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Has the dust settled yet after Biden’s assumed electoral victory? Can the chorus of praise stop singing now? Now, when the hangover mist has probably cleared out, maybe we can have a shot at looking at the bigger picture. At least until the count has been completed in the states that have not yet counted all the votes, in the “world’s greatest democracy envied for its robust institutions”, as Biden put it so eloquently the other day.
If the words between quotation marks above went unnoticed, they are there because I am sceptical about that statement. I think there are better functioning democracies in the world with more robust institutions, but the Yankees are the world’s greatest when it comes to autosuggestion – a technique similar to self-hypnosis with a purpose of persuading oneself about whatever. When runners from the USA give an interview immediately after losing a race at the World Championship or at the Olympics, they sound as if they actually won the whole thing. Maybe it is an advantage for an athlete to use the power of positive thinking, also known as, being delusional. Even better example is the American dream – a dish which the Americans and non-Americans alike digest lock, stock and barrel, when in fact it is best enjoyed, piecemeal, at the movie theatres with a bag of popcorn and a can of soda.
The amount of comical and sarcastic posts after Joe Biden’s assumed electoral victory in the US presidential election is threatening to crash social media servers. People are cracking jokes and Donald Trump is the butt (crack) of them all. And rightly so. He’s been a loud-mouthed buffoon most of the time – before, during and (most probably) after his time in the Oval Office. One could write various attributes on his forehead with a permanent marker. Despite the risk that the text would not stick, one could write with a clear conscience: “narcissist”, “sexist”, “populist”, “right-wing radical”, “fascist”… However, the list is not comprehensive and the writer faces the risk of continuing to write over his body, since everything would not fit on his forehead. Somewhat repulsive thought. Not as repulsive as if you would use the forehead writing method of First Lieutenant Aldo “The Apache” Rain from Inglourious Basterds.
But, is it just me or does it seem that the indiscriminate barking at Trump risks being counterproductive, forcing those who falter straight into the sheepfold where Trump is waiting with a warm hand to “grab ‘em by the pussy” (or the male equivalent)? It reminds me of the mood that prevailed in the Swedish public debate before the Swedish Democrats (SD, far right party) were elected to the Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament. It was a mood in which the “left-wing liberals”[1] described everything and everyone as the right-wing radicals, racists and a “brown sludge”[2], if someone would dare mentioning immigration and numbers in the same sentence. The epilogue of such an attitude pushed those who faltered, those who doubted Sweden’s capacity to receive too many refugees and wanted to discuss figures, straight into the open arms of the SD. This further polarized Swedish society, and led to the increasing support of the SD. Then the “established” parties had to munch some humble pie and ended up in competing who would show more decisiveness and muscle when restricting immigration. Everything in a bid to win back voters from the SD.
The recent elections in the United States have culminated into a display of the rifts in the American society that run as deep as the Grand Canyon. The rifts run along the economic, religious, cultural, ethnic and racial lines. The “Trump effect” on American politics with Twitter diplomacy, the use of alternative facts, populism – which both draws its power from and feeds into various conspiracy theories, the mesmerizing psychological effect that “sales pitch” with overuse of superlatives in all (im)possible contexts, reduces the American politics into a reality show. Voters are apparently responding to the above, which will most likely lead to more and worse future “Trumps” as presidential candidates in the United States.
However, I cannot help but feel a certain discomfort over the euphoria with which people, across countries, classes, income levels, hierarchies, celebrity statuses and all sorts of categories, greeted Joe Biden as a saviour. “The decency has finally returned to the White House”, has by now become something of a standard phrase in this context. All those who climbed the bandwagon can spend some time thinking really hard while on the ride and be honest with themselves if they went bananas due to Donald Trump being gone or because Joe Biden is really a man who will “restore decency” to the White House.
So many have wanted to see Trump’s back leaving the Oval Office that they have been hit by a tsunami mentality without even realizing. In short, tsunami mentality means that people in disaster-stricken areas acquire Bob Marley’s “every little thing’s gonna be alright” attitude. Thus, they quickly forget about disasters and are not better prepared the next time the tsunami comes and sweeps everything in its way.
Let me take this opportunity to remind you of the Republican, George W. Bush. You remember that charming Texas guy who could not tell the difference between his right and left hand and sometimes acted as a target for Iraqi journalists’ shoe-throwing competitions? The same guy who took the opportunity to start the war on terror, invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, eavesdropped on his citizens under the blessing of the Patriot Act, approved torture as an interrogation method, got CIA agents to wreak havoc in other countries in search of terrorist suspects, while the said countries smiled shyly, as a virgin bride about to consummate the marriage, at the display of their sovereignty going down the toilet. Including Sweden. Quite rightly, the world was hungry for a change of the Bush doctrine. And boy, did the Change come!
Hundreds of millions of people around the world peed their pants when the Democrat, Barack Obama came to power. His fantastically successful election campaign and brilliant effort of his PR team, left the people feeling that a change was coming and the hope for a better world was possible. The heyday of idealism had arrived with a great hullabaloo. If presidential candidates in the United States are to win the election in their own country, it seems that they must also convince the outside world. Among those convinced was also the Nobel Prize Committee in Oslo. So they gave the man a peace prize bona fides, in good faith. Europeans loved Obama’s intelligent appearance, elegant manners, smart and dry humour and eloquence. Not many statesmen on the planet could make traffic on the four-lane highway between Arlanda International Airport and the City of Stockholm stand still, in both directions, during an official state visit to Sweden. Almost no one could make a police helicopter hover constantly above the Grand Hotel in central Stockholm during the entire duration of the three day visit. Out of all Anglo-Saxons, Swedes love Yankees the most. Maybe because many of the poor people from back in the days got tired of feeding bears in district of Dalarna and emigrated to Minnesota, so they feel a strong affiliation with them. Obama was a charmer who had the gift of the gab. Obviously, everyone likes a smooth talker rather than a loud-mouth. The former type can get away with a lot too, if we are to buy the stories of the White House interns named Monica.
Of course, Obama took the opportunity to bomb Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan during his two terms in office. But, he used diplomacy to solve the nuclear stalemate with Iran and was the first American president to drink mojito in Havana since 1959. That has to count for something, right? Surely the aforementioned crowd of “rogue states” still deserved to be bombed, to become a training ground for US elite forces, drones and cyber weapons? In all honesty, Obama never presented himself as a pacifist. Everyone else hoped he would be one. But that is their fault. When people come with sweeping tributes, even idolizations of other people because of one or a few of their qualities, they tend to easily ignore or even smooth over their shortcomings. It is yesterday’s news that people in times of crisis are looking for heroic figures and leaders who wave the banner of morality (cf. Greta Thunberg, Jeanne D’Arc of climate change).
I want to sound a cautionary note concerning the last power shift from the Republicans to the Democrats, as I see the similar scenario unfolding at the moment.
During his four years in power, the Republican Trump has accomplished a number of things: reshaped the composition of the Supreme Court; established the Space Force as the new branch of the US military; reduced corporate taxes from 35% to 21% in order to increase investment, productivity and higher wages; reformed the criminal justice system (First Step Act); and defeated ISIS’s caliphate and killed Al-Baghdadi. All of this is overshadowed by Trump’s many failures though: further polarized the country’s white and black population through his handling of the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville and dealt poorly with the assassination of George Floyd, which in turn led to the Black Lives Matter movement; threw the global image of the US into the abyss by insulting its allies and “flirting” with dictators; withdrew from the Paris climate accord; threatened to withdraw funding of NATO; embarrassed the United States by dealing with the coronavirus the way he did leaving hundreds of thousands dead people; shamefully dealt with Latin American migrant families by going medieval on them – splitting parents and their children and putting the children into cages; withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and induced chaos in the Middle East; withdrew its troops from northern Syria and left its Kurdish allies to be invaded by the Turkish military; killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani in a drone attack; weakened the health care reform (Obamacare); was indicted before the Supreme Court for his relations with Ukraine; put the US economy in crisis due to his handling of the coronavirus; and last but not least, contracted COVID-19 himself.
The Democrat, Joe Biden is no saviour though.
He has been criticized for many things in his long political career, both at the domestic and at the foreign policy level. The domestic criticism is well documented on the internet. All these fads point to Biden’s most serious shortcoming – the man has a bad judgment. I got Biden on my radar during and after the conflicts in the Balkans in the 90’s. He expressed himself countless times quite inappropriately about the Serbs as people, something that is not worthy of a senator. Sure, some individuals belonging to the Serbian people have behaved like assholes, to put it mildly, but it can never justify a hate rhetoric, no matter whose money lobbied for it and paid his kids tuition fee and various other things a politician from the State of Delaware might want to buy for dirty money.
I do not base my opinion of his poor judgement on his active support of NATO’s bombing campaign of Serbia in 1999. Nor for the sweeping demonization of the Serbs. I can accept that he is a neoliberal opportunist, groping, hair-sniffing, old sleazbag. I can also accept the fact that he is not a friend of the Serbs. I can even accept that he is actively supporting Serbia’s enemies. However, we live in a free world and he can do as he pleases. But, I do have a problem with his person.
I remember a specific scandal which occurred during his official state visit to Belgrade in 2016. Biden came to Serbia as the US Vice President and as the first visitor of the highest rank after Jimmy Carter’s visit in the 1980s. The diplomatic protocol of an official state visit outlines how an activity should be performed. In this particular case, the incumbent Serbian president and his “guest” are supposed to listen to the military orchestra’s intonation of both countries’ national anthems, after which they continue to parade together on the red carpet in front of the Honour Guards. As they approach the Serbian flag, they are supposed to jointly salute the flag with a nod. Vladimir Putin of Russia did so during his state visit. Xi Jingpin of China did so as well. Joe Biden refused. If you come to an official state visit as the Vice President of a country claiming to be “The World’s Greatest Democracy”, and the diplomatic protocol instructs you to salute the country’s flag by nodding, you do so. Period. I understand that he did not give a flying fuck about the Serbian political leadership in the 1990s. And rightly so. But when you some 15 years later do not greet a country’s flag, you show that you could not care less about the coming generations of that country either. His refusal to greet the flag is an insult to Serbia, its people, a sign of a lack of respect and a clear signal to the “neighbours” who should be trying to jointly repair the burned bridges after a bloody conflict. If this is the way the United States wants to ensure lasting peace, reconciliation and promote regional cooperation in the Balkans, then change your advisers, goddammit. And pronto.
So, if I may politely ask the ladies and gentlemen of the distinguished Nobel Peace Prize Committee to wait, at least until Joe Biden’s term expires, if he is to become the president, before appointing him as the next saviour and messenger of hope and peace.
Let’s make no bones about the fact that Serbia is an unimportant country for the United States and its allies in the West. To the great annoyance of the Serbs. Most of all, the Serbs want to be important and play a larger role in the world politics. And maybe they did that when they were the main sponsors of the grand project, which was a miniature EU 40 years before the European Communities even existed. That project was Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia is now dead and buried, so all the homogeneous states now have the luxury to blame their own mistakes on the people within their own, soon to be brain-drained, borders. Sometimes the ghost of Yugoslavia wanders about on candy shelves of the well-equipped grocery stores or in the form of ex-Yugoslav rock played in the tavern cellars of the ex-Yugoslav diaspora around the world. There, all ex countrymen can chill, munch on their childhood sweets, enjoy good music and not hesitate to sing “pjesma” or “pesma” (dialectal difference of one and the same word: a song, which magically makes the same language have four different names, at least). So, it’s not that bad after all. At the moment, the Serbs will probably have to make do with the fact that they are not important.
They can kindly stand in line with other equally unimportant countries, and come to terms with the fact that for them, Trump or Biden, “tomayto” or “potahto”, makes no major difference. In the end, they’re both vegetables.
/Miller
[1] As the Swedish Democrats’ party leader, Jimmie Åkesson, calls them.
[2] Referring to the Sturmabteilung (SA) or “Stormtroopers” of the German Nazi Party from the 1920’s, who wore brown uniforms, also known as the “Brownshirts”.