My views on the 2016 US election.

So if you follow this blog you'll know I've posted nothing but reviews since August; well, let me shake that up now and get on my soapbox. I've simply had nothing topical or personal to discuss here since then, but I do now. The US is, as you all know, set for another presidential election next month, with Democrat and Obama's former VP Joe Biden on track to defeat Trump, if the polls can be trusted. Personally, I sure as hell hope so.

Now, I acknowledge I'm not American, and Biden wouldn't have been my first choice for the Democratic nomination; I preferred Elizabeth Warren. But for the entire world's sake, I believe America needs to repudiate Trump regardless. Recently a friend of mine, who's less liberal than me but essentially moderate, said about George W. Bush that he, for all his ineptitude and reactionism, at least listened to people. Not only has Trump not done that, but like Nero in Rome, he has fiddled while America is burning (quite literally, in fact, given the California wildfires).

And now, alongside all the critical issues he has either responded insufficiently to or flat-out ignored, last week he contracted COVID-19 after openly and consistently refusing to wear a mask or self-isolate. This not only jeopardised his health - and by proxy his ability to do his job - but that of everybody with whom he came into contact while he was contagious. Meanwhile Biden, in several widely publicised moments, wore a mask.

I also have a few things to say about the presidential and vice-presidential debates here; I watched both live. The former was so rife with interrupting (mainly from Trump, but I concede Biden returned the favour at times) that I felt the real winner was moderator Chris Wallace for miraculously maintaining order and his temper. That hostility was partially why Kamala Harris and Mike Pence were separated by glass during their debate. By contrast, they were both a model of courtesy with each other, and when the fly landed on Pence's head I knew that moment would go viral.

But I digress; back to the election itself. I do not concur with Biden or Harris on everything, but come January I do hope they are moving into the White House, and that Trump and Pence leave it clean for them.