4 June 2020
Double Trouble
A Political Minefield
by J.R. Thomas
Bird hunters will know the feeling, stalking quail when suddenly a whole covey gets up and flies in different directions. That’s when careless use of a weapon can really do damage. And those very different vote hunters, Biden and Trump, have got quail flying in all directions now.
The elections, in case you forgot, are on 3rd November. The party conventions are (if they happen) in late August in Charlottesville, North Carolina for the GOP and in mid-August in Milwaukee for the Democrats. Let’s not overlook the other confirmed runners: Jo Jorgenson already nominated for the Libertarians (with Spike Cohen as her vice presidential co-runner), and either Howie Hawkins or Dario Hunter for the Greens, and another eight registered. We will not overlook these good people; you’re not going to escape the eagle beak of the Shaw Sheet, dear candidates, your fifteen seconds of fame approaches. So will yours, Vermin Supreme, beaten Libertarian candidate, we won’t overlook you.
But back to the main contenders and the troubles of the USA this summer of 2020. Into an America already made angry and ever more divided by the ramifications of Covid19, comes Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, now fired with three colleagues, Chauvin charged with the third degree murder of George Floyd, asphyxiated by the officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck whilst arresting him. Mr Floyd, who had a history of minor offences but not for the past six years, has become a new symbol of black citizens subjected to white police violence, and of the failure of authorities over decades to deal adequately with this ugly face of US policing. Rioting has taken place across the nation, with the National Guard being deployed, and many businesses burnt and looted. This has all become conflated with anti-Trump protests, poor healthcare and educational facilities for minority groups, and the handling of Covid19, and whipped up further by those who, as so often, take a just cause and use it for their own ends.
In this angry and dangerous atmosphere politicians should tread carefully and thoughtfully. Mr Biden has trod softly – he has the easier role, being popular with black voters generally, a natural conciliator, without the burden of office and having to actually do things. He has expressed concern at police behaviour and called for calm and restraint on the part of angry citizens – pointing out that much of the damage being done is to black owned businesses and districts. In a federal state there are limits to how much the federal government can intervene in the running of state level policing, but Joe has promised to tackle the issue if elected to office.
Mr Trump began by mostly restraining himself from the behaviour his public tends to expect and his opponents hope for. But now he’s clearly getting cross. Tweeting, as we said here last week, is never a great way to make considered and profound remarks; Donald’s initial tweet, pointing out that rioting dishonoured George Floyd’s memory was picked up for its closing comment that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” an inelegant expression. Those sentiments have been expressed by Governors and Presidents before; but in delivered speeches where they can be more delicately put. Twitter is an idiotic way of trying to show leadership in such circumstances, but Mr T does not seem to get this, blasting away with his thumbs, often late at night. Time to look Presidential, Donald. Calm things down, promise reforms and enquiries, sound subtly tough on law n’order. Do subtle, Donald.
How is it America has not resolved this problem? The endless round of white police beating up black men seems nowhere near resolution; if Rodney King’s death in LA in 1991 put it to the top of the agenda there has been startling little progress since. Not even President Obama seemed inclined to take it on, even after the murder of Michael Brown in 2014. Anecdotal evidence, a dangerous source but not totally unreliable in the age of the camera phone, suggests things are getting worse – but that citizens have become less inclined to report police brutality or to resist misuse of police powers, fearing an outcome similar to Mr Floyd’s; and also believing that a complaint would be met with blank indifference.
No serious observer would suggest that either Mr Trump or Mr Biden are racists. (Nor are the state governors; it is certainly very different in the South to what it was in the 1950’s.) The problem lies in the police and in their senior officers who just do not seem prepared to root out bad apples. And it is not just racism, it is a deep underlying institutionalised culture of violence within the police service. This is C21st America, yet it is still not a good idea in many places to get questioned by the police, and a very bad idea to argue with them.
But politics pervades the problem. Is Donald going to tackle the police culture in the middle of a campaign where his return to office will depend on votes from those who like do-badders whacked first and tried, if still alive, after? There are, no doubt, a lot of frightened electors endorsing the sentiments which the President is tweeting. Is Joe going to wade in on the side of the oppressed citizenry when that can be turned against him as Weakling Joe? “No”, and “Just possibly” are the answers. “Just possibly” because Joe is an old fashioned liberal and dislikes injustice. But he knows that if he looks soft on violence, even if Donald does not use this directly, the thought amongst some potential voters is that Joe will concede to rioters. Most depressing of all, what might have been a solution forty years ago will not work now – digi-leaks and social media mobs would destroy any attempt to try to agree a non-partisan approach and solution. Social media tech has destroyed much of the ability of politics to sort things out quietly behind the scenes. To be fair, it’s not Trump style either.
And both big guys have other problems. Firstly, rumblings from Ukraine of conversations about financial aid whilst Joe was Veep. Maybe nothing, maybe something, but a flicker. Second, confirmed that there was a stitch up of the Trump administration, leading to General Kelly’s resignation, by some Obama operatives; nothing suggests President Obama or Mr Biden knew about it. Mr Trump has said little, but it won’t have gone away, come November. Thirdly, the great unknown – Covid19. The Donald fumbled and stumbled with this one, but he saw the danger and backed off. Joe has played the ball as hard as he dare, but in reality that’s not very hard. The problem to both candidates is that the virus will write its own history and all they can do is to hope to be vindicated, President Trump by it going away so he can claim the credit for a lightish touch strategy, and Mr Biden by finding angles that enable him to pin aspects of the death toll on a weak Trump response.
It is a grim irony that lockdown has ended big time in many cities as mass demonstrations march back and forth. What effect this will have on infection rates nobody knows, but you cannot but admire and weep, that the community apparently most likely to die from the virus is so angry at injustice that it believes it right to ignore the risk so that it can call for a wider justice to be done.
