With just hours left before the US election gets seriously under way, it is worth stopping and sighing in acknowledgment of the brilliance of Brenda Fassie when she told us in 1995: umuntu angeke umuConfirme (you’ll never really know or understand the human animal).
No-one in the US can claim they don’t know who Donald Trump is or what his intentions for the country are.
No serious person can claim they have not heard him denigrate, insult, bully or threaten those who dare to speak up or stand against him.
He is an open book. He seemingly intends to lay siege to the country’s institutions, to fire career civil servants and replace them with those loyal to him, to make friends with the world’s autocrats while turning his back on the world’s neediest nations.
Project 2025, the conservative template of governance put together by hundreds of his former associates and followers, envisages a totally different country to the democracy-espousing US of the past 50 years.
With all this known, with all the insults he spews and the hate he gives, millions of Americans intend to vote for this sexist, bullying, anti-democratic, autocrat-loving, convicted felon.
As I sit at my desk writing this, the New York Times is reporting that the “presidential race appears to be hurtling towards a photo finish” as polling by the newspaper and Siena College shows a resurgence in Trump support in states like Pennsylvania and Arizona.
“It has been decades since the polls have shown the nation facing a presidential race that is so close across so many states in both the Sun Belt and the Rust Belt.
“The tightly contested landscape means the race remains highly uncertain as the campaign enters its final hours,” the newspaper said.
Trump is on a roll. His adoring fans are cheering him on at rallies.
They defend him on everything and anything. They come up with the most ridiculous excuses for their support for him, including the bald-faced lie that “a woman is not ready to run the US”.
Who, pray tell, was ready to run the US? Trump, a loud-mouthed television host whose wealth largely accrued to him thanks to his father?
Barack Obama, who had run a few NGOs and become a legislator at a young age?
George W Bush, who stumbled into the job because he carried his father’s name? Ronald Reagan, an actor?
And yet, they tell you, a tough former state prosecutor who has been second in command in the White House for four years “is not ready” because she is a woman. There is a word for that: sexism.
Anyway, the thing that one cannot really work out is why, even at this point of the most consequential election campaign of this new century, Trump and Kamala Harris are still neck-and-neck.
Even with all the vileness, the racism, the threats and bullying, Trump is still being treated as if he is a serious, credible and viable candidate.
He is patently not a normal, viable candidate. He is, instead, a man who intends to torch the US if he does not have his way.
He is a man who has said explicitly that, if he is elected, he will go after rivals he has deemed “enemies from within”.
It is not an idle threat: during his first presidency, Trump repeatedly pressed for investigations into perceived political adversaries.
Trump will not accept the results of this election unless he wins.
As an analysis by CNN in May stated: “Trump has shown remarkable consistency over many years on a key issue of American politics: He does not have faith in election results.
“He questions the results when he has won. He refuses to concede when he has lost. Now he’s reserving judgment on whether this year’s election will be ‘honest’.”
The world and the US need to stop treating this as if it is a normal election.
It is an election in which one of the candidates has explicitly said that he will not accept a loss.
It is an election in which one of the candidates has once already incited an insurrection, back on January 6 2021, to try to reverse his drubbing at the polls.
We are all treating an abnormal situation as if it is normal. We are lying to ourselves.
I do not believe that we will have an election result on Tuesday or this week unless it heavily favours Trump.
If Kamala Harris wins, then Trump has already indicated he is cooking up plans, including working with speaker of the house Mike Johnson on a “little secret”, to take power by unconstitutional means.
Trump is like Jacob Zuma’s child. Both men will always tell you exactly what they intend to do.
Trump has now told the world he won’t accept a loss, and that if he wins he will lay siege to the country.
The only people who don’t take him seriously enough are American voters.
This exceptionalism, this idea that “it won’t happen here”, will come back to haunt the US. The world must prepare for some instability.
Trump won’t accept election outcome unless he wins
Columnist
Image: REUTERS/Megan Varner
With just hours left before the US election gets seriously under way, it is worth stopping and sighing in acknowledgment of the brilliance of Brenda Fassie when she told us in 1995: umuntu angeke umuConfirme (you’ll never really know or understand the human animal).
No-one in the US can claim they don’t know who Donald Trump is or what his intentions for the country are.
No serious person can claim they have not heard him denigrate, insult, bully or threaten those who dare to speak up or stand against him.
He is an open book. He seemingly intends to lay siege to the country’s institutions, to fire career civil servants and replace them with those loyal to him, to make friends with the world’s autocrats while turning his back on the world’s neediest nations.
Project 2025, the conservative template of governance put together by hundreds of his former associates and followers, envisages a totally different country to the democracy-espousing US of the past 50 years.
With all this known, with all the insults he spews and the hate he gives, millions of Americans intend to vote for this sexist, bullying, anti-democratic, autocrat-loving, convicted felon.
As I sit at my desk writing this, the New York Times is reporting that the “presidential race appears to be hurtling towards a photo finish” as polling by the newspaper and Siena College shows a resurgence in Trump support in states like Pennsylvania and Arizona.
“It has been decades since the polls have shown the nation facing a presidential race that is so close across so many states in both the Sun Belt and the Rust Belt.
“The tightly contested landscape means the race remains highly uncertain as the campaign enters its final hours,” the newspaper said.
Trump is on a roll. His adoring fans are cheering him on at rallies.
They defend him on everything and anything. They come up with the most ridiculous excuses for their support for him, including the bald-faced lie that “a woman is not ready to run the US”.
Who, pray tell, was ready to run the US? Trump, a loud-mouthed television host whose wealth largely accrued to him thanks to his father?
Barack Obama, who had run a few NGOs and become a legislator at a young age?
George W Bush, who stumbled into the job because he carried his father’s name? Ronald Reagan, an actor?
And yet, they tell you, a tough former state prosecutor who has been second in command in the White House for four years “is not ready” because she is a woman. There is a word for that: sexism.
Anyway, the thing that one cannot really work out is why, even at this point of the most consequential election campaign of this new century, Trump and Kamala Harris are still neck-and-neck.
Even with all the vileness, the racism, the threats and bullying, Trump is still being treated as if he is a serious, credible and viable candidate.
He is patently not a normal, viable candidate. He is, instead, a man who intends to torch the US if he does not have his way.
He is a man who has said explicitly that, if he is elected, he will go after rivals he has deemed “enemies from within”.
It is not an idle threat: during his first presidency, Trump repeatedly pressed for investigations into perceived political adversaries.
Trump will not accept the results of this election unless he wins.
As an analysis by CNN in May stated: “Trump has shown remarkable consistency over many years on a key issue of American politics: He does not have faith in election results.
“He questions the results when he has won. He refuses to concede when he has lost. Now he’s reserving judgment on whether this year’s election will be ‘honest’.”
The world and the US need to stop treating this as if it is a normal election.
It is an election in which one of the candidates has explicitly said that he will not accept a loss.
It is an election in which one of the candidates has once already incited an insurrection, back on January 6 2021, to try to reverse his drubbing at the polls.
We are all treating an abnormal situation as if it is normal. We are lying to ourselves.
I do not believe that we will have an election result on Tuesday or this week unless it heavily favours Trump.
If Kamala Harris wins, then Trump has already indicated he is cooking up plans, including working with speaker of the house Mike Johnson on a “little secret”, to take power by unconstitutional means.
Trump is like Jacob Zuma’s child. Both men will always tell you exactly what they intend to do.
Trump has now told the world he won’t accept a loss, and that if he wins he will lay siege to the country.
The only people who don’t take him seriously enough are American voters.
This exceptionalism, this idea that “it won’t happen here”, will come back to haunt the US. The world must prepare for some instability.
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