One of the immutable rules of power is that when you have achieved it, what you did to get there is no longer very relevant. Even more so in times of uncertainty, in which voters demand winners, with strong personalities, decisive and protective. This law is being followed exactly in the case of Donald Trump’s victory. In the final count he obtains less than 50% of the vote and approximately only one and a half percentage points (about two million more votes) than his Democratic rival. But he wins in all the swing states, in the electoral college and the popular vote, and his party obtains a majority in both chambers. Very good results that lead many voters (and citizens around the world) to excuse or forget his lies, insults and the long list of judicial processes in which he continues to be involved. Man cannot bear too much reality, wrote TS Eliot. The Missouri-born poet’s verse is more pertinent than ever. Staunch Democrats are grasping at straws and affirming that the important thing about Trump is not what he says but what he does. The unpredictable part of the Republican is highlighted as something positive, despite all his campaign promises to multiply tariffs, launch mass deportations of immigrants and close the country. The judge about to sentence him for the case of fraudulent payments to the Actress Stormy Daniels decides to postpone her resolution ‘sine die’. The future archive, the presidential self-pardon or the pardon of a governor in the rest of the pending cases are assumed. In the end, he turns out to be a gentleman with whom you can talk business. The four less loud nominations of his future government (Chief of Staff, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury and National Security Advisor) serve to say that it will not be a cabinet of clappers: there will be adults in the room who will oppose him. It is the mythologization of the winner. Thank goodness storms don’t last forever.
#José #Areilza #winner #takes
