Shall we compare how the UK’s leading politicians have responded to Donald Trump’s election victory? Yes, let’s.
‘I would like to congratulate Donald Trump on being elected the next president of the United States, following a hard-fought campaign.’
‘Britain and the United States have an enduring and special relationship based on the values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.’
‘We are, and will remain, strong and close partners on trade, security and defence.’
‘I look forward to working with president-elect Donald Trump, building on these ties to ensure the security and prosperity of our nations in the years ahead.’
‘I think there's a lot to be positive about. It's very important not to prejudge the president-elect or his administration.’
‘Donald Trump, as I've said before, is a deal maker and I think that could be a good thing for Britain, but it can also a good thing for Europe. I think that's what we need to focus on today.’
‘I, during that campaign, found so many of President-elect Trump’s comments deeply abhorrent and I never want to be, I am not prepared to be, a politician that maintains a diplomatic silence in the face of attitudes of racism, sexism, misogyny or intolerance of any kind.’
‘I think it is important today that, firstly, I hope that President-elect Trump turns out to be a president very different to the kind of candidate he was and reaches out to those who felt vilified by his campaign, but people of progressive opinion the world over, I think, do have to stand up for the values of tolerance and respect for diversity and difference.’
Spot the difference?
Donald Trump might be the President-elect but he is also a man who wants to undo abortion laws; has hired a chief strategist who stands accused of racism and anti-Semitism; ran alongside a Vice President-elect who is forcing women to hold and pay for funerals of miscarried and aborted foetuses in his home state; has been, himself, accused of multiple sexual assaults; has regularly incited racial divisions; has been openly sexist so many times that it's impossible to keep track.
It’s never easy when someone or something you fundamentally disagree with rises to prominence or, you know, wins a democratic election. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were right to concede their loss and speak of Donald Trump in the most positive terms they could. That’s democracy, that’s process and that’s what politicians who respect democracy must do (never mind that Trump had said he would contest the result if he lost, what’s a bit of race-baiting or riot inciting between friends).
However, there’s something about our government’s refusal to acknowledge the problematic nature of Trump’s campaign and victory which really doesn’t sit well.
Boris Johnson has told us all (well, those who don’t read Breitbart) to be ‘optimistic’, stop ‘whingeing’ and ‘snap out of the doom and gloom’ which has followed Brexit and Trump’s respective victories.
That’s all very well and good, but pretending that Donald Trump didn’t say sexist, racist, xenophobic and divisive things on the campaign trail or dismissing them, convincing ourselves ‘he didn’t really mean them’ and brushing them off as ‘the inevitable japes of an election’ is absurd. Worse than that it explicitly legitimises and condones his behaviour.
It’s really important that we do not normalise this sort of behaviour – not from public officials, not from campaigning politicians, not from anyone.
Nicola Sturgeon, unlike Boris Johnson, has refused to backtrack on her criticisms of Donal Trump, made during the months leading up to his election. Her refusal to do so is important, it suggests that just as she cannot take her (rightful) critique of his abhorrent campaign rhetoric he cannot undo the harm he has done.
To behave as though the last 18 months of Donald Trump didn’t happen is to appease, condone and normalise him. In doing that you tacitly agree with things he has said and done and rewrite history – that’s what they mean when they say we are living in a ‘post fact’ and 'post truth' world.
It’s not ‘doom and gloom’ we need to snap out of, it’s this alternate universe we find ourselves in where Nigel Farage meets with the future President of the United States before the Prime Minister, where things that categorically are and have been true are denied and where Donald Trump is not held to account. It’s worrying that our leaders, with the exception of Nicola Sturgeon, don’t seem to get that.
Just because someone is elected to a position of power doesn't mean they are suddenly let off the hook. When was any other politician, ever, given a blank slate to govern? Would the right wing press have drawn a line under Hillary's past if she'd been elected? I somehow doubt it. Do debates and criticisms suddenly disappear once the outcome of an election is decided?
A society where the answer to all of the above is 'yes' isn't democracy...it's called something else...
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.