Who is the president, dummy?

The title of today’s blog is a paraphrase of Bill Clinton‘s successful 1992 presidential campaign slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid“. Trump is already using reverse psychology by projecting his own failures onto Joe Biden by claiming “that Biden couldn’t revive the economy, defeat the virus, or stand up to Chinese leaders“. As usual with Trump, it’s the world upside down.

In my view, the following 2020 US presidential election campaign slogan might be very successful: “Who is the president, dummy?” It hits where it hurts the most: Trump’s self-proclaimed intelligence. Trump is always boasting about it: I’m a ‘very stable genius’, ‘In my great and unmatched wisdom’, and also his IQ obsession.

Recently, Obama called the US (ie, Trump’s) handling of the pandemic “an absolute chaotic disaster” (eg, BBC, CNN). The left-wing Palmer Report has an interesting explanation as to why Obama made this remark right now. Obama is like an earworm to Trump: his legacy is all about undoing Obama’s legacy. As a consequence, Trump is reviving his Obamagate again.

A similar “absolute chaotic disaster” handling can be attributed to Trump’s usual allies: Brazil, Russia, and UK. Is this a coincidence? No. All four are wannabe totalitarian leaders without the necessary resources. The Russian coronavirus outbreak has pushed its president’s popularity to an all time low (eg, CNBC, Moscow Times).

Human opponents to totalitarian leaders can (be) arrested, “disappear”, locked up, murdered and so on but a virus cannot. It’s a tiny invisible yet mighty opponent. The three usual stages of wannabe totalitarian leaders – denial, anger, bargaining – are useless against a virus. In the absence of a human enemy, chaos will rule.

China is not on that list. Firstly, China is not an ally of Trump. Secondly, China has been successful in covering up its handling of Covid-19. Its official number of fatalities is now 4,633 (or 0.0003%). No one will probably ever find out the true number of fatalities. Why? For this reason: “A totalitarian leader can make no mistakes. Never.” Note: English translation by LO.

Other leaders, without totalitarian aspirations, know that they need their voters to get re-elected. Their approach matches the cultural aspects of their societies: from near freedom (Sweden) to semi-military lockdowns (southern Europe) and everything in between.

On 3 November 2020, the American people will answer this question: Who is the president, dummy?

The dummy song (1953 or 1954) by Louis Armstrong

artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2, Wiki-3

Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.