U.S. presidential election (22): how did it come to this?
In an article in today’s “Observer” newspaper, the prospect of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate against Democrat Hillary Clinton causes sheer amazement:
“The bombastic, swaggering, sometimes vulgar billionaire has stunned the political world, plunged the Republican party into civil war and, among the pundit class, relegated the prospect of the 240-year-old republic’s first female president to a footnote. His success has also unmasked a Disunited States wracked by fear and anger and fractured by class, culture, race and educational attainment. The outside world, overjoyed by the election of America’s first black president just eight years ago, is asking: how did it come to this?”
Trump vs Clinton ought to be a slam-dunk – as the Americans would put it – for the Democrats, but the “Observer” piece contains a warning:
“One chilling statistic for Clinton stands out: more than 8 million voters took part in the Republican Super Tuesday contests, while the Democratic turnout was around 5.5 million. This is an almost exact reversal of the figures in 2008. Obama and Trump have absolutely nothing in common except their power to enthuse. What Clinton and Trump share is a power to inspire hatred and mobilise votes not for themselves but against each other. “Hope and change, not so much,” former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said, referring to the coming Clinton campaign. “More like hate and castrate.” “