The Australian by Chris Kenny 10/3/2020
Almost all of academia, mainstream media and certainly all progressive parties and groups in this country, the US and around the Western world are viscerally opposed to Donald Trump and obsessed with seeing him defeated. Which is part of the reason why it will send a terrible message to the world about the state of the great Republic, the bastion of open and fair democracy, if Joe Biden is elected president.
The spiteful ruckus that passed for a presidential debate this week, and the deceitfully jaundiced coverage that followed, exposed the fault lines and the stakes. Biden did little but contradict himself on his own policies, call Trump a liar, tell him to shut up, and remain upright, yet that will be good enough for many.
In 2016 Trump won a democratic election, fair and square, by winning the support of mainstream voters, yet the political/media class never accepted his legitimacy and have used every means available, fair and foul, to overthrow him; from violent protests around the election and inauguration to the so-called resistance campaign, from complaints about the electoral system to relentless fake news attacks, and from FBI and judicial inquiries to impeachment proceedings. Yet there he is, still President, taunting them, affronting their very sense of themselves and the nation, and campaigning vigorously for re-election.
If Trump’s enemies succeed, especially when their critiques are often so deceptive and dishonest, and after they have trashed processes and natural justice through episodes such as the Russia collusion hoax or the assassination of Brett Kavanaugh’s character, it will leave a dark pall over the world’s pre-eminent democracy. And it will leave a mass of disaffected mainstream voters feeling that even a democratically elected President promising to “drain the swamp†can fall victim to the Ârevenge of the political, bureaucratic, academic and media establishment — the deep state.
We know he is unorthodox, Âpolarising and crass, yet so many players and commentators never tire of pretending these observations are still worth fussing over. These qualities were merely the starting point and politics at this level is not a popularity contest; voters will decide on Trump Âaccording to what he has done, what he promises to do and whether the alternative is compelling.
More:
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/win-for-trumps-enemies-would-cast-pall-over-democracy/news-story/6b5020a6d34fcd9437a426c7e339ad62
