Other people’s elections are a funny old game. Looking over the fence, it’s easy to make some observations on what could be done better or sooner. What could make the system more accessible, fairer, more democratic.

I know I’m not the only person in the world who was sickened when Donald Trump was elected President of the USA in 2016 – although I had called the result simply because the US wouldn’t – at that time – vote for a woman, Hilary or otherwise.

This 2020 election looks, shamefully, like it will be another victory for Trump and my rationale for this thinking is, Dear Democrats, because you haven’t got your act together soon enough.

I know the system dictates you have this endless round of primaries – but so close to the election? To be fighting among yourselves? Surely it would have been wiser to have sorted your next presidential candidate back in 2017 so they could have acted as critical opposition to a man that has done so much damage to so many people’s lives in such a relatively short period of time. Trump filed his paperwork for re-election back on his Inauguration Day in January 2017 and, as we’ve seen, has been holding his odious style of election rallies ever since.

Would it not have been wise for the Democrats to at least sort their candidate in the same year? So other voices could be heard, and heard in time, to contradict the bilious rhetoric we face from Trump’s office and Twitter feed every day?

If the work had started in 2017 think how much nearer they’d be to the win. Olympians don’t start training for the contest four months before the contest. They train for years. For lifetimes. Had you got on with the job sooner, Dear Democrats, you could have looked for and selected someone younger – late seventies is too old. You could have looked for someone poorer – billionaires are not known for their care and concern for those without resources. You could have looked for diversity – maybe even a woman (although I still think the USA is too set in its sexist ways to vote in a woman, which is a shame as Elizabeth Warren would be a genuinely good pick).

No, such is the screwed up system, the endless primaries drag on, all the while allowing Trump to continue screwing (up) the system. During his first term in office, partisan gerrymandering has continued apace, and even if a credible Democratic nominee emerges later this year, voter suppression in the US will deny millions their right to chose someone other than Donald Trump.

Looking over the fence, there’s nothing I can do to influence change yet the outcome of this next North American election will have far reaching consequences for me and for millions of others around the world.

Perhaps, Dear Democrats, you could hurry things along – pick someone who believes in a fair, just and equal society, prepared to reform the system, eliminate corruption and improve the circumstances for the American people who, for the most part, are good folk indeed. Then the rest of us can breathe a sigh of relief and watch the world rebalance itself from the extremes inflicted by Trump and his ilk.

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash