IN 1988, Gary Hart from the Democratic Party would have won the presidency over H. W. Bush but he exited the race because of publicity over an extra-marital affair. At the time, 36 years ago, it was possible that a presidential candidate could suffer over such an indiscretion.
That era is long gone because the peoples of the world in 2024 do not have the same psychology of the peoples of the world of 1988. We have a younger generation today with a completely different value system. And there is social media today.
What grates your nerves 36 years ago, is not frowned upon by the new generation. The values are different. Uncouth, culturally bizarre and psychologically questionable presidents and prime ministers that are elected in Western countries would not have made it 50 years ago.
You cannot tell a young European or American that a politician should not be elected as head of government because he is a womanizer. They do not put the same weight on such things as the past generations did. 50 years ago, it was the corporate controlled media in the US that filtered the news to us and we buy into their agenda.

That epoch is long gone. The media in the US still try to play with our minds but it is not working any longer in an age of social media. The period where the American media shaped how the world saw things is over. The world has seen how nasty, ugly and unprofessional the media is, not only in the US but all over the Western world over their reporting in favour of Israel.

Harris concentrated her campaign on Trump rather than issues because she bought into how the corporate media painted Trump. But did the Americans frown on Trump because of how the media portrayed him. The answer is no and that is where Harris went wrong.
The American people do not believe in the things the media saturates American society with. I will cite two issues where there was this dichotomy, but before that, a comment by Trump that showed this divide. When the Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the US this year and met with Trump, at the press conference Trump told Zelenskyy that he (Trump) is a good friend of Vladimir Putin.

The way we see American society you would think that was a disastrous statement that could cost Trump but it didn’t. Why? Because Trump knows the changing US more than Harris does. The American people do not care about the war in Ukraine and has no interest in who is Putin. It is corporate America and American corporate journalism that have made the war a priority for Americans and paints Putin as the worst thing in the world.

Trump says Vladimir Putin is his friend yet he did not lose votes over that statement when we who live outside of the US thought it was a disastrous thing to say. I return to the two issues cited above. The American media saturates American society over Israeli right to defend itself and the unjust Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But the American people see it differently. They know Israel is a vicious cruel government that is committing genocide in Gaza, and they gave no support to their government bankrolling Ukraine to hundreds of billions which they feel should go into the US economy.
Trump is no fool. He is a very astute politician. It is Ms. Harris who is a mediocre thinker. Mr. Trump knows full well that money spent on wars by the US government should be diverted to the American economy, thus he is not supportive of American foreign interventions. He is unpredictable but unlike Mr. Clinton, Mr. Barack Obama, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, he knows war drains the US economy.

Mr. Trump’s understanding of international relations differs sharply from the corporate media, the security-industrial complex and the Democratic Party. He thinks Europe is using the US to provide security for Europe and that Europe relies on the US to preserve European interests in the world. And he asked himself – why should the US spend money on Europe’s agenda.

This is where Trump differs profoundly from the Democratic Party. It was under Bill Clinton that the US reneged on the agreement with Russia not to include former communist countries into NATO. It was under Obama that the war continued in Afghanistan.
It was Trump who initiated the policy to pull the US out of Afghanistan. No other politician in the political establishment that is more inclined to send the US to war than Hilary Clinton. The US is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine under Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump is unpredictable but for now he is not interested in American wars overseas. To be continued.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.