REFLECTIONS NOVEMBER 2021

 

Having been away from the blog since March  I can no longer ignore the noise, the cacophony of catastrophe, mixed with the pungent smell of decay. Representative democracy, with all its faults and inadequacies, still the healthiest of human accomplishments, now exposed for the fragile creature that it always has been. Of course, people outside the anglosphere, from Argentina to Zimbabwe have known this for a long time, whilst Europe needs no lessons on the dangers that are ever ready to pounce from left or right. However, here in the UK and across the Atlantic, cocooned in complacency and cultural hubris, - such frailties only threatened ‘lesser breeds’ – we have felt inoculated to such threats. After January 6th and the attack on the Capital you might think people could no longer remain blind. You would be wrong.

The recent success of Republicans in Philadelphia demonstrates either an
indifference to these threats or more worrying an indifference to the survival of representative democracy. US democracy is already so flawed, from the way in which highly populous states like California and New York underrepresented in Congress, the malign impact of the electoral college and legalised gerrymandering, that some may have cynically concluded that the battle is already lost. Consequently, January 6th may not be the turning point that many in the pro-democracy camp hope it is. Everything hangs on the 2022 midterms. If a pro-Trump Republican party governs the House and Senate, it is difficult to see a way back. American democracy, always based on the hubris of exceptionalism, may enter its death throes.

Just a short mention of the odious Mr Bannon. It is, of course, cheering that he is facing contempt proceedings, however the shadow cast, from his pre court rants to his ham belligerence to the prospect of doing time, is the shadow of the fascist/Nazi playbook. He sees himself playing the role of right-wing martyr, champion of the ‘volk.’ And he believes he will win. He despises Trump and the Trump sycophants, but in Trump he sees the vehicle to imposing his White nationalist goals. He thinks he will not do serious jail time, though I suspect he will take any sentence as space to write his creed in book form, My Struggle suggests itself as a possible title.

Here, do I dare hope that Johnson’s spell has finally been broken? The grubby corruption of the Tory Party is not new, it is as old as the party itself. What is new is the brazen manner it is conducted, coupled with lying on an industrial scale. This is the ‘in your face’ stage of Tory corruption. The exposure and spotlight will only be shining for the barest of moments, it must be maximised. The trick with a man like Johnson is that when he finds himself in trouble keep feeding him rope. Soon I hope to witness the spectacle of the man not joking but drowning.

This is the first in a series in which I hope to relaunch the blog.

 

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