Peter Espeut | The evil we know

I find that we Jamaicans spend an awfully large amount of time talking about the coming elections in the United States of America (USA). Maybe some of us just love politics, and there just isn’t enough cass-cass locally. Ha!

If I were American and focused on the issues, I would have a most difficult time deciding who to vote for.

Either I would be forced to vote for an incorrigible liar, racist, sexual predator and misogynist, who supports warmongering Russia, who is from a historically warmongering party, which is against any form of gun control for its citizens (causing those guns to leak into my country, wreaking all sorts of havoc), but which is against abortion and normalising homosexuality; or I would be forced to vote for a party devoted to what they call “reproductive rights” (doublespeak for the right not to reproduce) meaning abortion on demand – a modern form of genocide; a party which supports gender fluidity (which makes same-sex marriage an archaic concept), and the dismantling of the traditional family.

But then, it seems, these are not the main issues driving voting behaviour in the USA.

Many Americans support Donald Trump because he promises MAGA – to ”make America great again”, which many interpret to mean “make America white again”. He is said to be the candidate of choice for rednecks and those who long for the return of the old South, where black people knew their place. Could anyone really justify, in this day and age, voting for someone because he is white and promotes white supremacy?

How about justifying voting for someone because they are black – and a black woman at that! Can that be morally justified while condemning the MAGA people?

I guess I would have to vote for Kamala Harris, not because she is black, or a woman, nor even because of her Jamaican ancestry (her father taught me in graduate school; good memories); but because Donald Trump is a dangerous man, he must be kept out of the White House at all costs! Sometimes you have to vote for the evil you know, against the greater evil!

But white rural America likes “the Donald”, and all the political polls suggest that despite his egregious negatives, it will be a close race. This says more about US voters than about Trump. They prefer to vote for a certified liar and convicted felon, because he supports what they stand for.

SUPPORT FOR TRUMP

The religious right have explained their support for Trump in biblical terms. In the Old Testament book of Ezra (1:1-4) the pagan King Cyrus of Persia (Jews consider pagans unclean infidels) liberated the Jewish captives in Babylon, and allowed them to return to their homeland Israel, and even helped them to rebuild Solomon’s temple to Yahweh. God can use even unclean sinful men – who have power – to achieve his ends and carry forward his plans.

Many fundamentalist Christians see Donald Trump as a modern King Cyrus. He promised to overturn Roe v Wade through the US Supreme Court; they elected him, and he did. He promises to do more of the same if re-elected, and for many, Trump has credibility. The more the Democrats promote the sexual revolution by promising greater access to abortion, the more the support for Trump solidifies. The more Trump’s cupidity is highlighted, the more his standing as King Cyrus is strengthened.

When the history of this period in the USA is written, it will be deemed a low point in the annals of that potentially great country. Their blind support for whatever Israel does (another position based on religious fundamentalism) flies in the face of all moral sensibilities.

A win for Kamala Harris in November will not bring an end to Trumpism; at his age he is unlikely to try again for the presidency, and he will vanish from the political scene to face his various court cases. But in power the Democratic Party will veer further to the left, provoking stronger reaction; and the Republican Party will have to reinvent itself, and respond by finding a new Trumpish messiah.

CATCH 22

This is the catch 22 dilemma you face when you fight greater evil with lesser evil. You hope there is less evil in the end (better?), but the outcome due to escalation might actually be worse! You vote for the evil you know (which you think is the lesser of the two), but you just don’t know what lies ahead.

We here in Jamaica are faced with a choice of the same kind, if not of the same degree. The wise electorate may vote out the evil they know in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) – a rising autocracy, decreasing transparency, high levels of corruption – by voting in a similarly corrupt People’s National Party (PNP) government, which also supports decreasing transparency. Different snouts in the trough.

The PNP and JLP, backed by their partisans in the private sector, have not served us well, and the church – which could provide moral leadership and direction – largely spends its time defending its narrow interests.

Instead of remaining to make Jamaica great by opposing unjust structures and increasing GDP, generations of our best – trained in our best high schools – have migrated to greener pastures, for personal gain. The values of materialism and individualism we have ingrained in our young people have created the perfect environment for the deepening of political corruption, environmental degradation and national underdevelopment.

Lord, send us men and women of vision, lest we perish!

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com