The End of the World?

And just was I was starting to get hopeful (see Louise Casey, from January 14) I’m now almost totally depressed. The reason is a TV documentary about the return of Trump, made by Robert Moore, the one who made that incredible liver report from the January 6th assault on the Capitol.

His argument is that Trump is doing much better than he was in the build-up to the previous election, and that Biden - however preferable in our terms he may be in his response to climate, Ukraine or Gaza - is really struggling. There was a patronising Guardian review suggesting that Moore was throwing up his hands in horror, and not analysing the situation clearly enough, but I think that’s wrong.

He produces a series of people who talk about why they used to support Biden, but will now support Trump. Black, Muslim and young - not realistic beneficiaries of a future Trump administration, but nonetheless determined that they haven’t got what they were hoping for, so they’ll try something else. Something else will definitely turn out to be worse than last time. Trump wants a private militia just like Putin has, and is making massive preparations to replace large parts of the government operation with his own supporters. If he gets close but doesn’t win, he has a large number of armed supporters who will fight to support the cause - and that’s a fact, not an image. Win or lose, things will get worse, and the impact of that on climate, Ukraine, Gaza is fairly easy to work out.