The Manchurian Candidate?

The past two weeks in US politics have been a constant reminder of the plot of Richard Condon’s The Manchurian Candidate, published in 1959, in which the objective was to install a KGB-controlled agent as the President.
Every act emanating from the hand of President Trump so far has resulted in confusion, even chaos, in its implementation. Congress has been ignored or bullied into acquiescence and the Federal Government is virtually incapable of functioning, with demoralised, befuddled employees unsure if they even have jobs anymore.
His proposed cabinet team comprises the most unqualified and irrational candidates, guaranteeing further incompetence. This administration is destined to be even more shambolic than Trump’s previous one.
This is surprising given that Trump and his Project 2025 team had been planning for more than a year for this eventuality. Now that it’s arrived, their plans are shown to be amateurish at best.
Is this deliberate? Is chaos the real objective? Remembering how chummy Trump was with Vladimir Putin during his first presidency, and how secretive their conversations were, is it not reasonable to wonder whether Putin may be pulling Trump’s strings this time around (assuming he wasn’t before)?
We shall wait and see. In the meantime, the only hope I see for avoiding a complete collapse of democracy in the United States is that legal challenges and rulings, as well as fierce public disapproval, compel Trump to withdraw most of his contentious measures. Otherwise the long term doesn’t bear thinking about.

Leave a comment