Recognizing genius: Trump as the greatest political genius in recent times

Adapted from The Trenchant Observer, August 24, 2022.¹

Democrats and small “d” democrats, even in the Republican Party, have consistently underrated the political genius of Donald Trump.

He is a master entertainer and storyteller, with an incredible ability to capture and retain public attention. He has been an unending source of ratings and profits for the cable news channels.

Americans are endlessly fascinated with Donald Trump.

He has demonstrated a genius for corrupting all around him and who come in contact with him not seen since Adolf Hitler.

He is a master propagandist who puts the Nazi’s Josef Goebbels to shame.

Look at his achievements.

He has singlehandedly turned the Republican Party into an instrument of his will.

He has so terrified the Democrats that they have been afraid to hold him accountable under the law.

He and his supporters so scared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she blocked any broad impeachment inquiry for years, before finally allowing a narrow inquiry limited to Ukraine to proceed.

He has so intimidated President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland that they have refused to indict him for his many apparent crimes in office, and to indict any of his co-conspirators in these crimes, including an insurrection aimed at overthrowing the 2020 election and the constitution.

Trump is an incredible genius who has achieved impunity.

He is a man above the law.

And his co-conspirators have also been granted impunity.

They too are above the law.

He has created a powerful cult following of tens of millions of people who believe he should be above the law, and who react with threats of violence and actual violence to any attempts to hold him accountable before the law.

Trump is a genius who has created and leads a movement which may soon control the House and the Senate of tbe United States.

Trump so controls the Republican Party that many if not most of its candidates for the House and Senate in 2022 support the Big Lie that he won the 2020 presidential election which he claims–without a scintilla of evidence–Joe Biden stole through massive fraud.

Donald Trump has brilliantly succeeded is erasing the concept of truth, and spun an alternate universe of lies and distortions that is totally unmoored from facts and reality.

He has mastered the Big Lie  as a tool for destroying the public’s belief in the very concept of truth.

He is an absolute genius, a brilliant demagogue who may be elected again as the president of the United States.

His political talents exceed those of Adolf Hitler.

Indeed, Donald Trump is a stupendous political genius.

It is high time that we fully recognize that genius.

Some say he will be the next president of the United States.

Others say we must recognize the mortal threat to American democracy which he represents. And act.

If Trump is elected president in 2024, his affinity for Vladimir Putin and Russia would probably lead to a collapse of U.S. support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.

1. ” Ukraine War, August 23: 2022: “Recognizing genius–Trump as the most brilliant fascist demagogue since Adolf Hitler,” The Trenchant Observer, August 23, 2022.

Part Two

Election results in Angola: MPLA Leads, but loses supermajority in National Assembly; UNITA questions results

Dispatches

Pierre Lepidi (Luanda), “En Angola, le président Joao Lourenço s’oriente vers une victoire serrée; Après un dépouillement quasi complet, le MPLA, à la tête du pays depuis 1975, l’emporte mais connaît un fort recul face à l’Unita, principal parti d’opposition, qui conteste les résultats,” Le Monde, le 26 août 2022 (15h35, mis à jour à 03h54);

Analysis

Lepidi reports the following election results;

Revised Google translation

According to the figures returned by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) after counting 97.04% of the ballots, the Party-State (MPLA) is in the lead of the votes with 51.07% of the votes ahead of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) with 44.05%, the main opposition movement and lifelong rival. The cumulative score of the other six teams is around 5%.

Up until now, the MPLA has ruled with a two-thirds majority in congress, which meant it never had to compromise with UNITA or other parties. Now it will, ushering in a new era of constitutional government in Angola.

The 2010 Constitution, drafted by sophisticated constitutional scholars with doctorates from Portugal’s prestigious University of Coimbra Law Faculty, will now be put to the test. The Constitution is a surprisingly liberal document, replacing the 1992 constitution adopted after  a civil war )between the MPLA and UNITA (1975-1992) which cost some 500,000 lives.

The MPLA was backed by Cuba (including troops) and the Soviet Union, while the UNITA movement of Jonas Savimbi was backed by the United States and the CIA.

Independence was not achieved until 1975, late for Africa, after a long and bloody colonial war (1962-1974) and the democratic revolution in Portugal of April 25, 1974.

The civil war ended in 1992. A constitution adopted in 1992 was replaced by a modern constitution in 2010 which provides for multi-party rule through the legislature assembly.

In the future, with the MPLA’s loss of its two-thirds majority in the legislative assembly, the 2022 elections could be viewed as the birthdate of a real democracy in Angola.

Much will depend on the MPLA’s ability to work within the constitution and the society’s ability to give life to the democratic forms established in it.

In 2011, the author led an Access to Justice and Human Rights project in Angola for Freedom House, under a grant from the National Democratic Institute. The project included partnersips with the Angolan Bar Association and Omunga, a grass-roots NGO located in Lobito, Benguela Province. Major activities included a national congress on Access to Justice sponsored by the Angolan Bar Association, held in Huambo, and a program of public debates, radio broadcasts, and university lectures sponsored by Omunga.