US Election – lessons for Irish politicians

Irish politicians may well be looking warily on the US election results as they move into the race for power.  There can be no doubt that Donald Trump won the election because he was listening to what mattered to the people of the United States, and planning to address their very real concerns which echo many of the concerns of the electorate in Ireland.  Immigration, the economy and inflation all figured very high on the American agenda, yet Vice President Harris had little to say on these matters. What she did say was that there was nothing she would change about Joe Biden’s policies.  This was clearly a massive mistake.

Ugly language is a hallmark of American elections.  Trump uses words in a way which is very offensive to many on occasion, but there can be no doubt that the people of America have embraced him regardless, as he won the Presidency, and Republicans have control of both Houses of Congress.

Her running mate, Tim Walz signed a Law in Minnesota allowing the state “temporary emergency jurisdiction” in cases where a child had been unable to obtain gender-affirming care”

People were desperate for change. They had seen Democratic policies lead to spiralling levels of illegal immigration; cities where hundreds of people were living on the street in tents, where drug addiction had spiralled out of control fuelling the levels of homelessness; a 22% increase in grocery and fuel  prices in the last few years; to crime especially shoplifting occurring on a massive scale, and prosecutions being very rare, leading small businesses into bankruptcy because they could not afford the scale of the losses they were experiencing; where “defunding the police” – i.e. making it impossible for normal policing to function – was the cry  not just of a few misguided souls but a cause trumpeted even by some politicians.

What did Kamala Harris offer?  Hers was the language of “reproductive rights and “trans rights.”  There seemed to be little more.  In April 2023 her running mate, Tim Walz signed a Law in Minnesota allowing the state “temporary emergency jurisdiction” in cases where a child had been unable to obtain gender-affirming care.  Camilla Long reported in the Sunday Times that 14,000 children in the US have had surgery to change their sex over the past five years.

Misinformation

Some of her rhetoric was clearly untrue.  She conducted her campaign with massive emphasis on the fact that Donald Trump had deprived American women of “bodily autonomy”, of “the right to healthcare”, of how since Roe v Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court women’s lives have been in danger, even lost. She never alluded to the fact that Trump had made abortion a matter to be decided by individual states.

As was the case here in Ireland, facts were misrepresented.

In 2012, in Ireland, Savita Halappanavar tragically died.  She was widely reported to have died while pregnant because she was refused an abortion. A  coroner’s inquest found that the actual cause of her death was an infection with a virulent antibiotic-resistant strain of E.coli compounded by a series of system failures. HIQA and the HSE also found that her death was due to medical failures.

In America, Amber Thurman, the woman about whom Harris spoke, was approximately nine weeks pregnant with twins when she took abortion inducing drugs. Several days later she went to hospital having experienced an incomplete abortion.

There was no foetal cardiac activity – the twins were no longer alive. She was given antibiotics, and surgery was performed approximately 20 hours later.  She died on the operating table during the procedure.

The role of the traditional media during this election was extraordinary. There was lots of very limited reporting and much deliberately  misleading reporting”

Harris said she died because she was refused treatment because she was pregnant.  This was untrue.  She was no longer pregnant. The evidence is that she died, having taken the drugs to induce an abortion, because of medical malpractice in not operating as a matter of urgency. Amber Thurman’s death was undoubtedly a tragedy, but she did not die because she was refused an abortion.

The role of the traditional media during this election was extraordinary.  There was lots of very limited reporting and much deliberately  misleading reporting, individual instances of which were replayed repeatedly to portray Donald Trump as some sort of monster. He was, for example, called a “Nazi” and “Hitler”, a “fascist”  as a consequence of misreporting of the incident in which, referring to a riot, he said  “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists” and continued “there were good people on many sides”.

Criticism

This was reported as his saying that Nazis were good people by the simple technique of omitting the words “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists.” He subsequently said “Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our Creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.”

They called him racist, yet many Latinos and Afro-Americans recognised that his policies would benefit them far more than Harris’s would and voted accordingly.

They called him a warmonger whose unpredictability would make the world a less safe place. Yet as President, Trump did not take America into war, he is calling for the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine to be brought to an end.   The world needs those conflicts, like all others, to come to an end.  It is to be hoped that he can be an influence for good in these conflicts.

The lawful movement of people across the world is necessary for societies to develop.  We have international obligations to care for refugees. Yet, countries have borders to define their territory, and they need to protect those borders to protect their peoples.  Illegal Immigration is a major problem in Ireland, in the UK and in most countries of the world, including America.

His election came as a surprise to many in the media”

It enables organised crime such as drug smuggling and human trafficking, and even terrorism.  Trump has said that he will deport those found by the courts to be illegally in America.  In April he said, “I will be complying with court orders.  I will be doing everything on a very legal basis. I have great respect for the Supreme Court.”   He has spoken of his desire to unite the American people. This is not widely reported.

Some 75 million people voted for Trump. Republicans have control of both Houses of Congress now, which should facilitate Trump in his avowed aim to improve the lot of ordinary Americans.  He has four short years to do this.

His election came as a surprise to many in the media.  They could not see that woke issues were not as important as economic issues for people struggling to live in a world which has become increasingly difficult.

Irish politicians could learn from America’s experience.