THE coverage of Monday’s inauguration of the 47th president of the United States was yet another bizarre insight into the modern workings of American politics.
Seeing former presidents either laughing out loud or looking horrified in the background, as the incoming commander-in-chief Donald Trump gave his speech, would have been very amusing if it wasn’t so worrying.
If one wants to know how divided the US has become under Trump’s erratic leadership, one need only look at the goings-on during that bizarre event.
At various times during the speech – which was shocking in its negativity – members of the hand-picked audience rose to applaud, hollered in agreement, or shouted their support for the first US president who is also a convicted felon.
But on several occasions, outgoing president Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris felt they could not rise to the occasion – literally – and remained seated while those around them rose to gratify the speaker.
To think that a man who thought it was acceptable to sexually assault women has now risen to the highest office in world politics – for the second time – says a lot about the state of the world and its moral compass today.
There was so much to process in that speech that it will take a long time before the true extent of Trump’s intentions are digested.
While he attempted to call himself a ‘peacemaker’ he, in effect, declared war on so many elements of society, that this moniker for himself was reduced to a joke of vulgar proportions.
He declared war on current immigrants, on potential immigrants, on members of the LGBTQi+ community, on non-US citizens, on science, and even on Mother Nature herself.
His by now familiar catchcry of ‘Drill, baby, drill’ is the equivalent of signing the death warrant of millions of people around the world, who will perish in the floods, storms and heatwaves of the future, caused by the consequent acceleration in climate change. It will also threaten biodiversity and increase the need for expensive flood relief schemes and climate migration.
In short, his obsession with ramping up the extraction of fossil fuels from the earth will inevitably hasten the planet’s demise.
The race to Mars, which he appears so proud to platform, will add further pressure to the now almost pitiful attempts by other nations to limit carbon emissions – as he seems hell-bent on allowing mankind destroy another planet.
As was very obvious in the machinations of the tech giants in recent weeks – falling over each other to fall into favour with the incoming president – and their positioning on the stage with President Trump last Monday – there will now be two camps in America – those who agree with Trump’s world vision, and those who do not.
If you are in his camp, you will be protected by him for the next four years – and who knows after that. If you are not, you will need to have a thick neck and a strong constitution to inoculate yourself against the propaganda that’s coming your way.
Is it very hard to understand how democracy has been so badly pummelled in the last decade. If anyone had any doubts about the threat to that, just look at the pardons extended by President Trump to those who attacked the symbol of American democracy itself – the Capitol building – in January 2021.
The message that sends to the world is that it is okay to violently attack the centre of US politics if you don’t agree with the result of an election.
We are now in a very dangerous place in world politics. The extremists have their hands on the tools of power.
Many people are saying they can’t watch or read the news anymore.
But it is incumbent on every single one of us to know what is happening in our world. Who does – or doesn’t – wield the power. And if we are seeing a threat to democracy itself, then it is time we spoke up and called it out for what it is. Do not stop reading or watching the news. Inform yourself. Know what’s ahead and how we got there. But when you are reading the news, take care it is from a reliable source. And that is not news which originates on the internet. As our own George Bernard Shaw opined: Beware of false knowledge, it is more dangerous than ignorance.
Yet another storm arrives
THIS weekend the country is bracing for a Status Red storm warning with the arrival of Storm Eowyn. It will bring strong winds, heavy rain, high seas and potentially damaging gusts. As predicted by climate scientists, each year brings more storms, and the storms are getting more violent. We are bad at linking weather forecasts with the damage we are inflciting on our planet. But the time is coming when we will need to radically change our climate-damaging habits in order to curb some of the damage the climate is imposing on us.
