MJ Akbar
IN October, Edward Lucas of The Times, London, spent a week in the eggshell with “foreign policy wonks”, all of whom believed Trump would be an apocalyptic disaster, and none of whom took up Lucas’ suggestion that they check with voters living in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state just 90 minutes’ drive away. Whoever he spoke to was busy. Lucas went. He discovered, as he wrote in the October 21 edition of his paper that the Kamala Harris headquarters was “worryingly short of volunteers”. The bustle was around the Trump stall selling baseball caps reading ‘Jesus Is My Saviour, Trump Is My President’. Independent voters, the only category he quoted, believed that Harris had been hopeless on their biggest concern, illegal immigration. They dismissed Harris as “a weak candidate with a weak record and weak messages, wildly overpromoted, boosted by a fawning liberal media and a sinister, duplicitous, leftwing Democratic political machine”.
Harris was never elected by her party, as is the American way. She was anointed by the Obamas and party hegemons like Nancy Pelosi on the assumption that anyone could defeat the dustbin candidate. Harris had impeccable credentials in their estimation; she was obedient and could be trusted to leave all decisions to grown-ups like the Obamas while she presided over the residual ceremonies. Now that voters have done what they do, Democrat patriarchs will blame America for the result, never themselves. Mr and Mrs Moses can do no wrong. Alas, they will have to wear a bandana for the next four years to stop the stench of Republican “garbage” from affecting their delicate nostrils.
Politically incorrect
Trump went out dancing after his last speech of the 2024 campaign because he knew he had trotted around a largely hostile media to reach the White House. An electoral majority is the sum of many parts. His main base was the politically incorrect male, white and young American. They were the principal battering ram against the establishment, aided by supplementary groups who joined an impromptu alliance for disparate reasons. Independent voters, who constituted 31 per cent of the American vote this time, voted 54 per cent to 43 per cent for Trump according to early indications; the final figure could vary but I doubt by much. Latinos, once expected to serenade Harris to the White House, shifted in good numbers to Trump because inflation did not exclude them from its whiplash. Harris lost at least 10 per cent of the black vote that had backed Joe Biden in 2024. Arab Americans in Michigan turned away from Harris despite Trump’s strong support for Israel because they wanted to punish the Biden administration for duplicity in its decisions on Palestine and the Gaza Strip. They deliberately wasted their vote on a third candidate.
Delayed reportage
There were non-political indicators of the result. The price of Bitcoin rose by 3 per cent since Trump has promised to legitimise this outlier currency. Or you could have checked with the American gambling company Betfair, which was telling punters Trump would win. In London, British bets went heavily in favour of Trump. British gamblers, second only to the Chinese in their dedication to a flutter, were certain that Trump would win Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina, or five of the seven swing states, which means they were better informed than Big American Media.
Any television channel could have foretold the result by 7 am Indian time, by the simple methodology of reporting leads. But some kept delaying reportage in the hope that an unexpected miracle would shift the emerging pattern. They refused to recognise Republican gains in the Senate elections, happening simultaneously, as part of the Trump effect. When the battle was lost and won, Trump, who got three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016 and seven million less than Joe Biden in 2020, had over five million more votes than Kamala Harris. After all the preceding tension, this became an earthquake without tremors.
Johnson’s book
The exemplary impartiality of one VIP in the media stands out amidst the usual plethora of anecdotes that emerge from a tumultuous election campaign. In London Boris Johnson was hired by Channel 4 for commentary in the glorious company of Stormy Daniels. Johnson refused to promote either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. Instead, with commendable dedication, he concentrated on promoting his latest book, until, according to a newspaper report, he was ‘fired’ for talking about his book and holding it up for viewers to see the cover so they could rush out and buy a copy. As Moses might say: Amen!
