Introductory speech from Stéphane Riand: I received this November 14, 2024 at MPCM André Crettenand. But for reasons that readers of L’1Dex will soon understand, this interview will probably be broadcast at the beginning of December. In the meantime, here is the analysis of a decoder of international political life.
(BY ANDRE CRETTENAND)
The promise came in the early morning of November 6 at Mar-a-Lago. In his golfing stronghold, Donald Trump, who has already promised everything, promises even more: a world of luxury, calm and pleasure, wealth, a golden age. I immediately thought of Ingres’ painting, an assembly of young and beautiful women and men, bathed in an ethereal atmosphere, a little dreamy, naked. But, if you look closely, they don’t seem happy, I would rather say that they seem dazed, absent, hostages of a mischievous painter.
We know less about Trump as a poet. The person elected that morning distributes the rich dividends of victory, anticipating the possible effects of a policy that is not yet implemented. He feels the urgency: responding to those forgotten by growth, to the angry people, to the poor, because this is how Trump immediately analyzes the victory. The cost of living would have weighed more than the defense of women’s rights. Polls would later show that anti-woke tendencies, macho sentiments and fears of uncontrolled immigration had played an equally essential role.
Kamala Harris didn’t lose. Trump won. This means that there is not much sense in listing all the supposed weaknesses of the Democratic candidate, or in any case that this is not where we will find the reasons for the Republican tidal wave. If Harris had won, these weaknesses would be strengths, through the magic of on-the-spot commentary. Trump won because there is a majority of Americans who trust him and admire him.
“Because the old parties hear the concerns too late,” says the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, “populism has established itself as the most important national phenomenon of the beginning of the 21st century. It’s a small revolution. Trump is the leader of a free world that risks being overwhelmed by its fears.” Trump is everywhere. Trump is in Europe. Simply, Trump is louder, more talented, more rude.
A free future, free from all legal proceedings.
What is remarkable is that we cannot predict what the new president’s policies will be. Will he abandon Zelensky or bring Putin into line? Will he organize a nationwide hunt for immigrants, raiding restaurant kitchens, take-aways, or the fields of California? Will he empty the ministries of their civil servants? Will he decree taxes against China at the risk of disrupting the Tesla market that the Chinese are fond of, to the detriment of his new friend Elon Musk? Will he want to leave NATO? It is impossible to deduce from campaign remarks what the Trump era will be like. He did not develop a program, he agitated ideas, uttered threats, insulted his adversaries, in particular the judges and prosecutors whose investigations displease him but who will disappear as if by magic.
Trump won the election. Does that change the fact that he is not a man fit for the office? Should we consider that we were wrong to judge Kamala Harris more fit for office? The election makes him legitimate, not innocent or virtuous. Where and when can a candidate for the highest office be amused that journalists can be shot or threatened with rape without there being any consequences? In America today.
Maybe this is the golden age for Trump. A free future, free from all legal proceedings. For Americans, a strange Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve have not yet bitten the fatal apple.
