The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has caused shock waves, but it’s sadly not surprising this would happen, with so much hate and vitriol being expressed in the US presidential race.
The New York Times published this article about Donald Trump a few days ago: ‘A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the republic. A man whose values, temperament, ideas and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great’.
‘Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him…’
Despite this condemnation of Donald Trump, this assassination attempt is likely to create a wave of sympathy and even more support for him. If he were to be elected, it would have dire consequences, not just for the American people, but for the world and for action on the meta-crisis, including the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
Trump versus climate
As leading climate scientist Michael Mann says, ‘A second Trump term is game over for the climate’.
Plans for his next term are detailed in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a second Trump administration. It’s a horrendous 900-page program that calls for extreme right-wing policies on every aspect of American life. It plans mass deportations and politicises every aspect of federal government, giving Trump control over the justice department, and cutting entire federal agencies, such as the department of education. It infuses Christian nationalism into every aspect of government policy.
The polls are likely to swing wildly over the next few weeks.
To win, Biden needs to be several percentage points ahead of Trump, because the Electoral College distorts the value of votes, giving much greater weight to votes in smaller states where Republicans dominate.
George Bush won in 2000, even though Al Gore received over half a million more votes. Trump won in 2016, even though Hillary Clinton won nearly three million more votes.
If Joe Biden stays in the race, as he appears determined to do, he would lose on current polling, but anything could happen between now and election day.
Aussie election looms
At home, Anthony Albanese faces an election soon, probably early next year now, as the current polls are not favourable.
The Senator Payman saga stole the limelight, and drew attention away from the tax cuts.
He didn’t get the bounce in the polls he would have hoped for. In fact, the 19th century Labor policy of not allowing MPs to have a conscience vote has damaged Labor.
The Gaza tragedy is a potent electoral issue, and not just in Australia. UK Labour lost four seats to independents standing on the issue.
Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour leader, was expelled from Labour over his alleged antisemitism. Nevertheless, he won his Islington seat back as an independent, with 50 per cent more votes than his Labour opponent.
The UK election result was called a landslide, yet Labour won only 35 per cent of the vote and conservatives 24 per cent. Liberal Democrats had their best result in over 100 years, and Tories the worst in 300 years. Greens won four seats despite the UK’s unfair first past the post system.
A similar earthquake took place in France.
Psephologists gloomily predicted far-right candidate Marine Le Pen would grab a majority of seats.
Squabbling parties on the left got together and formed an instant coalition, New Popular Front (NFP), and secured more seats (188) than Macron’s Ensemble, (161), pushing the supposedly resurgent hard-right National Rally into third place with 142 seats.
The NFP and Ensemble must now work out which candidate would be acceptable for Macron to appoint as prime minister. It’s not impossible Greens leader, Marine Tondelier, could become PM.
Another political upset that could have profound consequences for world peace and the women of Iran is the election of moderate, former brain surgeon, Masoud Pezeshkian, as president.
His reformist ambitions may be somewhat curtailed by incumbent supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who has been there for 34 years, but significant reforms may be introduced nevertheless.
Fears about the rise of the far-right have been somewhat quelled by these results in the UK, France and Iran.
Fortunately, Australia has compulsory voting and a preferential system. Independents and minor parties have a real chance of electing significant numbers of MPs and may well hold the balance of power in both houses after the next election.
That would be good for democracy, and hopefully speed up urgently needed reforms to address all aspects of the meta-crisis.
♦ Richard Jones is a former NSW MLC and is now a ceramist.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
