Two journalists from Geneva, Philippe Mottaz (very old friend), and Stéphane Bussard (Le Temps) are writing a running commentary on the Trump presidency in the form of a letter exchange. They have invited me to join. I write in English; they translate into French. Topics of #47: death penalty ,fatigue and exhaustion with politics, my attending a “meet and greet” in Hendersonville/NC, and Stéphane’s comment on Marco Rubio’s pretty impertinent remarks in Athens. My contributions are here; the exchange is on Substack. Link here.
Hi Philippe and Stephane
I know we are focusing on the midterm elections, but right now you got to mention Tennessee. The botched execution of a murderer, who survived two attempts to kill her with lethal injections and now lies in a hospital ward. It calls for an outcry. I am amazed by the matter-of-fact-reporting on the case and even more so at the apparent ignorance of ancient historical customs in such matters. In olden times, it was considered an act of the Almighty if a convict survived his hanging, and he would go free. Not here. No god in the Tennessee execution chamber. Only morons, hapless and spineless of the “aye aye Sir” variety.
Enough. On to midterm matters. Today’s topic is ennui and fatigue. Observers from further away might be swayed by the prospect of change in the US congress, and quite rightfully so. The election is the Democrat’s to lose, given a deeply unpopular President and widespread miscontent with his stupid war against Iran and high prices. And yet, I would not bet the farm. I encounter quite a bit of disillusion, fatigue and cynicism. Two friends in Washington, both committed anti-Trumpers, told me about an uncomfortable encounter on a trip abroad, when people from Europe accosted them and kind of held them personally liable for Trump’s ascension to power. “We vote and we go to protests”, they said. “What more can we do?”. A few days ago, a journalist from Maine told NPR that people at a county fair were unfazed when she confronted them with an alleged bribery scandal of GOP Senate candidate Susan Collins. Such behavior was taken as par for the course, she said. Almost expected. On the other hand, expectations from a Democratic congress majority might be exaggerated. It would not be able to accomplish all too much, said James van Nostrand, an anti-carbon energy expert whom I interviewed a few weeks back. Some more oversight, some hearings, some irking the White House yes, but “you’ve still got a lot of discretion in the hands of the executive branch”. Van Nostrand expects Trump to use that power to the very end.
One of the strange experiences during this season is that the general public seems to be kept in the dark about the whereabouts of candidates’ public events. Their websites keep mum on the schedules, and contacting the campaign offices only results in a flood of requests for donations. One exception is Jamie Ager, Democratic candidate for the house in North Carolina’s district 11. He announces his events on the website which is why I knew about his “meet and greet” in Dry Falls Brewery in Hendersonville/North Carolina. About 50 people gathered in the back room, enjoying a glass of free beer courtesy of the campaign (due to our high ethical standards, I ceded my voucher to my bar neighbor Gus). Ager is a newcomer who never held political office. 49 years old, fourth-generation cattle farmer, specializing in grass-fed beef with special regard on “community, soil health and human animal care”, married to the same woman, father of three sons. A good old boy, and a man apparently in perennial good spirits. When he speaks, he exudes plenty of All-American let’s-go-get-her-rolling exuberance. His main theme is better relief from Helene, the hurricane that devastated the area two years ago. Ager says that only 15 percent of promised government aid ever reached the needy, and in Washington D.C., he will see to it that this changes for the better. His chances are good. North Carolina 11 is traditionally a “red”, Republican seat, but in early August, the incumbent Republican congressman quit the race from the race in August after “much prayer and reflection”, and also because the House of Representatives was about to censor him for some kind of sexual misconduct. Now, Ager’s opponent is a lesser-known woman who had to jump-start a campaign and according to the search-robot has less money to spend on TV and radio ads. The Republicans in district 11 suffer Kamala-Harris-moment.
Remarkable: the name “Donald Trump” was not pronounced once by Jamie Ager.
I then drove to Chimney Rock. The nearby hamlet was more or less washed away by Helene, and I wanted to see how far it had come back. I was there in the summer of 2025, talking to a man named Anthony who was working to rebuild a demolished restaurant, the Smokehouse. He told me that they got no assistance from any government agency, and the only outside help was from a busload of Amish people from Pennsylvania. Now, the Smokehouse is resurrected in old glory, the porch full of customers. Behind the bar was Morgan, Anthony’s wife. She confirmed Ager’s numbers. A lot of victims still were without proper housing, many suffering from headaches with banks and insurance. “The guy across the street still makes mortgage payments although his house is not there anymore”. There was help, she said, mostly in form of grants to towns or infrastructure rebuilding, but not so much to individuals. I tell her about the Amish and she says: “They are still here. They come down every weekend”. Does Morgan expect change for the better in Washington? “I hope so”. Will she vote? “Yes. I think it is important”. But her experience is that they are alone. The Smokehouse was rebuilt by the owner, a friend, Anthony and herself.
My insights into the political sensitivities of American voters come from conversations I had with some me in Harrisonburg/Virgina, all in their prime, all college-educated, all working in the sound-engineering business and all no friends of the Caudillo. J, the owner, said that the response to Helene laid bare how little government could actually accomplish when push came to shove, contrary to verbiage and promises of propaganda and campaigning. He sees a political “seesaw” at work (“we went too far to the right, now we maybe go too far to the left”), and this does not help people like him: “Government should solve problems, getting us ahead. That does not happen”. J. will go to the polls, but he does not know who he will vote for. “I don’t like either”. M., one of the workers and a Trump opponent, said that the last ten years with Trump made him numb and “cynical”. He does not read the news as diligently as he used to and he abandoned his social media accounts. “I cannot be as engaged as I was”, he said. His expectations for the Democrats are minimal. “I am so cynical now that it is hard for me to have any hope”. S., a musician, went a step further. He said America from the onset was a “materialistic” and “narcissistic” society ruled by “oligarchs”, and Trump just personified what was always there. The Democrats? Their role is “to control the populist impulses”.
To be fair, not everybody thinks that way. But the voices of disillusion are loud and clear. ON the Republican side there also is disappointment, but of a different kind. You very often hear “no one likes Trump”, but this does not necessarily translate in turning the back to Trumpian policies, the stupid war being the exception. You might think that in this situation, the President would keep quiet, but he does not. Trump’s strategy is to shore up his MAGA base into a frenzy and to scare the rest of his party into closing the ranks. Although nowhere on a ballot, he admonishes the Republicans to make the midterm elections a referendum on himself. This is why he currently barnstorms the country, with stops in Republican strongholds like Alabama and toss-up situations like Texas or Ohio, where Democratic Senate candidates are head-to-head with Republicans. For his base, he poses as Great Leader and savior of the nation, “hottest country on earth”, regardless of economic data and price statistics. To the skeptics in his camp, he paints the Democrats as “communists” and “radicals” whose policies would destroy America.
The elections are about mobilization.