Don’t blame the American electorate – blame the Democratic Party. That, sadly, is the most useful way to understand the outcome of the US policy-free, presidential election.
Like Brexit supporters in Britain, those most economically disadvantaged under the Democrats in 12 of the last 16 years voted against what they saw as an unfair system.
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They endured inequality at home and watched expensive and pointless US wars abroad. In response, they elected a man whose psychological condition makes him a danger to the world.
Trump’s election was helped by the Democratic Party, which is not particularly democratic.
It is just a front for big business. In the past three elections it has hand-picked its candidate, rather than trust party members.
Bernie Sanders was sidelined for Hillary Clinton and later for Joe Biden, so that the Democrats’ billionaire backers would have a candidate whom they could control.
Biden was then ousted by organisations like Disney and Netflix, which cut funding to the party, so they could select Harris, another pliable, political lightweight.
Abigail Disney of the Disney Corporation said: “If Democrats would tolerate any of her perceived shortcomings even one tenth as much as they have tolerated Biden’s… we can win this election by a lot.”
The Democrats facilitated the outsourcing of significant sections of American manufacturing to China and elsewhere in pursuit of profits in low-wage economies – even though the US minimum wage is only £5.50 an hour. Meanwhile, US households are now spending $2,000 more a year on groceries and an extra $2,000 on fuel than four years ago.
When told this, Biden said they had the money to pay for them. Meanwhile, he gave Israel £20 billion in the past year in military aid for a campaign of genocide.
The Democrats have accumulated a national debt of almost £30 trillion. It is increasing by £1 trillion every 100 days, triggering inflation and leaving the US economy on the brink of collapse.
So, along comes Donald Trump, a man who has gone through life unburdened with either a heart or a soul. In a society of equals, Trump would be laughed at. In the unequal USA, he portrayed himself as a saviour, gaining support from two very different groups.
The first are traditional, right-wing, bible-thumping Republicans. They see patriotism as extending beyond love of country to opposing that country’s government, by force if necessary.
The second group consists of the poor and the struggling working class. Trump articulated their sense of grievance and they swung the election for him.
Thirty-seven million Americans (11%) are in poverty – 8% for white people and 18% for blacks. (Here it is about 18% too, so we are on a par with black America.) That explains why 20 per cent of black voters supported Trump. They see him as their ticket out of poverty.
After four years in office, Harris promised only hope and joy, but said she did not disagree with anything Biden had done. She did not even know she was out of touch with the disaffected.
You can reject that analysis, but if you do, the alternative explanation is that the 73 million who voted for Trump are, like him, mindless morons.
That’s like saying the Germans were all Nazis in the 1930s. They were not, but they became Nazis because fascism offered a way out of poverty. Hitler, another madman, exploited the conditions which were created by the US, Britain and France after World War I.
The Democrats created the conditions for Trump to thrive. He ridiculously claimed that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs. He knew that Springfield, a declining industrial town about the size of Lisburn, received an estimated 15,000 Haitian immigrants in the past year.
Under Harris’s watch an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants entered the US, so there are a thousand pro-Trump towns like Springfield.
Trump’s promise is to make America great again. However, the balance of world power, politically and economically, is moving away from the US.
Last month Russia hosted a meeting of 32 countries, including Brazil, India and China. They account for 36% of the world economy and 45% of its population. America may never be great again.
Instead, Trump will merely make America grate again in internal division. The Democrats had four years to tackle the festering conditions which Trump exploited. Instead they protected their wealthy funders.
They will now have the next four years to regret that – and so will the rest of the world.