It's Joe

It was not worth waking up at three o'clock on November 4th to monitor the returns of the US-2020 elections. As stated in my social appraisal of President Nobody-ever-done-this before Trump, I looked forward to the results hoping to see an end to the phrase ‘Fake News’ coming from the White House. On the eve of the US elections, a Cape Town grandma sent the following text message to me; “If he (Trump) wins I swear I will refuse to say or hear his name … ever !! Thanking that gnome in the sky that we live in Africa.” She wasn't alone. I was on pins and needles as the polls closed, and it worsened as I awaited the confirmation of results from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona. Had I known it would take four and a half days, I wouldn’t have interrupted my sleep.

But even with Biden's win, still concerning is what to make of the over seventy million-strong support for President Donald Trump. That is more than the combined population of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Botswana. I cannot imagine what the autocrats around the world must have experienced as the various electoral maps turned blue. Perhaps their television remotes run out of charge. From my end, I almost regretted staying up to monitor the results when Florida was projected for Trump.

70 million-plus isn't a small number. For the Democrats, the result may be a political win, but morally it is quite a big loss. I will not be the only one viewing any American over the age of eighteen as possibly among the 70 million-plus who voted for Trump until proven otherwise. I view them as those aligned with the thinking that our countries are shitholes. And my few American friends will also need to prove they weren’t part of the armed supporters filmed at various centers purportedly poll watching.

As per American electoral laws, Joe Biden has secured a win despite Trump and his team rejecting the outcome. Having declared himself the winner much earlier from the East Wing (at a 2 am press briefing) flanked by supporters, and calling for a stop to vote counting, I hope I am wrong to suspect that this is far from over. I'm not oblivious to Republicans retaining control of the Senate as some run-offs are expected, this will test Biden’s ability to unite Americans. The Republicans retaining control of the Senate further weakened claims by President Trump of massive rigging by Democrats. Why would the ballot thieves allegedly hired by Democrats only steal for the President and not Senators and Congress candidates?

There is still a rough road ahead for the Biden/Harris administration. The damage done in the past four years will not be easy to fix. Several vital American institutions are so dented they will need more than a casual panel-beating to rehabilitate. And the list is long, from CDC, EPA, FDA, DoJ to racial and social justice. The immediate attention should, however, go to rehabilitating the US relations with the World Health Organization and a return to Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

His reign further showed the weakness of American institutions that were unable to push back against the abuses of Trump and his administration. And a Supreme Court that he perceived as his protection agency.

All in all, it shows the lack of education and shallowness of the majority of Americans that live under a false consciousness. All their lives, they buy into this false narrative and a sense of nationalism of America being the best and the greatest even though they are being screwed by the elites.

And immediately after calling the election results, media pundits started that narrative of American values and world leadership. The values are not deeply entrenched if the last four years were any indication. And being able to out bomb and outgun every other country, does not make one the greatest nation on earth despite having ripped babies from their immigrant parents and overseen forced inhuman gynaecological surgical procedures on immigrant women.

Is this what a new world order looks like? Would this be the end of insults to women from the White House? I can only answer the latter - the suburbian women are workers in their own rights and merits and did not need to be enticed with assured jobs for their husbands.

It will be interesting to watch how Trump behaves from now until January 20 when he is due to leave the White House; how much misbehavior would he be allowed to get off with? The one-term president must be worrying about his fate outside the protection of the White House. The New York Attorney General is waiting in the wings with civil action and so are the prosecutors from New York Southern District and perhaps with handcuffs. Social injustice protestors (Black Lives Matter) are watching to see how the police detectives would execute any warrant for Nobody-ever-done-this-before Trump and family. Just a few days ago, Trump danced to a tune labelling President-elect Biden and his family as criminals.

No Candidate has ever done this before. The Don’s attempt to scatter democratic electoral process. The Capos are not delivering the correct and right message to the Don: "Boss, we hate to tell you this, but some people are saying, 'that is not the American way', don't worry it will be ok and we are with you all the way as long as it doesn't include lockup."