Four years ago, when Donald J Trump failed to win a second term as President of the United States many in the globalist elites initially assumed that they had seen the back of him.
A few saw him as a mischievous spirit like the Ridgeway Ghost of Wisconsin destined to fade away in time.
Last Monday, however, he was back for more, or as some in Europe dread, even eight more years.
The European elite are split on what to do with Trump. Some recommend the grin-and-bear it posture; swallow the castor oil and pray it passes through. Others go for the “if you can’t beat them, join them!” tactic. Some, like the outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, however, though barely standing, have opted for grandstanding against a figure they cannot quite gauge.
A leading French pundit wonders how “someone with Trump’s profile” could win a convincing electoral victory by saying the first thing that comes to his mind, often on X (formerly Twitter) while seasoned European politicians with carefully crafted messages have failed to do so for more than half a century.
The European ruling elite has morphed into a self-perpetuating caste offering the same dramatic personae in different disguises in a cynical political bal masque, the sole object of which is winning a seat or at least a stool at the high table.
The ruling elite has also developed a discourse woven around a number of lies including the claim that you can spend the money you don’t have to obtain what you fancy but really don’t need.
The same discourse contains other dishonesties and half-truths.
You are made scared to death by the specter of global warming that is supposed to turn Iceland into Tierra Del Fuego but then are assured that you don’t need to change the lifestyle that is supposed to have caused the looming disaster.
The elite claim you could work shorter hours and fewer years but still enjoy higher wages and more generous pensions.
The same discourse gives high value to differences but once that is accepted jumps up to demand sameness in the name of equality.
The politicians’ caste teaches you to re-write everything by replacing facts with half-truths or even outright lies in the name of political correctness.
Yesterday’s heroes are re-written as villains.
The famous President Wilson Hotel in Geneva changes name to distance itself from President Woodrow Wilson. In Paris, a campaign is underway to change the name of the boulevard named after President Wilson in accordance with political correctness.
Eric Dupond-Moretti, a distinguished French lawyer and former Justice Minister, says: “If we aren’t politically correct, they will boo us off the stage. Judges are forced to be woke even at the cost of doing justice.”
Most European democracies suffer from demographic deficit which means they need a steady flow of working peoples. But they don’t want to produce babies because that may upset plans for enjoying life. At the same time, they call for building walls or mobilizing the gunboats to stop the flow of immigrants.
Most European countries today have to cope with crumbling infrastructure but no one in leadership dares suggesting higher taxes needed to rebuild, albeit except for the mythical big rich!
Former European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker once said: “People think we don’t know how to solve problems. We know the problems full well and have solutions too. But if we offer the solutions, we won’t get re-elected to apply them!”
Former French Culture Minister Francois Leotard had his way of saying the same: “People elect us as punching bags to be hit when things go wrong as a result of their own high expectations and low readiness for shedding for what they call acquired rights.”
Moretti, Juncker and Leotard didn’t see the subtext in their statements: That while they pretend to be leaders, they are in fact led by interest groups, lobbies, shrinking but increasingly loud political parties and self-styled pundits.
They remind one of Bertolt Brecht’s quips: “Democracy begins with the right of the people to choose its rulers but could end by rulers choosing the people they are happy with it.”
The state says the people deserve 5-star schools, universities, hospitals, roads and bridges, social security, war machines, and art and culture and need not pay the full price.
Novelist Gore Vidal, however, believes that Western European leadership elites cannot deliver on five-star promises. He suggests that Western Europe be governed by Swiss hotel managers who can.
Whichever way one looks at it, Western European democracies are in a political crisis that could morph into a systemic one.
France has had four prime ministers in one year while most other EU member states suffer from chronic instability and, if they don’t as it is the case in Hungary, are castigated as “authoritarian”, “populist” or “Trumpist”.
In some cases, for example Belgium and The Netherlands, recent experience shows that having a hung parliament, a result of the dreadful proportional representations system, making long coalition negotiations inevitable, could offer better governance by putting the country on autopilot.
Technocrats and civil servants who run things while politicians haggle over who gets which post need not lie to the people because even if they get it wrong, they don’t risk losing their jobs. They are taught to act with greater caution and promising less so that they may get the biscuit when more is achieved.
