Stephen Paton: It’s a warning for all that so many voted Trump

IN years to come, I believe we will look back on the 2020 US election as a perfect encapsulation of the current political state of our planet.

Joe Biden’s narrow election victory has not only demonstrated the profound disconnect between what people need and what politicians are offering, it has uncovered our own UK Government’s apparent indifference toward fascism.

There should be no doubt that Trump would happily burn the electoral system to the ground if it secured him four more years in the White House. And while the Tango Tyrant wailed on social media that vote counting should stop, our own floppy-haired Prime Minister refused to defend even the most basic principles of democracy, lest it upset the Cheeto-in-Chief.

Neither the Prime Minister nor Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab would go on record to confirm that, in a democratic election, all votes should be counted.

Johnson previously claimed he would never bow to demands that we lower food standards while negotiating a trade deal with the US. Who could possibly believe that the Tory leader would have the spine to oppose the US now, when he wouldn’t dare criticise the soon-to-be former president for trying to stage a very public coup?

The UK has revealed itself to be led by cowards unable to oppose strongman leaders at a time when fascism is on the rise around the world.

Right-wing populism is a disease that has infected country after country over the last few years, including the US. With leaders such as Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Viktor Orban in Hungary leading the charge, progressive values have repeatedly found themselves in the crosshairs of far-right demagogues.

It’s no secret that right-wing leaders capitalise on discontent to turn people against each other and further their own agendas, a tactic that will remain successful until the left comes up with credible leaders who can take on rampant capitalism, inequality and ecological collapse.

Trump being dragged out the White House, leaving nothing behind but a streak of fake tan is something to celebrate, but it is a temporary victory at best.

There was no possibility of a “good” outcome in America; just an objectively worse one that has been narrowly avoided.

Trump presided over the loss of a quarter-of-a-million Americans to the coronavirus. He separated families and caged children at the border, hundreds of whom may never be reunited with their parents. The US election should have ended with a landslide win for the opponent to this monstrous caricature of American excess. Instead, Joe Biden scraped ahead by less than a percentage point in many states. Why was the race so close?

In Florida, 60% of voters backed raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. That’s a higher percentage than either Trump…