Gradualist Papers

Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election surprised people with its timing. The logic of it is impeccable though. She is an accidental Prime Minister and faces a challenging few years ahead. It’s assumed she’ll win a landslide against a weak and divided Labour Party. This is probably the case. For Labour, it’s looking like a massacre. Yet Jeremy Corbyn might stay on. There’s mixed fortunes for the other parties. One issue should dominate; Brexit. But it may be the usual bread and butter issues that come to the fore, as well as trust in the leadership of May and Corbyn.

This should be plain sailing for the Conservatives. They are an average of 15 points ahead of Labour in the polls. Even allowing for massive slippage between now and Election Day, they’re still in target to get at least a comfortable 50 seat majority, with the possibility of a plurality of 100 seats or more. She’s up against a Labour Party that seems unable to gain any traction with the electorate. Her core issue of competency is a sure fire winner. Nobody thinks Jeremy Corbyn is likely to be walking into Downing Street. The real works begins with the new majority. She’s got the twin headaches of Europe and Scotland which will take up most of her time as Prime Minister. When she turns around with a deal that disappoints the Brexiteers – as it surely will – then her problems are bigger than party management and political ones. They are existential issues for the future of the British state.

Labour are in big trouble. It’s hard to see any good coming out of their performance. They could lose heavily and still have an ineffective leader at the end of it all. This is the election that could break the party. If the losses are sufficiently catastrophic, the non-Corbynites might decide that Brexit can only be challenged by forming a new party. The structures currently in place make it almost impossible to depose Corbyn. Only a candidate with his blessing can succeed him. Twenty years after the 1997 Labour landslide, Labour are in dire straits.

This should be a comeback election for Tim Farron. They are coming back from their disastrous performance in 2015. They will be targeting Tory and Labour ‘Remain’ voters. The potential is there for big gains. Farron has already ruled out any coalition post-election and this positions him as well able to capitalise on small ‘L’ liberals disillusioned and still angry about the turn of events since last year’s referendum. In some ways, Farron is this year’s Ed Miliband; unexciting, solid, and trustworthy (if not quite seen as Prime Ministerial material). More of London and the South should be turning Liberal Democrat yellow. If they don’t get at least 20 seats plus, it will be a hugely disappointing outcome for Tim Farron.

North of the border, this is Nicola Sturgeon’s second general election. Independence is back on the agenda now. One of the unthought-of out consequences of Brexit is the resurgence of the Scottish Problem, one entirely self-inflicted by the Brexiteers. Sturgeon is coming from such a strong position that, for the Scottish National Party, the only way is down. They are, however, expected to hold their own. Despite the Scottish Tories in resurgence, the SNP are in a powerful pole position. Brexit is not popular in Scotland, to put it mildly.

UKIP really doesn’t need to exist anymore. Arguably, they’re the most successful one-issue political party in the last 200 years. Yet they’re staying one. The system is against them. They are the true inheritors of the collapsed Far Right vote. It will be extremely difficult for UKIP to get even one seat in the First Past the Post electoral system. While this is grotesquely unfair, it’s no harm that a Hard Right Nationalist party fails to make a political breakthrough. They’ve got what they’ve wanted. Their legacy is indisputable. They’ve also poisoned the political ground and been shown to be utterly irresponsible about their country’s and their voters’ long term interests. If they fade away, they will be doing the democratic process a service.

The 2017 will see no TV debates between the two big party leaders, few surprises, and a grim reaping for the Labour Party members who refuse to accept the reality that Corbyn is leading them into political oblivion. The Liberal Democrats will go hard in Brexit and it’s right and proper that they should do so. Bigger issues are at stake than the size of Theresa May’s majority. Britain is definitely leaving Europe. The European Union will miss them. But Britain should be under no illusions about how difficult the road ahead will be for them. Theresa May’s problems are just about to begin.

Article 50 has been triggered. Two years from now – and this still seems surreal to write – the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland will no longer be a member of the European Union. It has been a long time in the making (both the fermentation of anti-European sentiment and the inter-interregnum between last year’s referendum and yesterday’s letter of discomfort) and the divorce proceedings have now formally begun. What started as a fringe movement in the early 1990s has now reached its zenith. The phony war is over and the clock is now remorselessly ticking down.

The thing about the future is that we don’t know what’s round the corner. Try planning two years ahead. The main problem for Britain post triggering is uncertainty. What happens if the global economy starts to tank? Is there then a facility for suspending the negotiations? Will the renewed push for Scottish independence take on its own momentum as voters in Scotland react to the hypocrisy of a government from London saying ‘do as I say, not as I do’? As a consequence, will leaving the EU out of pride and shame at the refusal to admit a monumental mistake of accepting a non-binding referendum be the end of the United Kingdom?

If you read the Tory Press, you’d be forgiven for thinking that countries around the world are queuing up to make trade deals with Britain. The Rabid Right say they’ve taken back control. Fine. The mess is theirs now. Yet the tabloids, UKIP’s leaders, the right-wing blogosphere and the ‘head-banger’ element in the Conservative Party are in the ascendant. They have won. Most of them won’t feel the effect of job losses, recession, inflation, racism or a shrinking of the welfare state. They’ve won. And they’re not getting over it.

Reality, though, being what it is, has a tendency to bite. Germany has already dismissed any talk of parallel negotiations with the EU. The next two years are about packing up your stuff and getting out. It would be better for all if we remained civil. But you’re the one who wants out. We’re not going to make it easy for you. Oh, and by the way, settle your bills with us before you go. Don’t let the door hit you too hard on the way out, Bye. Donald Tusk’s reaction as head of the European Council was different in tone; the outcome may be the same though.

Perversely, the Tory Right are now dependent on the World becoming more chaotic (or, in Silicon Valley-speak, ‘disruptive’. The Brexiteers (and, sadly Theresa May too) have already reached out to an authoritarian and corrupt White House regime. They hope to deepen ties there. Fantasies about new global trade deals, 19^th Century style, abound. There may be some arrangements made. But now is not the time for the 27 remaining EU members to be picked off. The ‘Leavers’ need a Le Pen win in France to keep their dream alive. They are beckoning the darkness.

Theresa May’s position is not good. She is either a captive of the Right, an enthusiastic convert to their world-view, or someone who’s been a ‘sleeper’ all along. She seems to believe – as do the hapless Team Corbyn – that European Union membership is an incidental detail. Once the exit procedures have been agreed and the new relationships established, Britain can revert to politics as normal. Neither she nor Jeremy Corbyn get it, there is no taking back control. The four freedoms that will be needlessly abandoned mean that it is hard to see how there’s a win in any of this for Britain,

And the loss isn’t just economic. It is cultural. The absurdity of the likes of an Australian-turned-American Billionaire and a public school educated city trader trying to claim that ‘elitism’ has been vanquished, is all too apparent. Britain is as much a part of Europe as Ireland is. The Empire ended nearly 60 years ago. London is one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. But to listen to Brexiteers, they want to turn the clock back to the supposed good old days. Well, surprise, surprise, the world has moved on. The Brexiteers haven’t. The more pig-ignorant of them are proud of that.

Donald Tusk’s tone was apposite. It could have worked out if the other party had given it a go. They’re not even sure if they want to leave. But the European Union can’t hang around waiting for someone to suit themselves. The relationship, as it was, is over. They will probably be friends now, possibly even good friends. The partnership is finished though. So long, Britain. You’re not going to do any better. I feel sorry for you. Look after yourself. We’re now going to go our separate ways. It is the end of the affair.

‘The Nazis, A Warning From History’ is being repeated on BBC4. The timing could scarcely be coincidental. We can’t say for sure where the World is going over the next few months and years. But it could easily take a turn for the worse while authoritarianism is making a comeback. Remember the past, recall the Santyana phrase, and look not to how we are condemned to repeat history, but how we can walk into a time where dictatorship and atrocities become more likely, not less. Comparisons between Trumpism and Nazism have been made before. These are my observations passed on re-viewing this landmark series.

The othering that the Nazis did with Jews, Slavs, Gays and Gypsies, was intentional. It was a racism stemming from something deeply dark in the heart of man, that became a useful tool for seizing power and establishing the Third Reich. Othering was essential to the Nazi ideology;  leading Nazis were both racist and used racism to advance their cause. Some of them were less fanatical than others in their belief in racial superiority, but all signed up for it. Albert Speer may have been a soi-disant aesthete; he also caused the cruel death of thousands in the V2 programme.

Hitler was indolent. He often spent afternoons watching Hollywood movies. He was frequently unable to give his subordinates clear instructions. His administration of the Reich was characterised as chaotic. Ministries clashed with each other and the SS and Army were frequently at logger-heads trying to implement a vague instruction or command. He liked to claim he was constantly working for the Greater Germany, but frequently ruled from the comfort of his alpine retreat, the Berchtesgaden.

The Third Reich drew on the experience of Lenin’s Soviet Union in realising the importance of propaganda. The Nazis exploited the relatively new media form of the cine-reel and cinema to maximum effect. The production quality varied from disgustingly crude, to the retrospectively nauseatingly beautiful cinematography of Leni Riefenstahl. The Nazis used spectacle and performance to solidify their reputation among the working and middle class. Lies became truth, and truth lies, as the state became more totalitarian. The Third Reich banned Press freedom, dissenting journalists were lucky to be marginalised; they were more likely to be rounded up, or ‘liquidated’.  By the late 1930s, Josef Goebbels was pushing against an open door.

The Nazis implemented public works projects. This appealed to their base. Their electoral support had started among the recently impoverished German working class. Many were content to avert their eyes on the desecration of Jewish property, confiscation of wealth, and eventual deportation to the camps, for the ‘ordinary Germans’ (and there had been real suffering during the Weimar era) were now gainfully employed in the factories, and building the autobahn. The Nazis were ‘National Socialists’, and the public works schemes put thousands of the ‘Volk’ back in employment. Hitler himself had little time for economics. ‘The People’ were prepared to accept a viciously racist government if meant the economic good times were back.

War became central to the Third Reich. The rolling back of international treaties, most notably Versailles, allowed them to prepare for military conflict, which became inevitable following a massive re-militarisation of the Fatherland. Many Germans had bought into much of the ‘stab-in-the-back’ claim around Versailles and were now proud to see their country reclaiming land that they had been told was rightfully theirs. What better way to rally a populace than to go to war, a war that would end in the immolation of the state and the death of millions.

Other countries were either naive in their reaction to the rise of the Nazis or in denial about the extent of the threat posed. This unwillingness to stand up to authoritarianism was rooted in the reaction to the slaughter of the ‘Great War’. War with Germany was to be avoided at all costs, even if it meant allowing innocent third-party countries to be intimidated or invaded. Hitler knew that if international leaders were unwilling to oppose him, he would have a free-hand both nationally (definitely) and internationally (probably). The World woke up too late to what was coming at them.

‘The Nazis, a Warning from History’ shows what happens when a madness takes hold of a body politic. Licence is given to what was previously verboten, the lunatics take over the asylum, and humanity itself is endangered. These aren’t warnings from another era; there are living, breathing Nazis out there, and living, breathing people who paid the price for the madness of fascist delirium. Every generation will throw up the ‘Strong Men’, the ‘Caudillos’, the Autocrats. If we don’t stand up and protest, call out when the new normal is no longer normal, then who are we to turn around when there is nothing left?

‘Alarmists’ and ‘Realists’

Trump doesn’t do pivots. He doesn’t do nuance. He never did and he never will. Yet there seems to have been genuine surprise and shock felt by many well-meaning but ultimately misguided individuals who cautioned and patronised the ‘Alarmists’ who warned of what was to come. However it’s looking like the Alarmists have a better take on what’s happening, and the potential of what could happen, and that those who shouted that if Trump was elected, the American Republic was in mortal danger, have turned out to be correct. The scale has tipped to him being more like a Putin than a Berlusconi. The ‘Realists’ have got it wrong.

The Realists have the following arguments, each of which have either fallen by the wayside or come under extreme stress since the Presidential Election. In the run up to November and before the Inauguration, there was the ‘He’s a politician; he’s just playing politics’ line. Then there was the ‘He’s not really racist, he’s just being Populist’ thread. And lastly, we have the claim that ‘there’s too many checks and balances to allow him to implement his programme’. A cursory look at each of these talking points will show us why the Realists were wrong.

A stunted personality with a totalitarian mindset has so far done a lot of what he promised to do. He told us he was going to introduce ‘extreme vetting’, he bragged that he wanted to build a wall, his surrogates vowed to fire anyone in Washington who got in their way. All these things are on record and have been since at least June 2016. Remember what you’re dealing with.

The second point, about him ‘just’ being a populist is a simple so what? The effect of discriminatory legislation and executive orders are the same whether he believes in them or not. Although he’s an exceptionally dim man, he has enough cunning to sell stuff he doesn’t really believe in. Yet, he is in thrall to the Extreme Right. Judge a man by the company he keeps? Damn straight.

The point that the Republic is resilient enough to survive what’s happening is addressed in more detail below. But it is the complacency with which the Realists used this line in the run up and aftermath of November that is breathtaking. They dismissed the move by the Hamilton Electors to deny a would-be dictator the Electoral College vote, ignored the evidence of Russian hacking and corruption, and underplayed Trump’s grotesque character defects. They still have faith in a system that named an Extreme Right-Wing Lunatic as President. What happens if and when he changes the shape of the Supreme Court in his favour?

Call it as it is. Authoritarianism has arrived in America. The coup was in full view, except, apparently, to a cadre of blind-sided commentators who thought that there was a way through this, that although he would be Right Wing, he could be checked and balanced from within. As argued below, the he can be stopped, but it will take a colossal effort.

Stopping a Tyrant

The Resistance will come from four main groups: the Democrats, Protestors, the Courts, Internationally. There must be a consistent application of all four to have the desired effect,

Nothing will come from Congressional Republicans. They’re gone, sold out to the dark-side, evident since the Senate refused to confirm Merrick Garland. So it’s up to elected Democrats. Oppose everything. No co-operation. That includes you, Bernie. You don’t take any pork or crumbs from Trump’s table. You refuse to ratify any of his proposals. You filibuster. You block. You do everything you can to explain to that mythical beast, the White Working Class, that they’ve been conned but you don’t pander to their racism. You are the new Tea Party.

The Women’s Marchers will keep going. The airport protests will continue. Anytime there’s a threat to civil rights, it needs to be protested. That goes hand in hand with Congressional, State Legislature and Local Political activity. Protest does not have to just mean marching; it can be organising, phoning your representative, engaging in debate with your friends and neighbours.

The Courts have been and will have to be used for emergency stays, habeas corpus, you know, the basics of the Constitution. The ICLU is going to be stretched but there is capacity there. Support them, if you can. In relation to the first two points, Sessions and Trump’s Supreme Court nominee must be opposed as far as is possible. The Courts can be a bulwark to tyranny.

Yes, internationally, America’s friends need to step up. That means co-ordinated EU statements and action against this rogue administration. It means calling out Bannon interference in the French and German elections. It means working with democrats (small ‘D’) to uphold human and civil rights.

Trump is a bully. Once his power is challenged, he is vulnerable. He can be stopped. It won’t be easy. But then, fighting authoritarianism never was.

It has been the strangest of years and ends with the closing of one presidency and the dawning of a frightening New Age. When Trump takes over as President in less than three weeks, there is growing concern that he does not have the mental stability to function at this level without causing potentially cataclysmic damage nationally and internationally. The question to be asked  is why President Obama didn’t act sooner on the now confirmed allegations of Russian hacking?

Obama’s on-record statement on why he delayed action can be taken at face value. Simply put, as he said at his final, strangely disjointed, White House Press Corp conference, he judged it the greater risk to be accused of interfering in the election process as a partisan, than ramping up the investigatory process. But, we also have to accept the administration’s off-record briefing that they did not expect a Trump win. There has been some significant pushback in the past few days, notably on the US upholding a Two State solution for Palestine/Israel, and Obama’s expulsion of Russian diplomats over espionage and hacking. It may well be too little, too late.

Barack Obama believes in the strength and integrity of the US political system. That while it may be sorely tested in the coming months and years, it is resilient enough to survive a mercurial and dangerous demagogue. So in the dying days of his second term, he thinks if he embeds an incoming Trump administration with enough sanctions and pro-democracy actions, he can make it very difficult for his successor to steer an authoritarian, pro-Russian course. It is the idea of the poison pill that aims to prevent a disaster after January. Trump, the theory holds, will spend much of his term – whether truncated or not – fighting off impeachment. Or, that Donald Trump will come to his senses. POTUS more or less said this when he said that the weight of the Office imposes its own responsibilities.

This may not amount to more than wishful thinking. When Trump gets sworn in, he will have every arm of federal government within reach of his tiny hands. Why should a Republican Congress perform a volte-face when they’ll be more than happy to score policy wins for an Ayn Rand agenda? Why wouldn’t Trump seek to place arch-Conservatives on the Judiciary, including the Supreme Court? Why would a White Nationalist like Steve Bannon suddenly change his spots? Putin is right to hold his fire on retaliation. Whether it be on Twitter or through surrogates, Trump simply doesn’t care how his critics see him. Why should he? He’s the top dog and all others can bow down before him.

But sanctions against Russia and the publishing of a compelling, bullet-proof intelligence report on Russian interference in a US election to favour one particular side – Trump’s – will also help to de-legitimize the incoming regime. This is important in itself. The mantra ‘This is not normal. None of this is normal’ needs to be chanted daily by all democrats of a small and big ‘d’ variety. There’s nothing that was normal about how Trump won. The Russian involvement is more than enough to invalidate his legitimacy. Add up all his other failings, hatreds and gargantuan conflicts of interest and you have a man who shouldn’t be within spitting distance of the Office.

Yet he will be installed as the next President of the United States. His Lowest Common Denominator campaign could not have succeeded without the craven support or failure to speak up of so-called moderate Republicans. They should hang their heads in shame, if they are still capable of feeling that emotion. The Barbarian is at the Gates now and good luck to his enablers who think they can ride this tiger. He shows no inclination other than to eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is ingrained in his nature. He is a cruel, humourless, stupid man, incapable of the empathy required for democratic politics.

Trump was able to capitalise on a line of racism that’s run through the US since the Civil War. There been peaks and troughs, but you take Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the backlash against Affirmative Action, and finally the apotheosis of a Black Man making it to the White House, and you see how there’s been a hard-core of racism at the root of much conservatism since slavery. He has been the evil Shaman, digging up spirits that have their roots before the 1860s. Those demons will not be easily exorcised. Van Jones was right; this was Whitelash. Or, as pointed out; not all Trump voters were racist, but all racists voted for Trump. The Republicans are not a party of Neo-Nazis, but all Neo-Nazis were supporters of that party’s candidate in November. We – Citizens of the World as well as Americans – are right to be terrified of what could be coming down the road.

Yet there is hope. There is hope not from the Paul Ryans of this firmament – although the capacity to change is a strong one in humankind. There is hope though, from the nearly three million voting plurality that Hillary Clinton got over her opponent. There is hope that if people stay strong and trust civic arms of protest and resistance, that the oncoming fire can be resisted. There is hope that younger voters will carry on with their optimism and rejection of hate. There is hope that the bully can be brought down because once stood up to, they tend to buckle. There is, for us all, in America, and outside, the guiding light of the audacity of hope.

It was a bad night for democracy and a good one for demagoguery, racism, misogyny, ignorance and fear. Trump’s win in the Electoral College has seen a flood of analysis and opinions trying to explain, understand and normalise such a result. This was not a normal Left/Right contest. The US and the world are significantly less safe now and the next few years will test the limits of democratic politics in the US and elsewhere. There is hope but it will take all the resources of those committed to liberal democracy to fight back.

Economics did play a role. But not a simple one. Many rich people voted for Trump knowing he’d probably make them wealthier. There was, though, a significant ‘Blue Collar’ vote for the Republican candidate. Despite good economic numbers during the Obama years, there remains a part of the heartland who missed out on the recovery. No point in trying to say that Trickle Down Economics has made their lives miserable over the last 30 years;  they were angry and didn’t want to listen. They lashed out. They heard the voice of a ‘saviour’ and they were prepared to put their trust in a uniquely unqualified individual.

Trump’s  racism throughout the campaign was gross. Calling Mexicans ‘rapists’, pandering to the worst elements in a divided society, refusing to take his responsibilities seriously, and offering religious discrimination as security policy, all made him a grotesquely unworthy Presidential candidate, let alone President.  There’s a ‘John Birch’ core in America that never accepted a black man as their Commander in Chief. The election was payback time for these racists. Let the aphorism be repeated that was said after that fateful Tuesday night; not all Trump voters were racist, but all racists voted for Trump. The party of Lincoln has never fallen so far. American politics is broken.

Sexism was a cause of Secretary Clinton’s defeat. For many Trump voters, they just didn’t care that their candidate seemed to admit to serious sexual assault. Hillary Clinton was subject to some vile abuse. Too often, the facile pseudo-machismo of her opponent was contrasted to trivialities of her demeanour or tone of voice. Trumpers loved this. They’d believed the years of online scuttlebutt and anti-Clinton hysteria. No matter that their own hero said some of the vilest things, even if he believed them or not.

False equivalence in the media was flagged throughout the campaign and really hurt Hillary Clinton. So for every Trump outrage, every mocking of a disabled reporter, every foreign policy statement inextricably linked with the Kremlin’s point of view, what did we get? We got Hillary Clinton’s wretched email server  – for which the FBI Director should hang his head in shame for distorting the race  – and more innuendo about the Clinton Foundation. So, an opponent who refuses to disavow the KKK is treated as just as reprehensible to one who has no legal stain to her name. And he threatens to jail her. It would have been unbelievable if it hadn’t actually happened. Heads up, some of Trumps supporters were deplorables.

Oh, how cool you millennial non-voters are. Yeah, Trump and Clinton, they’re just the same. Try fooling yourself on that one as the most right-wing and brutish government in modern American history prepares to take the reins of power. Watch how the courts are stacked and rights you took for granted are taken away from you and  your friends. That’s reality. If you couldn’t be bothered voting, or voted for a third party in a swing state, don’t expect a special hearing from those that saw this coming down the line and repeatedly warned you.

Ignorance is sweeping the body politic. Whether it be the rise of fake news, or the lamentable return to gullibility in populist easy fixes, it has never been easier to use lies to attain high political office. It’s not just a vast swathe of Americana that would believe anything. Look at how the Brexiteers are suddenly discovering that there is a price to be paid for populism. Encouraged by a diet of propaganda for years, it has become de rigueur to line up with the loudest guy in the room.

There are huge fears for domestic and foreign policy. It is impossible to give Trump the benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise. If the US is lucky, lucky!, he will turn out to be a Berlusconi, lining his and his cronies pockets in a kleptocracy the likes of which you’ve never seen in a democratic country. Then there’s a worse case scenario. Egged on by White Supremacist, he begins to dismantle democratic norms. He becomes a Putin. Russsia takes notes and slices & dices the Baltic Republics, full EU and NATO members.  He aids and abets the National Front in France and they take power. It is a nightmare scenario; but it is more than plausible.

The United States is an imperfect democracy but one that has a residue of institutional strength.  The risk is just too great that this will not endure the next four to eight years.  The Electoral College should come into play. It should recognise that Secretary Clinton got two million more votes than Trump. It should perform its constitutional duty and elect a suitable President. If this doesn’t happen, and there’s no swift resignation or impeachment of Trump, let’s just hope, for all our sakes, the US gets a Berlusconi, and not a Putin.

FBI Director James Comey made one of the, depending on your perspective, most ham-fisted, or biased, calls ever in a Presidential race to terrify all decent Americans and most global citizens. Hillary Clinton is still the overwhelming favourite to be the next President. But Friday’s events, when America’s top cop broke all precedent by saying the Democratic Party front-runner still – as far as he’s concerned – has questions to answer indirectly related to the investigation into her email server, sent a shiver down the spine of supporters of democracy. The Department of Justice is reportedly furious. The FBI comes out of this really badly. Comey seemed prepared to run the risk of a fascist entering the White House on the back of for what at worst will turn out to be a misdemeanor by Mrs Clinton.

That’s the core of the issue. This false equivalence, believed by millions of Know-Nothings, that Trump’s singular unsuitability for the top job, his panoply of disgraces, displays of arrogance and ignorance and the genuinely serious criminal allegations against him, are somehow balanced by a so far non-story about former Secretary of State Clinton. As observed by other commentators regarding this forced weighing scales approach, you can not compare the apples of political maladministration and unfounded accusations of influence peddling with the oranges of everything this monstrous creature running for the Republicans has ever said and done.

Let’s consider just two of the big headline issues against Trump. Firstly, nuclear weapons. This bloviating thug, this slimy id-driven moron, wants to be in charge of the nuclear trigger. Talk all you like about the US balance of powers, if he wins, he’s the man. Sitting in the Oval Office or Situation Room as an international crisis explodes in some corner of the world. How do you feel with Trump in charge? Terrified?

Or secondly, the end of the US as we know it. It’s the day after the election, and it’s a narrow Trump win. The racial attacks have started. It is the country of the White Nationalist Alt-Right now. They’ve won. Their guy is now running the show. The violence comes thick and fast. Trump opponents, such as his ‘Art of the Deal’ ghost-writer Tony Schwartz will have fled the country. Breitbart goons with keyboards will now be directing operations as America becomes a police state. This won’t happen overnight. But it will happen. Think this is an exaggeration? Nixon was a ‘cuck’ effete liberal compared to The Donald. Calling some of Trump’s mouth-breathing supporters ‘a basket of deplorables’ was unfair on both baskets and deplorables.

These two scenarios are – thankfully – unlikely to happen. It’s likely that Hillary Clinton will win on Tuesday 8^th and become the first female President of the United States of America. This is to be welcomed not only for her saving democracy – only! – but also for her own qualities and policies which have been overlooked because of the madness of this campaign.

President Obama has said on several occasions that there’s never been a candidate more qualified for the position of POTUS than Hillary Clinton. To have been both Senator and Secretary of State and to have served in both roles with distinction is an accomplishment light years beyond the self-aggrandising her opponent has spent all his life doing. She has the intelligence and stamina for the role and has shown a commitment to political service that will stand her well as President.

Clinton will put gun control at the centre of her administration. Donald Trump doesn’t care if there are more Sandy Hooks, she does. She will increase taxes on the super-rich, her opponent won’t even publish his taxes. She will maintain an economic stimulus approach, while Trump promises everything and nothing. And Hillary Clinton believes in man-made Climate Change, Donald Trump says that’s a hoax. You can go through the list. She is the national and right choice for Progressives.

Next week, after Tuesday, the FBI should go on record as to how far down the road they are on investigating Trump for treason. They should throw the book at him. He should face the full rigour of the law. But he – in a true test of liberal values – is entitled to due process. FBI Head Comey did not treat candidate Clinton fairly last week. Senator Harry Reid has gone as far as to say that Comey did this on Trump’s behalf. This may or may not be so. Whatever the motivation, it was shockingly bad wrong move by the Feds.

This won’t sway the election. But it will remind people of the choice. Any remaining fence-sitters, who must be few and far between, must heed President Johnson’s words from 1964:

“These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.”