Amid the many indications of the radical changes rocking the US political system, none is more significant than the announcement by 43 former George Bush Republican officials that they will be voting for Democrat Joe Biden in the November election rather than Republican President Donald Trump (The Mercury, July 2).
For the likes of Colin Powell, John Bolton and others within the Republican establishment, their preference for Biden is an unambiguous indicator of their true political roots. Since the presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt, the only real differences between the Democratic and Republican parties have been limited to tone and volume. Although at the grassroots level, there were liberal and conservative differences, their respective presidents embraced the welfare system and shared similar foreign policy views. As such, they constituted the Establishment and enjoyed the support of the mainstream media and the Ivy League institutions.
The 2016 election of Donald Trump rather than the Establishment’s candidate, Hillary Clinton, signalled the beginning not only of a concerted effort to destroy Trump and to remove him but also a fundamental rebranding of the Democratic and Republican parties. In response to Trump’s anti-Establishment, anti-globalist policies premised on traditional, Christian, conservative values, epitomised by his slogan “Make America Great Again,” the Democratic Party has turned up the volume in favour of globalism, open borders and socialism.
Trump has outraged the political Establishment by exposing the rot in American politics and its Tweedledee, Tweedledum nature. But in rebranding the Republican Party as the party that respects history, heritage and traditional values and which puts America first, Trump has given voters a real choice between the two major parties.
History will credit Trump as the catalyst in the overdue reformation of America’s political structure.
Sent into The Mercury and published, 11 July 2020
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