Last night, Meg appeared to be soundly asleep and I got to bed at about 11.00pm. Later in the night, I got up and idly turned on Sky News only to be greeted with the news that Donald Trump had been shot and wounded in one of his ear lobes at a Republican national really in Pennsylvania. Images soon emerged of Trump bloodied but unbowed fist thumping the air and shouting ‘Fight! Fight!’ These images of a bloodied but not seriously wounded ex-President are like manna from heaven for the Republican cause and already the iconic images of the ex-President on his feet and not seriously wounded are dominating the airwaves and, no doubt, social media as well. Sky News to its discredit managed to get hold of two rabid Trump supporters who immediately blamed Joe Biden, the Democrats and the (liberal) CNN network for the shooting. They were so foul-mouthed that eventually Sky had to cut them off. The gunman himself had climbed onto the roof of a neighbouring building, was spotted by some of the rally participants but who used a semi-automatic rifle to fire a volley of shots – he was almost immediately shot dead himself by Secret Service snipers who identified the direction of fire. As I listened to the news and digested the implications of it all, it became clear to me within seconds that this would hand the White House directly to Donald Trump. My initial thoughts have been confirmed by subsequent political analysts on both sides of the Atlantic. One of the most thoughtful of the American commentators has made the point that all of the Trump supporters will be energised to come out and to vote for their wounded hero whereas the reverse is probably the case with Joe Biden. So this will be enough to edge the vote in several of the key swing states without a single voter changing sides as it were. But it is also quite likely that several uncommitted or wavering voters will now certainly vote for Trump and I read today that after Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in 1981, his poll rating went up by 8 percentage points. The dead gunman has been identified as a young man who was a registered Republican voter which ought to scotch some of the conspiracy theories that the Democrats has master minded the entire assassination event. In the hours and days ahead, more might emerge about the motives of the would be assassin but having been shot dead by Secret Service snipers needless to say he was unavailable for questioning. So it was a heavy heart that I eventually trundled off to my bed knowing that we shall see the slow but sure progress of Donald Trump to an almost certain victory and I ponder what this might mean for our own security, the future of Ukraine and goodness knows what other bloodletting will now take place in a deeply polarised USA. Joe Biden has done all of the right things phoning Donald Trump who he called ‘Donald’ and as one might imagine there is universal condemnation expressed by the world’s political leaders. In a moment of sadness, I am driven to reflect that when members of the American ‘left’ are shot they tend to be fatally wounded (JFK and his brother Bobby, Martin Luther King) but when members of the political right are shot at they tend to survive (Governor Wallace of Alabama, Ronald Reagan and now Donald Trump) You have to conclude that those who try to shoot left-leaning leaders are better shots than those who attack right wing leaders. Amongst some of the blood curdling analysis following a Trump re-election, we have the following. According to one analysis, a resurrected Trump will ‘energise the left which could lead to massive civil unrest and possibly deaths — particularly if he tries to make good on his threat of mass deportations. It is possible that Federal agents are deployed to towns and cities to do the job, but many of them flatly refuse to participate in what feels to them like a modern-day re-enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act. They are joined by Democratic mayors and hundreds of thousands of Americans who are willing to form human chains around homes and neighbourhoods to keep the agents out. But Trump does not back down, and governors in red states call out the National Guard to break through the protests. Many are hurt, some are killed, and riots ensue.’ This may sound to be over dramatic but there is a feeling that we have not seen anything yet and a further Trump presidency, bolstered by the Supreme Court in its pocket, will ‘go after’ those perceived to be the enemies of the nation i.e. anyone who does not subscribe to the ‘Make America Great Again’ narrative.
After breakfast, we received a phone call from our University of Birmingham friend and were delighted to go down and meet up with him in Waitrose. It was a beautiful day today so after our coffee, Meg and I and our friend went to our favourite bench in the park so that we could enjoy a breath of fresh park air. After that, we made our way up the hill just in time for the late morning call from Meg’s carers after which I needed to crack on with lunch. We had the second half of a beef joint cooked some weeks ago and preserved in the freezer and ate this alongside some spring greens and a baked potato. Then I settled Meg down in front of one of the ‘Pilgrimage’ programme that we have seen before (the journey through Portugal to Fatima) but Meg can hardly remember it from the first time we viewed it so this was worth a second viewing. Today, I have been informed by the care agency that they cannot supply a second helper to help to put Meg to bed this evening so like last night, I am obliged to be a second pair of hands. There is actually quite a lot to be done in the ‘putting to bed’ routine so I am not a particularly happy bunny about all of this. Tonight, of course, the Euro Finals are to fought out between England and Spain which I fully expect England to lose. So after we have got Meg put to bed, I shall have to arrange our little portable TV by Meg’s bedside and watch the match from there although it is always possible that Meg may fall asleep halfway through the match. The pubs across the nation have been given permission to stay open until 1.00am so that the English nation can either rejoice in the England success or, more likely, drown its sorrows.
© Mike Hart [2024]