Just too much sympathy for the devil

“I am with you,” declared Trump - as though parodying the Lord himself, from a platform festooned with flags and banners bearing his name, a bevy of cosmetically enhanced family members and supporters behind him, almost menacing in their uniform symmetry and blindingly neon-bright dental work.

Accepting the nomination Trump proceeded to spew out vague soundbites, talking of making America ‘great’, ‘proud’ and ‘safe’ again with nauseating patriotism. It is hard not to laugh at the arch hypocrisy of a self-made billionare who has ceded to power through the savvy exploitation of others - the unholy reality behind most stories of profit-based success - as he swore he gets up every morning determined to ‘build a better life for those who have been forgotten’. This shark wasn’t too troubled by such Christian concepts prior to embarking on this presidential race; he built his empire by serving only himself. To seduce the republican faithful who we can only assume have been undergoing some kind of collective brain-washing or hypnosis each time this perma-tanned stooge appears on camera, he is now most concerned to appear like someone who gives real throught to the dispossed.

It is astonishing that anyone in possession of their reason could fall for the empty rhetoric Trump peddles. He has revealed himself to be utterly immoral by again asserting his desire to build a “great border wall” to keep out those we “don’t want in our country”, by which he means Muslims or foreigners he basically thinks of as terrorists, the unemployed, assorted ‘losers’, the poor or anyone who has the gall to flee bad circumstances and build a new life for themselves in the wealthiest territory on earth - a country abundant in the space and resources to accommodate as many who seek refuge there and a country, ironically, that was built on the hard work of generations of immigrants.

Racist Trump has called for an immediate cessation of all immigration until such time as ‘appropriate vetting mechanisms have been developed’- which makes foreigners sound like contagious aliens. To vote such an ignorant braggart into the Oval Office is tantamount to saying that we wish to enshrine immorality and stupidity as hallmarks of US democracy. He will never be capable of the kind of compassionate politics, restraint and diplomacy needed to build a more egalitarian America.

I understand people’s reservations about Hillary, who can seem like a reptilian establishment cipher, but this woman at least boasts sanity, expertise in political office and some sort of moral compass - war-mongering in Libya aside - compared to Trump’s moral vacuum. Where most have a conscience he appears to have eternal apetites for money, power and fake tan. Imbalanced and misinformed, he seems the kind of man who might wage war on a whim and the last person on earth you’d want to trust with nuclear weapons or sensitive Pentagon intelligence. Trump is too in love with himself and the intoxication of power, too likely to inflame the wrath of militant jihadists or derail complex negotiations. It is hard not to despair when we see just how much support a buffoon like Trump can achieve. I am convinced many will vote for him simply because he seems more like a character in a pantomime than a measured and sensible politician. In a world with a short attention span where propaganda rules and ethics have been replaced by profit and promiscuity, a world in which people prefer the mall to church and seek calories, cashmere and soap operas over wisdom, truth or spirituality, being capable of spectacle or controversy seems to reign supreme. Showmanship has again triumphed over common sense and conscience. A vote for Trump is just too much sympathy for the devil.