The Incomprehension of America by Europeans
It is justifiably remarked by foreigners with much irritation that Americans are ignorant of cultures beyond their own shores. The same aspersion could be made of foreigners, especially Europeans, with regard to America. For instance, in view of his achievements in foreign affairs, the amoral French found the impeachment of Richard Nixon incomprehensible.
The British, America’s greatest ally, are no less ignorant and stupid. I recently began listening to two seemingly intelligent pundits in Britain hoping for some impartial intelligibility with regard to the current political carry-ons in Britain.
Welcome to The Rest Is Politics’ emergency podcast on the Biden-Trump debate with me, Rory Stewart, and me, Alastair Campbell. I fear, Rory, it is an emergency. It's a real emergency and I mean it. It's shattering, absolutely shattering.
These British pundits have pretensions of providing noetic insight concerning America to their local audience, supposedly because they have connections with insiders across the pond.
But therein lies the first problem. For the Versailleans by the Potomac and Hudson have been and continue to be disdainfully oblivious and negligent of the populace over whom they govern. Consequently, these Versilleans were almost uniformly shocked by Trump’s victory in 2016.
There is reasonable chance that while Hillary Clinton may win the popular vote by up to 2%, Donald Trump may squeak through an Electoral College victory.
The day before the November 2016 election, I called for a Trump victory in the electoral college, although losing the popular vote. I was almost a “Hebrew prophet” in terms of the toss-up states by which Trump would achieve that critical 269 + 1. However, Trump lost New Hampshire by the second closest of margins (0.37%). And I missed Wisconsin which Trump won, also by a close margin (0.77%).
Like Michael Moore, who also anticipated the penetration of the Trumpian Blue Wall in the Midwest, I was an outsider, even a foreigner (Canadian), looking at the American scene from Dostoyevsky’s “Underground.” For if one wants to see clearly, even if this is not particularly profitable in terms of white picket fences, one must be situated from outside and/or below.
Like most of the effete elites and/or those on the Progressive side, Campbell and Stewart were “shocked” by the revelation that Biden is genuinely non compos mentis. The abundant and accumulating evidence, attesting to this reality for some time, was deemed to be hackneyed and massaged video clips by right-wing propagandists.
The effete elites often claim that the reason that the great unwashed vote for populists is because they limit their information exposure to one side of the political continuum (i.e., Fox News). I do not contest that aspersion. In the era of Walter Cronkite, when intellectual integrity and impartiality were still held as journalistic ideals, there was sufficient basis for the common man to limit their exposure to a few new sources in most cases. Who has the time to glean and collate from the partisan propaganda on Fox, PBS, SCMP, RT, DW, France24, Al Jazeera, the Jerusalem Post, and various social media outlets some approximation of current realities on a daily basis?
However, the effete elites are just as guilty as the great unwashed of practices, which lead to confirmation bias, dismissing evidence contrary to the gaslighting by their own socioeconomic and ideological champions, as attested by the supposed realization that what was said by the Right was true.
At the recent G7 summit, when Biden appeared to wander off, it was not the roaming which was the give-away. It was the reaction by the leaders of other G7 nations to disguise this social faux pas, especially by Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who ironically is one of those “radical right-wing extremists.”
The current and deep contempt for the effete elites by the commons is partly fueled by denying that which is right in front of our noses. But if the great unwashed are lacking in high IQ (and educational credentials), they are not necessarily lacking in EQ (emotive or psychosocial quotient).
Indeed, there may be an inverse relation between IQ and EQ. Consider Neville Chamberlain, for instance. There is not a necessary and immutable inverse relation between head and heart. But those, who seem naturally endowed with one, tend to idolize that one and denigrate the other. Hellenist misogyny, contributing to the Greek Vice, was largely premised upon the notion that males were naturally rational, females naturally passionate.
And [Hillary Clinton] said that [Donald Trump] has an animal instinct. And I think the animal instinct, that he picked up very, very quickly, was that Biden is not in good shape here and almost the more he talks and the more that the focus is on him the better it's going to be for me.
In 2016, Joe Klein labeled this “animal instinct,” the “lizard brain . . . the most primitive part,” betraying that long disdain among Western elite towards the passions and, consequently, a lack of psychosocial intelligence. Mere IQ suffices in order to be good philosopher, application programmer, and engineer, etc. However, capable political leadership requires a balance of both IQ and EQ. The “rational” Hellenists (and modern French) were incapable of achieving enduring social cohesion and civic peace while the Romans achieved a fair measure during the early and middle Republic.
It is one reason why Trump and others of similar ilk run circles around the hapless elites.
When Contempt and Detestation Become Planks in the Eyes
Trump who, whatever else he's got, and we both agree he is a vile human being.
The detestation of the effete elites towards Donald Trump is not largely premised upon his prevarications, over-the-top bluster and braggadocio, or the “morals of an alley cat.” Biden has, likewise, engaged in prevarication and braggadocio. Bill Clinton and JFK were likewise lacking in sexual self-control, yet not receiving the same opprobrium.
These same effete elites scorn the religious (i.e., Obama, Hillary Clinton) and moralistic, hereby speaking from both sides of their arse.
It is not that I deny the ethical assessments concerning Trump, even anticipating them before they became common parlance in political discourse.
I watch bemused the gladiatorial spectacle of Donald Trump from afar. He is, without doubt, a thuggish buffoon with the subtlety of mind of a solid cube; who pummels through prudence, rationality, empathy, civility, tact and virtue like a rhino in heat. He is the “ugly American”, raised to the third power, whose simpleton appeal to imbecility, confirms democracy’s devolution towards a Confederacy of Dunces.
– August 24, 2015
Yet, Trump’s corruptions are “middle class and tame” in comparison to the many rogues throughout history. Obama killed far more innocents in territories against which no war was declared.
The detestation of the effete elites towards Trump is primarily classist in nature, not only due to aversion towards his lack of cultural sophistication and to a general optimates condescension and disdain for the “basket of deplorables.” It is also due to the potential threat of such self-declared tribunes of the people against the existing political order which serves these effete elites alone.
Consequently, assessments of Trump by Campbell and Stewart and those of similar ilk become contorted and distorted. Trump’s wild polemic, which so agitates the effete elites and, indeed, is partly intended to do just that, also served to keep America’s geopolitical adversaries off-balance. It is mostly for effect. His threats to NATO were his form of bullypitting the Allies into paying their fair share of the common defense. While the street smart Trump can hardly be deemed a philosopher king, his intuitions have often proven correct.
I've always been loyally defending Joe Biden, his record will come through, etc.
“For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” are among Christ Jesus’ aphorisms. It does not entirely mean what most think it means. It speaks to “every careless word,” revealing understanding, conviction, and intent.
Why should a Brit feel the need to loyally defend Biden. How can an impartial and accurate analysis be expected by those who instead engage in advocacy?
I am often bemused by this same loyalty among the Canadian working class towards Trump. But whether Republicans or Democrats are in power, this declining American empire has and shall continue to be increasingly egoistic and duplicitous in the myopic defense of its self-interests. America is not and no longer pretends to be the first among equals. This same duplicity, often leading to atrocities, was evident in the last century of the declining British Empire.
Due to proximity and inordinate connectivity with this behemoth, Canada will be at the forefront of America’s flailing crossfire and suffer accordingly. Our national self-interest lies in rapidly disconnecting from this behemoth and its toxicities, even joining BRICS and acquiring nuclear weapons to defend against potential American aggression. Our culture is at such variance with that of the Americans, we have no interest in being a part of their Anschluss.
In the praise of Biden’s record, Alastair Campbell’s demonstrates prejudiced ignorance and stupidity. I declaimed Trump as the third worst of American presidents to warehouse workers. They, of course, brought up Biden. I said that Biden was either the worst or second worst to James Buchanan, the president whose folly became catalyst to the first American Civil War.
The sole criteria of the greatest current urgency is how each of these politicos deal with imminent civic conflagration, which I have anticipated since the late 1980s and published such premonitions, well before Trump arrived on the scene.
I have long believed that the United States was on a trajectory to civil conflagration since the mid-1980s. This was based on the existence of an irreconcilable civilizational-level ideological chasm, which could only widen, deepen and sharpen as the corollaries of each side’s cosmological perspective played itself out in the sociopolitical arena. The problem is not so much in the gulf in ideas; but in the arrogance of each faction attempting to impose their ethic and ethos upon the other and the anticipated antipathetic reaction of the other.
Both Trump and Biden have not only been neglectful, but in being caught up in the fury of the times, have exacerbated and accelerated this descent into civic hell.
But Biden has additionally hastened the collapse of the Pax Americana and the geopolitical decline of the West. It did not take rocket science reasoning or a theophanic revelation to expect that on the heels of America’s ignominious retreat from Afghanistan in August 2011, which also left its allies in a lurch, there would be further Russian aggression into Ukraine within six months. Many saw it. Living historical precedent attests to it (Bay of Pigs fiasco à Cuban Missile Crisis). One large difference, however, was JFK’s mea culpa after the fiasco. The hubris of contemporary American politicos admits of no fault.
In order to recover from the previous fiasco and meet an immediate exigency, Biden’s administration sacrificed America’s “exorbitant privilege,” its reserve currency status by abusing it beyond measure. The mere wish of foreigners to unhitch from the American orbit has now become motivated necessity. Considering the lack of monetary and fiscal discipline in the U.S. these last many decades, loss of reserve currency status shall result in American economic collapse of yet undetermined seriousness.
The Biden Replacement Theory
Let’s imagine that there is a kind of Machiavellian Democratic party strategist, who's hovering in the background. The Machiavelli in me says, is it possible that person or people thought we know the truth about what's going on. We know that actually Joe is not going to be able to stand up to the riggers of a really horrible presidential campaign. If we get him out early in a TV debate and the public see what we know, maybe we can actually make the change that needs to be made.
One often encounters speculations on both sides of the pond that, seeing the electoral calamity to Democrats which would ensue Biden’s candidacy, some backroom geniuses contrived to embarrass Biden via an early debate. Based upon the evidence these last eight or nine years, evidence of any such Machiavellian genius departed from the effete elites long ago. EQ, which Stewart and Campbell scorn, could have and did predict that the indictments against Trump would electorally backfire. It was evident to EQ common sense that the debate format, which was deliberately designed to advantage Biden, would instead clip Trump’s worse intrinsic tendencies and thereby benefit him. Democrats, the party of the effete elites, keeping falling into the traps they lay.
The stupidity and folly of this theory can be demonstrated by relatively recent historical precedent. Seeing the electoral writing on the wall, LBJ resigned his efforts for a second term on March 31, 1968, giving other candidates six months to prepare for the next election. Like now (re: Bowman versus Latimer New York congressional primary), there were palpable divisions between radical and moderate wings of the Democratic party.
For Democrats, the only thing worse [than] going into Election Day with Joe Biden on the ticket, is Joe Biden leaving the ticket and the absolute cannibalistic chaos the will surely ensue. This is why Democrats will likely stick with their plans of an early virtual nomination, ram through Biden, and hope something, anything breaks their way.
With much less time to prepare for the next election, if Biden voluntarily resigned so late in the game, whose narcissistic hubris wrought this partisan calamity in the first place, it would unleash the same public display of anarchic schism within that faction. Even Democratic operatives privately note, the shrewd time to ditch Biden was by late 2023.
TINA (There Is No Alternative)
There are some good people there. People talk a lot about Gavin Newsom, governor of California. There's some other good people that could come in.
Even Democratic politicos anticipate the political implausibility of a Newsom candidacy, a Californian Progressive in an inherently right of center culture/society during a time when the Western zeitgeist is rightward. One can anticipate the attack ads against this Trudeau Junior of the south, full of performative inauthenticity. Biden’s doddering, freezes, blank stares, and verbal incoherence would be replaced with more lurid videos, of Hooverville tent encampments but on city streets, of dying fentanyl addicts and open defecation, of free-for-all looting of retail stores. The optics would be even more resonating to the populace and delicious for the Republicans.
The truth of the matter is that Democrats, and Western Progressives in general, are lacking in viable candidates. I, myself, would have favored a Joe Manchin candidacy, one of the few politicos who might keep America from tearing apart. But I have wondered if this Senator from West Virginia has that “animal instinct” necessary to protect his wards against the wolves from within and from without.
Even Biden was ever a poor candidate. Biden did not beat Trump in 2020 contrary to Biden’s braggadocio. Even a head of lettuce could have defeated Trump in 2020, courtesy of Trump’s disastrous handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Indeed, Biden’s closeting in his basement during the election season serves as proof of this aspersion.
Concluding Remarks
The patina of intellect and factual knowledge often disguises a dearth of understanding. This is quite evident in this “emergency podcast” by Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell. I previously thought that these pundits could shed some light on the current British sociopolitical situation. But by having shown an absence of insight on a matter of which I am more knowledgeable, I have good reason to believe that these “know nothings” have an absence of insight on a matter to which I have far less knowledge and understanding. Goodbye.