«IIt is easier to fool people, Mark Twain wrote, than to convince them that they have been fooled. » Never has this truth been more significant than in the American presidential campaign. Donald J. Trump has been in the business of fooling people. A circus barker, he toured the United States in his caravan of deception. The clown costume fits him like a glove.
Everyone knows he lies, but he is an entertaining liar, well dressed, with a crude intelligence and comfortable fatness – it is difficult to remain indifferent to his speech. Make no mistake: he is not stupid, he knows his audience well, he brings them into an arena of thunderous applause. And he deceives.
Kamala, on the other hand, has been desperately trying to convince people that they are being duped. She is also a circus artist, but closer to the tightrope walker. What is fascinating about her is the fact that she could fall at any moment, while Trump already fell a long time ago.
Up there, on her wire, she never stopped gravely haranguing her supporters, cajoling them, convincing them while walking with small steps, so that they would hold their breath and continue to watch her slowly advance. Her supporters appreciate her, understand her, but they have not stopped turning their heads to hear the vulgar tumult rising from the other side of the marquee.
Just see how we look away
If we want to understand why America hasn't disqualified Trump, we need only look at how we look away from ourselves to try to figure out where the noise is coming from.
Doubts have arisen in Kamala's camp about what she will do and how she will do it. She got stuck in the center. She wanted to do well. To do this, she must look in several directions at once. Hold complicated and contradictory ideas in your hands.
The horror in the Middle East is a perfect example. By refusing to tackle the current turmoil head on, Kamala risked losing her base. Should she talk about genocide? Should she invoke the history of apartheid? Her younger voters wanted her to take a stand.
However, she also knows that she has another audience, that the coin has two sides, heads or tails, and that Israel faces an existential threat. She knows the Iranians are behind the scenes. And then there are the Saudis. And then there are the Yemenis. And then there is. And then there is…
Trump is very good at making us believe he has the situation under control
The kaleidoscope didn't stop moving, to the point that Harris herself felt dizzy. Trump is very good at making us believe that he has the situation under control. In truth, he has no idea what to do. Its brutal simplicity fits well with the toxic narrowness of our times. His intelligence is his silence.
The problem, for Kamala, is that we now live in an era of absolute certainty. Everyone knows what they know, and what others feel, think or do does not interest us much. The limits are set. They do not go beyond what is between our two ears. Besides, they have made us deaf.
Over one hundred and fifty years ago, Walt Whitman wrote: “Am I contradicting myself? Okay, so I contradict myself. I am vast, I contain multitudes. »
It's the borders that attract all the light
Sad observation about what we have become: being forced to think that, in this century which is both the most human and the least human, we cannot elect a leader who knows how to express the importance of doubt. This comes down to a basic lack of honesty. A majority of us live in the dark center, and yet it is the edges that attract all the light.
This also applies to the Democratic Party: it shows itself more and more incapable of containing all its multitudes. In reality, those who appear full of certainty are almost always the same ones who end up collapsing. Certainty is too rigid. It breaks at the first cold.
To Discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
Such is, unfortunately, the noise of our times.
Translation: Clément Baude.
* Author of « American Mother » (Belfond), winner of the National Book Award.
