An endorsement for 2028 - no surprise!

The US Presidential Election in autumn 2028 may still seem a long way off, but things are moving already. The widow of assassinated right-winger Charlie Kirk has endorsed JD Vance, currently the Vice-President, for the top job. I'm not at all surprised. Mr Vance has the right wolf-like personality for the coming no-holds-barred (and probably vicious) election struggle. I am sure she has chosen exactly the right man to lead America into the abyss.  

This is what the BBC News website had to say about it:

The writer of this article is of course presenting a piece put together using selected events and quotes. But then that's what we (the public) get fed by every 'news' organisation, and you have to assess the worth of any report according to the standing of its source - a prime duty of any intelligent citizen. The picture painted is one of disagreement and division in the Republican Party, or at least that part of it dominated by President Trump and his Maga supporters. Well, I hope it's true. And may we all hope that the more-sensible and more-cautious rump of the Good Old Party will assert itself during the next couple of years, expressly to return itself to what it used to be like, in particular a party whose fortunes do not depend on the frontman's ego. 

Meanwhile the show rolls on. Mrs Kirk's endorsement will set the ball rolling nicely for Mr Vance. It shows that he will have instant support whenever the time comes to declare himself. With that assured, he can play the part of Number Two, the second fiddle, for a while longer, and say all the things a faithful henchman needs to say. But at some point the pretence will be dropped, and he will go for it. 

Vanity Fair recently featured the work of photographer Christopher Anderson, who photographed (I'd better not say 'shot') the top staff in the White House in a realistic manner. Apparently the subjects were perfectly happy to be caught in less than perfect poses, and very close up. It is indeed a powerful way to be shown. It can say, 'I do not need flattery. I don't have to be pretty. I am honest and supremely confident.' Thus Mr Vance let these pictures of himself be published:

What do you see? I know what I see.

And what did Mr Trump see? Did he chuckle, and think 'Bad move. My VP looks like a ill-tempered Kentucky backwoodsman squeezed into his Sunday Best.' 

And yet, in his shoes, I would be wary. He has instituted a high-handed personal rule through a series of executive orders (i.e. decrees) allowed by asserting an ongoing national state of emergency. It's all stroke-of-the-pen stuff. If he stumbles from physical weakness or policy misjudgement, or some revelation makes him look like a fraud, or if he is found to be in irrefutable breach of the Constitution, another hand might force him to retire - with his own stroke of the pen. I discern one person who might feel it to be his duty. And not too far ahead.

And all this matters to the rest of the world. At least, it does if everyone holds their breath and waits to see the outcome. I'd like to see the rest of the world move on as if America is in the throes of another Civil War, and will be completely out of it for a while. That would give everyone a free hand to address pressing continental and global issues. Does it really matter that America is out of NATO and ignores the UN? Why not set up fresh international organisations, with modern, twenty-first (or twenty-second) century objectives? With real enforcement powers? 

Why, we could ban the USA from taking part in the World Cup. Or the Olympic Games. Maybe even the Eurovision Song Contest. Because it isn't doing the Right Thing for Mother Earth, nor setting a High Moral Example. It can all be done if we want to. 

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