on. 

Yet, he is perceived as having been good for the economy, putting money in people’s pockets; loves his country.

This morning, the coronavirus infection in the US stands at 9,699,823 with 238,716 deaths, the toll delivered by the Trump administration. That sounds pretty emotional but he dismisses it continuously by his own weird encounter with it: who else could only have COVID-19 for three days? By his insistence that it is no big deal, that it is nearly over – “just around the corner…”

Okay, well, half the American population, more or less, have voted for him and I blame the Democrats for this because the only person they could find to run against him was 77-year-old Joe Biden, a nice guy, not a champion and, in this pivotal election, the American people desperately needed a champion.

Over the last four years, the Democratic Party could not find and bring forward a person of worth, of intelligence and integrity, a person who could communicate with Americans across the board, who would have dealt with a pandemic by listening to science and facing the problem with honesty. This sounds like Joe Biden, but his age is a problem. He could have been the perfect mentor for a younger man. Three hundred and thirty million people and Joe Biden was the best the Democrats could choose.

If Trump has won by the time this column is in print, and the results should all be in by Thursday, if Biden survives the pressure of this campaign and the wait for results, the hammering from Trump and the need to stay awake to urge for calm from Biden- if he lives through it, he will still have four chaotic years to face. If Biden is seen to win, those years will be an even greater challenge, starting with the troubles over the transfer of power, which Trump has vowed to resist.

Here’s hoping the stretch of time it takes to resolve the final tab will be time enough to let some hot heads cool and the turbulence threatened by a Biden win will peter out.

Then, there is the risk that, as an unruly and raging Trump leaves the White House, he is arrested for his many crimes, about which he has been so cavalier. 

There are obvious dangers for Canada if Trump wins or not. As long as we remember it is their election, not ours, the tendrils of reaction will not creep over the border. We stand with an administration, a central government that is calm and rational; we are extremely lucky that our history and inclination have led us to run our land with reasonably good balance and we need to make sure that the irrational, emotionally based politics we see to the south and in many other countries does not make a foot hold to how we vote.

Let those tactics be stopped in their tracks if we ever see a sign of them in our own leaders or would-be leaders.

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