So how correct was Trump hysteria?

I love the internet.com. Everything is just right there at ones fingertips. So much information a mere click of a button away. Its not all good though obviously, there is probably a lot more bad than there is good.

I have my interwebs browser set up in a very specific way. One bunch of links labelled left wing thinking and another for the right wing. Its by no means infallible, there is plenty of overlap. But it isn't a bad rule of thumb.

So I was looking through my left wing list to find something interesting when I found this link on the Huffington post from 2016. I had a shrewd idea where it was going to go, and I normally give up reading something from an extreme left wing media outlet if it doesn't grab my attention. But I was immediately swept up in how well crafted this article was. I must doff my cap to the author.

It highlighted rather succinctly how historians study the past, and although it missed out a few key elements, for its length, he made his argument very well. I wasn't really expecting a non-exhaustive list on how society quickly spirals out of control throughout history, And this articles focus was more on the dangers of the cult of personality. Historically, they're easy to point the finger at

Hitler

Stalin

Mao

Mugabe

Putin

Easy peasy, these are the bad guys, how could we not have seen it at the time? Well, many did see it, including plenty in their own country as well as abroad. You don't need the whole country behind you, just enough of it to eliminate your most vocal opponents and terrorise the rest into silence by fear. Most Germans weren't Nazi's and not all Nazi's were German.

But how can we reliably compare Donald Trump to Hitler? This paragraph really stuck out to me.

Trump says he will Make America Great Again, when in fact America is currently great, according to pretty well any statistics. He is using passion, anger and rhetoric in the same way all his predecessors did -- a charismatic narcissist who feeds on the crowd to become ever stronger, creating a cult around himself. You can blame society, politicians, the media, for America getting to the point that it's ready for Trump, but the bigger historical picture is that history generally plays out the same way each time someone like him becomes the boss.

Well no it doesn't actually. In fact, as a historian myself (using the unfair benefit of hindsight) I can say for certain that the current Biden administration is causing much more division and panic in the US and the wider international community than Trump ever did. For all his many faults (he is possibly the most narcissistic man I have ever come across) He also presented as a very strong leader on the World stage, the Chinese (and in particular Putin) just didn't know how to handle him. Domestically he done what most Republicans do, cut taxes, keep the government out of people's pockets and restore a feeling of pride in ones country.

Biden on the other hand, straight out of the gates went into attack mode. January 6th being the most obvious one. It never struck him that the most heavily armed citizenry on the entire planet would go completely unarmed to Capitol Hill to overthrow the government. Rather than soothe tension, he just went and poured lighter fluid all over it.

Trumps failings are many, but Biden is weak and feeble, allowing division to explode all over the Republic. The US is now more divided than it ever was. Trump may very well have sowed the seed of division, but had Biden used even an ounce of intelligence he could have ensured the Republicans wouldn't be seeing the inside of the White House for a generation. I rarely make predictions but make no mistake. The Republicans will take back the White House in 2024.

So where am I going with all this?

While history does show us how terrible a cult of personality can be, we rarely get much focus on what happens when a country has weak, divisive leadership. Trudeau in Canada, Jacinda Arden in New Zealand, even Macron in France are examples of a weak leader just as dangerous, and sometimes much more dangerous than their strong, cultish counterparts.

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”

G. Michael Hopf

And Brexit.

It came as no surprise to me that the author was a regular reader of The Guardian. So we know just how far left wing this author is (very)

Brexit was driven by anger (it wasn't) it is a major shift in societal thinking (it wasn't)

"I have pro-Brexit friends who say, "Oh, you're going to blame that on Brexit too??" But they don't realize that actually, yes, historians will trace neat lines from apparently unrelated events back to major political and social shifts like Brexit"

Historians will trace many lines back to Brexit, some of them good, some of them bad. Its what historians do! Its something that will be written and debated about for many years to come, Brexit wasn't a social shift, it was a reckoning, while the media in Britain is mostly of a left wing leaning (in particular TV) By far and away the most popular newspapers in the country are The Daily Mail & The Sun which are right wing. This would suggest that Britain is very much further to the right than the lefty BBC seems to think it is.

Britain pre-Brexit was suffering in the choke-hold of left wing thinking, our entire society was pinned beneath a Liberal fascist jackboot. It was time for some air.

The final section of the article is the usual scaremongering one would expect from someone who leans so far left, which was a shame because I was actually enjoying the read. But I did end up thinking this is someone who would be an insufferable bore down the pub, the kind of person who just will not shut up preaching and just enjoy a bit of life.

None of what the author predicted came true. Britain has remained on a steadfast, left of centre course. Trump was voted out to be replaced by a weak man. Putin did what Putin was always going to do (emboldened by the weakness of the USA no doubt) and the world continued to turn.

I'm reminded of those people who wander the City streets draped in sandwich boards with the words "THE END IS NIGH" plastered across them. They just fail to highlight what the end actually is or the exact timing of nigh.