Fear Triumphs Over Hope

When I started this blog, I wanted to write about photography, music, and books. My only rule was to never write anything negative. I have done that.

Today, for the first time, I have to break my rule. I will let The Guardian speak for me.

Sometimes fear triumphs over hope.

Donald Trump’s shocking victory in the 2016 US presidential election was described as a leap into the political unknown. This time there is no excuse. America knew that he was a convicted criminal, serial liar and racist demagogue who four years ago attempted to overthrow the government. It voted for him anyway.

The result is a catastrophe for the world. It saw Kamala Harris’s competence and expertise, her decency and grace, her potential to be the first female president in America’s 248-year history. It also saw Trump’s venality and vulgarity, his crass insults and crude populism, his dehumanisation of immigrants that echoed Adolf Hitler. And the world asked: how is this race even close?

But elections hold up a mirror to a nation and the nation does not always like what it sees

I despair too much this morning to say anything else.

Despair