… They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force—to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party; often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community… However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” George Washington- 1796
That was an excerpt from George Washington’s farewell address when he warned us about the danger of party politics. He was 64 when he left office by the way.
When President George Washington declined to run for office a third time in 1796, having dedicated his life to public service for four decades, secured his country’s independence from the British, and endured infighting and underhandedness from his enemies, he could not have known how this would affect his country in the centuries to follow. Or maybe he did. Maybe he saw what staying in a position of power too long could do to the office of POTUS, and from the excerpt quoted in his address, maybe he understood, better than anyone at the time, in the day and long afterwards, how fractious party politics would eventually become for the nation.
He must have understood how ineffective the office becomes when it goes without change. I mean look at our Tory government.
He must have known how the cult of personality could become the politics of identity with power concentrated in the hands of a powerful few, rather than the many, for the greater good.
He must’ve known that in the future we would be faced with demagogs and charlatans threatening to destabilise country for party political gain.
He must’ve understood the damage that can be done to a system void of checks and balances on power, and the utter devastation it would be to democracy if said power remains unchecked and unchallenged as we have seen with the latest ruling of the supreme court.
Somehow, he must have seen the incarnate of Donald Trump running for office.
He must have also known and understood the political ramifications we would face for a generation when RBG girl bossed it all the way to the grave, and refused to retire in order to make way for a new Democrat appointee to balance the supreme court bench. I remain a huge admirer of the late Justice, but let’s be frank here, her refusal to step aside for an Obama appointed Justice ultimately meant she declined to acknowledge the political nature of the court hence Trump was able to appoint not one but three right wing justices that have seen off Roe v Wade and if they have the chance, overturn Brown v Board of Education.
This is the price we pay when politics operates from the complacency of the moral high ground; the entitlement to a position of prominence simply because you think you deserve it; I see you President Tinubu, é mí lo kān. No one has the moral right to govern, not even a king no matter what monarchs tell you about being ordained by God, that’s just a sales pitch.
I promised myself I’d tap out of politics for a while considering this year there will be at least fifty major elections around the world, fifty-one if you throw in the grenade Emmanuel Macron has lobbed at his country’s electorate, that could see a far-right prime minister alongside a centrist leaning president, come the Olympics… let that percolate for a minute. The discourse- from the rise of the far right, the lampooning of migrants and the indifference to their deaths when they make that perilous journey, the many political scandals that have plagued economies, the erosion of Roe v Wade, the tribalistic politics in Nigeria to deflect from government incompetency, the criminalisation of homelessness in some American states, party-gate, and the sheer incompetence of this contemptible Tory government- has made the state of world politics fractious and fatal, in some cases.
It is good to be informed, good to be engaged, good to hold a conversation with the opposition, healthy even, but a particularly caustic type of cynicism and toxicity has risen and settled atop the bile that has come to typify world politics of late, that makes it difficult to engage thus, for my mental health and wellbeing, I promised I’d listen with only half an ear because I get too angry. I get too caught up and it makes me desperately anxious to the point of insomnia, coming up with all kinds of scenarios that spell doom and gloom and world catastrophe. As a writer trust me, I have those scenarios.
This didn’t just happen, it was there, in the last round of prime ministerial hustings between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak when Truss, the worst of the two, was crowned prime minister only to be out of a job shy of fifty days, losing the battle to a lettuce. Sunak was ushered in as our next new prime minister, without the country’s mandate, but the party’s, and by all our counts he was the third prime minister in under five years of this iteration of the Tory government, the fifth in fourteen years. They, Tory politicians, were cock-a-hoop at the appointment of Sunak, “the grown-ups were back in the room” they opined. The same Sunak that received a Fixed Notice Penalty for party-gate and another for failure to wear a seatbelt in a moving vehicle whilst recording a video. Reader, the grown-ups were in fact NOT back in the room, they had fled the country and left us with this nonsensical excuse for a government. Six minutes after becoming Prime Minister, giving us a speech meant to quell our fears in front of Number 10, he appointed Braverman as his home secretary and that was reason enough to believe it would be more of the same from the party; and it was.
We have a UK general election in a matter of days; the nation will go to the polls to decide who they want to as leader, what party and its policies appeal to them and this campaign has not been without its moments. We have had to watch Sunak’s abysmal performance in the run-up to the general elections, we have seen just how achingly bad he is at being prime minister and at politics in general. How tetchy he gets under scrutiny, and that could be because he doesn’t need the prestige of being prime minister he could retire to never land and live off his riches. A man richer than the king has no need for more of anything.
For his part, Starmer is no great inspirer of hope, some call him a bore, the press laments his caution, he’s not bold enough, or even fun… and you know what, after fourteen years of the disgraceful; Brexit x Cameron, the “bold”; Truss, the fun; Johnson, and the rich; Sunak, maybe its time for a little bit of boring, heck bring on Count Binface… anything and anyone is preferable to this current government. I’ve never subscribed to the notion that all politicians are the same; they are not, and I don’t want a perfect politician without a past. I would rather a rehabilitated rogue, a bore who will simply do the bloody job, and not a party befuddled by the cult of its leader’s personality. We must be honest with ourselves, we are up against some hard times as a global society and desperately need the grown-ups back in the room.
And then you have the politics of shenanigans going on across the pond; the shit show at home has taken my interest from the US elections, where the choice, the only choice, is between a felon, an accused rapist, a proven liar, and a thief, that is one man by the way, or an old man who looks and feels like he has no business making decisions for the next generation.
Joe Biden is too old.
Donald trump is too stupid, too incompetent and yes, too old for the role of POTUS, and leader of the free world.
Both men have been catapulted to this position by weak-willed parties who only have their interests at heart. Democrats want to stay in power and Republicans want to return to it. Nothing to do with the greater good because if it did, someone would tell Joe he ought not to run for a second term. He was old enough four years ago when he ran and won. He is older now. And I say this as someone who is not blind to what Biden has done for the economy, but I wish he would have taken the decision to step aside and let another run. The natural next step would be his VP Kamala Harris but America is not ready to elect a woman, I see you patriarchy, let alone a woman of colour, yeah you too racism, so there’s that.
If there was any decency left in the Republican party no one, and I mean no one, would have ever thought a person like Trump would be fit to be anything, not even a hired clown at a party, not that I mean to insult clowns. All the decent Republicans are either too afraid of losing their base or too stupid like the dingbats in the party, yeah looking at you Majorie and that other one who cannot be decent in a public space… I forget her name and have no interest to try and remember it.
Whilst we are here, might I make a suggestion or two:
No one should be appointed into a role for life; that means no Justices on the bench until death do them part, no peers in the House of Lords for life either.
And, the President must retire at the general age of retirement. That seem fair? If I have to retire age sixty-nine, I have no idea why anyone past that that should still be running for an office of such importance, such distinction… Just my thoughts.
We have veered to the place wherein madness lies, and we find ourselves mired in muck. Starker in America than here in Britain, but dire no less all round. Come November and the leader of the free world might be a con man or an old man. Then there’s the press that bear the brunt of where we find ourselves, they made Trump the focus because it serves their purpose. Without him in power, there is no way to shock and opine their false equivalence from their moral high ground, the fourth estate has let us down. They have talked incessantly, since the debate, of Biden’s cognitive functions, making us question his fitness for office, and rightfully so but what about the other guy? Because he had a bad night debating the conman, they have run news reels and opinion panels dissecting his speech pattern and body language but not the substance of the debate, the lies and many lies that Trump spewed forth. They would have us believe that because Biden stumbled on his words in a ninety-minute TV debate, the conman, the felon, the proven liar, the accused rapist, is suddenly a better choice… I don’t meant to confuse you my friends, only to reflect the state we find ourselves; party politics and its toxicity has brought us here, inertia is the death of the vote and this shit matters.
It matters that our politicians are decent and honest people.
It matters that they make decisions for the greater good not the party good.
It matters that we can trust them.
It matters that they can connect with us and the generations to come.
It matters that they can communicate in full, coherent sentences that make sense.
It matters that they don’t cheat on their wives with prostitutes.
It matters that they don’t cheat on their wives with interns and lie about it.
It matters than they don’t cheat on a wife when she is going through cancer treatment, impregnate the mistress and keep lying about it.
It matters that they don’t cheat on their wives with movie stars.
It matters that they don’t cheat period.
It matters that they do not abuse the position of their office.
It matters that they care how we feel.
It matters that US President is not beholden to the Kremlin.
It matters that the President is too old, too frail…
It all matters, it matters, it really does matter, and right now it’s all in tatters.