Trump

Like many millions around the world, I watched the debate between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. What I was left with was a sense of numbness; effectively a disbelief. I couldn't quite believe what I had seen: a man who had known the worst week imaginable riding the storm and, in my opinion, being able to match his opponent blow for blow. And I reminded myself at the close of the programme that this dual was between a politician - of the highest standing - and a business tycoon.

I think that's what leaves me coldest. This man knows absolutely nothing about the running of a country; he is not qualified to run even a regional office in the smallest province. And yes, I have to admit that he was able to do something extraordinary on Sunday evening: he managed to counter Hilary Clinton time and again, and even leave the viewer with the sense that he might just have walked off victor. Had this been a boxing match; Trump might well have won on points.

All I know is that it would be the most disastrous thing, not only for the United States but for the world, if this man were to become president. It is Trump's views on global issues which frighten me far more than anything else; abhorrent and downright foolish as they are, his views on women - and treatment of women, are simply the unpleasant evidence of an unenlightened boor. It's his views on Muslims, on climate change (something he has tried to deny), on foreigners who happen to be non-Western per se, on torture - and I could add a good deal more - that frankly frighten me far, far more.

And I am left after Sunday night with the very real fear that this man might win. Perhaps as much and more because of a large swathe of American society who despise mainstream politics, who have despised Obama, who swallow greedily an empty rhetoric about making America great again. I am not saying that Hilary Clinton was no match for her opposite number, but the worst of it was that she came across as far too nice to him (and I use the word advisedly). After the week that Trump had had, the potential for a knock-out blow had been handed to her on a plate. And she failed to take it.

For the sake of an environment bleeding in every corner of our beautiful globe, for the sake of refugees fleeing the tyranny of regimes like Syria and Yemen, for the sake of the millions of underprivileged and forgotten poor in America's own states: don't allow this man to become President and take the world back a generation and more. It may require the swallowing of a bitter pill to vote for the alternative (and I think many understand that), but if ever there was a case of better the devil you know - then surely it's now.


www.kennethsteven.co.uk