Biden Perry’s Trump’s foil with the American dream

With two daughters, I’m no stranger to Katy Perry, but in the last month I’ve kept returning to this performance of Firework at the inauguration. It was a powerful delivery, and by far the best arrangement of the song she’s ever done, but more so, it was a masterclass in aspiration politics by Biden, and I’ve seen very few credit him for this.

Trump’s protectionist stance has done good things for the average American worker, standing up to China, and playing them at their game, needed doing, but what we failed to notice in the 4yrs years of madness, was that much of that madness was created by Trump failing at his most important role as a leader — to inspire people to try. His divisive, advisarial combatative politics was toxic, extinguishing hope, and turning people against each other. No war’s ever increased hope, or self belief, and Trump almost ignited a civil one.

Combine that with socialising less, and repeating what feels like the same day, every day, in what has become the Zoomhog Day of Covid lockdown’s working from home, and it is no surprise that people were driven to such a low point of hope that they stormed Capitol Hill.

As I listened to Katy, I couldn’t find a single word that couldn’t have been written by Biden, as the message he wanted to jolt into the American people about how the only way out of this mess is to believe in ourselves, and our potential. An aspiration kick up the butt after 4yrs of playground squabbles.

I mean can you find one?

I was starting a business, heading into the pandemic, that I’ve had to delay, and I won’t lie, maintaining a positive energy, with all the negative forces out there, has been a struggle.

I’m not American, but I worked in NY for 4wks once, I’ve taken holidays there, and like most grew up on a diet of their TV. So what they do affects all of us. As I watched I realised, just how far down Trump’s corrosive mindset had dragger us, how eviscerated of hope we’d all become.

The job of any leader is to unite, Trump did the opposite by telling people they didn’t have because of person A or B, so divisive. Crucially, great leaders inspire us, they make people feel like we can do, and don’t entertain the idea of blaming those around us if we fall short, but to get up and try again, a mindset that just seems to implicit to Biden’s very being, and entirely alien to Trump’s.