If Trump is re-elected in November, will we be able to absolve the Americans this time?

At some point in the next two months, we are going to have to decide whether to absolve the American people if they re-elect Donald Trump. There was a time in 2016 – although Michael Moore was already describing the candidate as a “wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full-time sociopath” – when we might have excused the US electorate if it turned out that they had made a mistake the first time around.

Even Democrats were still braying stupidly after the election that perhaps Trump would become “presidential”. But those excuses are no longer available.

For some nations, it doesn’t matter. Ask the Arabs. It’s an odd phenomenon that when Arabs are forced to vote for their local tyrant in totally fraudulent elections, we forgive them for their choice on the grounds that the polls are a farce or that they have no alternative, or because – let us speak frankly – they are only the Arab “masses” and we westerners far prefer to deal with their masters on the basis of whether those dictators do what we want them to do. It’s even more bizarre that the higher the fake election percentage dreamed up by the autocrats – and the more they are “onside” – the more we acknowledge their power, and go along with what they say.