By james art 
At the time of this column’s writing (last Thursday), 58 million mail-in and early in-person votes had been cast in the U.S. election. The gender breakdown is 54% female, 46% male. There was a 10-point gap between men and women in early voting in swing states.
The US presidential election this Tuesday has monumental significance. We recall that in 2016, Donald Trump “got lucky” in the Oval Office. Like any dog, he chased the car. When the car stopped, he had two options. Turn tail and go back. Or the one he hired: abandon his territorial scent as he spends the next few years slandering his own country and building his reckless GOP hate-fest.
Unlike most US elections, age is a big factor this time. Age and some of its consequences have crept up on 81-year-old Joe Biden and brought him closer to the chaise longue in the cool backyard. Let’s back up a bit.
In 2008, when 47-year-old Barack Obama was running against 72-year-old John McCain, the young senator was openly polite, but he passed McCain — permanently. The TV would always show McCain (with war injuries) slowly making his way up to a speaking platform. At the same time, there was Obama trotting to the podium. It was no disrespect when Obama made McCain look old. It was politics.
On Tuesday, based on CNN and several other polls, Kamala Harris will be the 47th president of the United States. She is 60 years old. If the win doesn’t happen, I’ll have to make a trip to voodoo St. Thomas to keep my sanity.
To paraphrase and simplify Occam’s Razor: “the simplest explanation is usually the best”. If that philosophy holds, Harris wins in almost every metric. Spoiler alert: Occam’s Razor and politics seem to be at war with each other.
“On Monday, Trump, 78, publicly said the economy is good and he wants credit. On Wednesday, Trump said the economy is a ‘disaster’ and Vice President Kamala Harris deserves the blame,” Maddow’s blog wrote on Oct. 31.
Trump is a very confused man. Every time he sits down with a friendly news network, he bashes the US economy and paints a picture of gloom and doom. Yet, with a new breath, he says the economy is only good because various working sectors expect a Trump victory.
In 2016, when Trump did well in the Electoral College, many Clinton-leaning voters had a healthy dislike for her. In 2024, Trump has visibly slowed down physically and mentally. At the same time, he felt more comfortable with the hatred and cruelty of his politics. His minions are more vicious.
One factor that stands out about Trump is his inability to answer questions and make the answers make sense. A reason can be found here. In 2008, when Vice President-elect Sarah Palin demonstrated her stunning blankness to Americans and the world, international affairs expert Fareed Zakaria explained that it wasn’t just that Palin couldn’t answer questions. How could she when she didn’t understand the question?
Trump’s recent rally held at Madison Square Gardens was a cavalcade of all racism, sexism, vile misogyny and hatred of the “other”. It was like throwing a night pot full of all the stench that Trump’s GOP could hold onto until it was directed at the faces of those who make up the basic good that America has stood for.
HARRIS GLOBAL SUPPORT
Although street-level Jamaicans and those under the age of 25 are not in the mood for the US election, there is widespread acceptance of democracy and hope that it is winning among pro-democracy countries. Studies show considerable support in this hope.
In Kamala’s public exposure, it catapulted Trump’s incompetence by comparison. There are some who believe that Harris’ victory will not be by scraping and whispering, but by a blowout. Of course, if Occam’s razor holds.
Global tensions are rising, and as much as America and the CIA have made the world community remember this dirty past, many democracies recognize the utility of American leadership, its influence, and its soft and hard power.
Donald Trump is using his 2017 – 2021 period to learn the ropes, not of governing, but of capturing it for his billionaire aides and allies. Absolutely nothing good can come from another term. Not only does Harris have a big tent, but her to-do list will be a challenge if Tuesday’s vote fails to secure the Senate and House.
NOT A GOOD LOOK, DR. TUFTON
I recently read about Dr. Brady. He is a Jamaican doctor living abroad who has been coming to Jamaica for about 20 years to perform critical, specialized surgeries on children in Jamaica. This special human being does this out of the goodness of his heart as he does not charge for his services.
He was recently in Jamaica and was unable to perform a certain operation on a young patient at the Bustamante Children’s Hospital due to inadequate infrastructure. We would all ask ourselves, why was that?
The Ministry of Health and the Government of Jamaica know that Dr. Brady comes every year to perform the operations. They knew where he would perform the operations. Why was the hospital not well prepared to perform the operations?
I saw where Tufton made a feeble attempt to justify himself and announced that the surgery would be performed at UWI, but not by Dr. Brady. Minister Tufton, this is not good enough.
SENSELESS DEATH
Recently, police chased a motorcyclist on Olympic Road. As far as I can tell, the young man was not an armed assailant or a suspected violent robber and died after being hit by the police officer. The obvious question is, what idiot cop would want to chase down a person riding a bike?
Jamaican police have fired on shuttle taxis in the past. In one case, a schoolgirl from Immaculate was shot dead by police while she was a passenger in a taxi.
Police shot at buses. In one case, on a long Spanish city road, a passenger’s fingers were cut off.
Aside from the idiocy, could the common denominator be cops sipping the sauce while on duty?
Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to [email protected] and [email protected].