5 Watt Bulb by Nancy Ohanian In case you missed the Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday, sometimes it's good to get a look at our own politics from a perspective somewhat removed. Columnists Ian Hughes and Alan Blotcky made it clear why that hasn't been easy anywhere in the world, since, as they wrote, "For almost four years, there has hardly been a day that Donald Trump has not made front-page news. The unrelenting avalanche of lies and norm-shattering behaviour that Trump has unleashed has presented the mainstream media with an unprecedented challenge. It is a challenge that the media has struggled to meet, largely because of the ethical and practical difficulties that journalists face in dealing with Trump’s mental pathology." Ah, yes... Trump's mental pathology, which is becoming more and more of an issue in the U.S. election as the "president" suffers a complete mental breakdown front and center for everyone to see. Over the weekend, a trio of Washington Post reporters wrote about how undecided voters in states that voted for Trump in 2016 have been making up their minds to vote against him this cycle, "choices they say were either made or reinforced in recent weeks as Trump has stumbled through a disastrous stretch that has included embarrassing leaks about his comments disparaging military members, a ridiculed debate performance and a Rose Garden ceremony that some describe as a superspreader for a deadly virus. In the homestretch of the 2020 campaign, there has been little good news for the incumbent. And that is showing up as an ominous turn for him in the polls as Biden consolidates support. What had been a steady national lead for Biden in the high single digits during the late summer has expanded to 12 points in early October." One voter who didn't like Trump or Hillary in 2016 ("couldn't stand" was her phrase) voted for the Libertarian. This year she said, "Trump is just so scary at this point that I don’t think I can waste my vote on a third party. It just keeps getting worse. From his pick for the Supreme Court to his racist comments to his degrading anyone who doesn’t agree with him to his handling of the virus. I can go on and on." A North Carolina Republican who wrote in Romney in 2016 is voting for Biden this year. He told the Post reporters that Trump is "dangerous... just horrible."
Four years ago, voters who decided in the presidential campaign’s waning days broke decisively for Trump, a political newcomer, delivering him a shock victory. This year, evidence suggests there are few who have yet to make up their minds. But many of those who had been on the fence appear to be coming down on Biden’s side.
Back to Hughes and Blotcky in Australia-- there was a reminder that "Even before his election, mental health professionals were warning that Trump’s psychopathology posed a threat to US democracy and to global stability. After his election, dozens of mental health experts collaborated on the book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump which became a New York Times bestseller. Over the past three or four months, the number of voices expressing alarm at Trump’s pathology has been growing. The media, however, has largely continued to cover Trump’s actions one story at a time, without joining up the dots and accurately describing his pathology. Of all the thousands of headlines, there is one headline that has not been printed but that makes the most sense of all: "Donald Trump suffers from a dangerous incurable narcissistic disorder which makes him incapable of empathy or reason. He is a grave danger to the US and the world."
The failure of the media to emphasise this obvious fact is a lost opportunity to inform and educate the public so that Trump’s pathology is fully appreciated and understood. As mental health professionals know, Trump’s mental disorder manifests itself in a wide variety of behaviours and not in isolated or disconnected events. In these dangerous times, the challenge for the media, difficult though it is, should be to explain Trump’s pathology in all its complexities and ramifications for the public. ...The evidence about Trump is overwhelming. A free press is one of the central pillars of a democracy. Its role is to be a watchdog on our political leaders and to inform the public. The media can play a vital role in engaging with the alarming reality of Trump’s pathology, despite the difficulties in doing so. Donald Trump is part of a much larger picture. Individuals with dangerous personalities have risen to the highest ranks of power throughout modern history-- from Nixon to Mao, Stalin to Pol Pot. Some have played a crucial role in steering our world towards disaster. A widespread understanding of this basic fact has now become essential for the protection of democracy.
Amy Walter wrote an excellent column on Monday putting all this into a very specific electoral context: Trump's failed bet on his base. She identified 4 requirements for his base electoral strategy to have worked for him (over and above a good economy):
• A united, enthusiastic and engaged GOP base• A deeply flawed opponent• Decent support among independent voters (Even as Trump ran up the score among his base in 2016, he also carried independent voters by 2-points.)• Third-party candidates siphoning off enough votes to allow Trump to win key states with a plurality as he did in 2016
None of that-- including the good economy part-- has worked out for him. And he wasn't counting on a pandemic to expose his incompetence. But that aside, the rock solid GOP base it a little shaky. Biden doesn't appear threatening, even if no one actually likes him. Independent voters hate Trump almost as much as Democrats and he's going to lose every swing state because of that, even a state like Arizona that no one ever counted as a swing state before. And Kanye West? That doesn't seem to be working out for Trump, does it? He might even take Republican votes from Trump... since Democrats aren't going to be this crock from him:
