Trump the Double Loser

The horns of Trump’s defeat are resounding louder than the merriment of Biden’s victory

By Martin Guevara

HAVANA TIMES – Most US citizens were terrified of four more years of this constant hostility and poisoning of social, family and professional relationships, forming a rift, which we know only leads to the destruction of the foundations of living together in harmony, and as a result, the growth of any country.

But this wasn’t every US citizen. On the other side, there were a vast number of people who believed that Trump was like a kind of Fidel Castro, for different reasons. A person who would come save them from the claws of corrupt politicians, who can’t be removed from their positions, their businesses, their duties.

While this comparison might seem somewhat surprising, the closest social phenomenon I can find, in my own memory, is that of Fidel Castro. He was the only one I had ever heard say, before Trump, that: “whoever isn’t with me is against you, go out and crush them.” Managing to sway his supporters flawlessly, although the reasons might seem different at a surface level.

In Europe, we compare the US far-right that managed to unite behind Trump, with different European countries. While there are differences, they share the same identity mindset. We usually commit a serious mistake.

In Europe, it’s true that US influence has led to other movements growing recently, that don’t stem from fascism. However, generally-speaking, they owe their ancestry to the defense of the elite, the monarchy, xenophobia, discriminatory nationalism. In the US, what we call the far-right encompasses a far greater range of groups, compared to European parameters, and they are all anti-Communist.

To some extent, the most extreme groups come from 19th century racist organizations, even slavery organizations. Later on, they would stem from an anti-communism that confirmed national identity every time Communism presented a threat from abroad. It wasn’t a domestic movement that had the slightest chance of reaching power. Unlike in Europe.

Most small far-right groups in the late 20th century and today, defend a strong US, national industry, which identifies both with Western conquistadores and the native population. Fans of ranches, horses, native animals – such as the bear, wolf, coyote, mustang, royal eagle and the puma -, guns, money from a hard day’s work. Resistant to anything modern in habits, new attitudes and behaviors, tolerance and diversity.

Religious in true Old Testament style, where God wasn’t a source of Good or reason, but of power, and leaning more towards “eye for an eye” than Christ’s “turning the other cheek”. Model public figures on the Right, such as Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal, are strongly attracted to the most indigenous culture, US natives, and Norris even says he is proud of his Cherokee origins.

This differs greatly from the structurally racist Right against non-white ethnicities on the European continent. Then, there’s something else that the Cold War added: the Cuban community in exile in Miami, which has made Trump’s racist statements against Central Americans more their own, this time. He gave them the opportunity to feel superior to a group of their own standing, for they are both Hispanic immigrants. However, Cubans were even granted greater rights, more so than a British citizen even, and they are able to legally reside in the country. Ironically, this came thanks to the enemy they escaped, the Cuban Revolution.

Cuban Trumpism, which is composed of mixed races commonly found all over Latin America, presents a widely-seen characteristic of deeper racism, which is just as explicit as it is ridiculous.

In addition to these groups, protagonists of the greatest riots in recent years, more present in the past two months, and its climax in the attack on Washington’s Capitol, there is a huge group of people who are disillusioned with traditional politics. Who have seen how a job used to be enough in their country to live a more than comfortable life, but this is no longer possible even with two jobs.

They have followed the siren’s song and drunk the magical elixir of an unbalanced fantasizer, who, nevertheless, had the power of conviction needed to assure them that “even if I were to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City, I wouldn’t lose a single voter.”  Something that was yet to be seen right up until his defeat at the polls, and even immediately after, as he won a record number of votes as a Republican candidate, which was exceeded by people afraid of his crazy antics.

The monstrosity that was an attempted coup, egged on openly by Trump himself, and secretly after subversive extremists, was nothing more than a continuation of this figure’s growing rage. Unique just as much as he is toxic, Trump has been fabricating his madness day after day, ever since his iconoclastic presidential campaign in 2016, insulting the physically disabled, Mexicans or women, and praising armed insurgents in Michigan.

Then, his senseless accusations that somebody could have introduced eight million fake votes under the noses of everyone working in the elections, got the masses behind him. Even when not a single institution – FBI, CIA, police, army, Senate, Congress, or a single judge – gave a shred of credibility to his claims. He spun a huge web which exploded with his most violent supporters storming Capitol, while congresspeople were in the middle of an electoral vote counting debate.

Let’s remember that the first countries to recognize Biden were Germany, the UK, France and Japan, models of Western and Eastern capitalism; while those who were reluctant and continued to support Trump were AMLO, Putin, Xi Jinping and the Prince of Saudi Arabia.

Will Biden, or Kamala, be the best thing for the US and the world? Probably not, but as long as they return a certain climate of normalcy, of harmony, and make us forget the megalomania of a compulsive liar, who like his own mother implored, should have never got mixed up in politics, this will be the best gift we can get this year.

No matter what happens, all of the poison he’s injected into the US won’t bleed away overnight. However, Trumpism isn’t the same without a central stage in power, to play the exact opposite: a victim. Especially having lost an indispensable element for being a leader within US culture, after so many defeats that have been widely-covered by the press: the shine that reflects the image of a winner.

We know that if he were to shoot passers-by on 5th avenue, he might not lose many voters, but if he has to carry the crown of a “double loser” for four years, it’s likely that even his most hardcore fans won’t vote for him.

Read more from Martin Guevara here on Havana Times.