A great day has arrived!

It is all over!

Congratulations to Joe Biden who has been elected as the 46th President of the US.

Barring successful legal challenges or electoral recounts that change the initial result in some states before the electoral college meets on 14th December 2020, the US has finally removed Trump as their President.

There are not enough words to describe Trump but here are just a few for starters ....

Trump is a vile, obnoxious, bigoted, authoritarian, divisive, confrontational, deranged, delusional, undisciplined, thin-skinned, racist, sexist, misogynistic, sociopathic and narcissistic individual.

Trump is pathetically immature, clueless and dangerous.

Trump is obsessed with his own self-image and personal interests. 

Trump consistently attacked and undermined democracy and the rule of law and whipped up extremist tensions. He continues to do so by refusing to accept the result of the election and concede to the winner.

Trump's daily incoherent and rambling insults, mistruths and conspiracy theories from the White House or via Twitter for almost 4 years set an appalling precedent and he sanitised dishonesty, vanity and abuse.

Trump is not, and never was, worthy of holding the great office of the President of the US and he most certainly isn't "a very stable genius" or "a political genius without parallel in world history".

Some people have suggested that at least Trump provided some entertainment and amusement. That might be the case if his responsibilities were not so enormous and the problems facing the world were not so critical.

However, finally, it is now possible to say with great joy ....

President Gerald Ford said “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over” when he took over after Richard Nixon’s resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal in 1974. Those words are as true now as they were then.

Joe Biden took on the worst President in US history at 77 years of age during the Covid-19 pandemic and its tragic consequences for so many American people. He fought a dignified and clean campaign despite all the provocation, bullying and lies from Trump. He has won the presidency with the largest popular vote in US history. That is likely to exceed 80m votes when all the counts have concluded. Hardly “the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics” as claimed by Trump!

"Make America sane again!"

The grown-ups are finally back in charge! It is now time for the US to get out of its isolationist and nationalist bunker, to restore its reputation and to re-engage with the rest of the world as a leading internationalist and global player, especially in working in partnership with other nations in respect of tackling the climate emergency and massive biodiversity decline and extinction and in eliminating the Covid-19 pandemic. Welcome back.

Apart from dealing with the challenges of the domestic US agenda, not least the Covid-19 pandemic, Joe Biden clearly recognises the threat of the climate emergency and he has put forward an ambitious $2 trillion plan to have a carbon-free power sector by 2035 and invest in a green economy. He has also pledged to rejoin the Paris Agreement Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (also called the Paris Climate Agreement or COP21), the international treaty adopted in December 2015 which aims to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming and which the US officially exited on 4th November 2020, the day after the election. In addition, he has indicated his intention to rejoin the World Health Organisation.

But ….

Trump has lost with more than 70m votes, almost 10m more votes than he won in 2016 and the second highest total in US history. More Americans voted for Trump to have a second term than voted for Barack Obama to have his first. Unfortunately, that shows there is a huge coalition for his type of appalling populist politics and the end of Trump will not be the end of Trumpism or the Trump cult. However, Trump has been defeated and in doing so he becomes 1 of only 4 incumbents in the modern era not to earn another 4 years and he has become the first President to ever lose the popular vote in consecutive elections.

There is another great concern. Unfortunately, it is almost inevitable that Trump will demonstrate no honour, dignity, grace, decency or self-respect in defeat. Trump has already refused to concede. Whilst this is not a legal requirement, it does create some uncertainty around what happens between now and the Presidential inauguration on 20th January 2021 when the US constitution is clear the President’s term ends. Whilst Joe Biden has won the election, thanks to the way the self-styled greatest democracy in the world works, the US and the world will have months of Trump whining and moaning that his second term was stolen from him. Even more worrying is the potential for Trump, as a vengeful lame duck incumbent, to act like a wrecking ball and to be quite willing to cause a great deal of chaos and damage. We could see the biggest political temper tantrum in history.

As one commentator has noted: this is like winning the World Cup in November, then having the losing captain use it as a toilet for 3 months before finally handing the brimming trophy over to you in late January.

There are also implications arising from the result of the US election for the UK and other nations. In recent years, populism has been a dominant force in world politics and Trump has undoubtedly been the loudest and most obvious representation of it. Trump has been beaten by common decency and that is a big moment for the world. It shows that bad and incompetent people should not be rewarded when there are good, decent and competent alternatives available.

It is a big moment for the UK. We have the self-proclaimed “World King”, mini-Trump, faux-Churchill wannabe, a Prime Minister who stumbles from avoidable debacle to foreseeable disaster. The Johnson-Cummings team will probably be delighted that a fake, lying populist campaign can still garner a lot of support and win elections and thereafter enable a subversion of democratic norms. So will the other populists such as Jair Bolsanaro in Brazil, Narenda Modi in India, Scott Morrison in Australia, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Jarosław Kaczyński in Poland and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey .... oh, and some chap called Vladimir Putin in Russia.

There is an alternative and better way. Just witness the very recent success of the hugely popular and respected Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand. There has been so much bad news and bad politics around in recent years and Jacinda Ardern’s victory has demonstrated that there is still a place for strong, clear empathetic leadership and a leader who displays emotional intelligence, kindness and a genuine interest in people.

Now we have a complete change of direction in the US and hopefully the tide is beginning to turn and the other populists will also ultimately be swept from power to enable an internationalist and co-operative approach to the world’s problems. 

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature