OPINION: Democracy Papers: Guyana v. USA, with David Granger and Donald Trump

Last Updated on Wednesday, 6 January 2021, 20:27 by Denis Chabrol

By GHK Lall

When I write about Guyana versus the USA, I really seek to zero in and shine the spotlight on David Granger versus Donald Trump.  It is how both, in the great crucible of challenge with everything on the line, responded to the fires that came to the mantles of office that both wore in different parts of this hemisphere.

They said that David Granger was less than honorable because of how he was in the throes of Guyana’s stormy elections.  Though that contention by itself is dubious, it fades into the ether, when compared to Donald Trump of the good ole USA, who has taken the dishonorable and imagines it to be a garland, except that it is a noose.  It is fitting and could not have belonged to a finer person anywhere.  Pray I do ask: who should be instructing whom about democracy?  In spite of two hundred years plus head start, it seems that a poor, little Third World country knows more about democracy than America and Mr. Trump put together.  At this writing his people were storming the Capitol to force issues to a head and get their way, and any which way, too.  If I remember well, that didn’t happen here.  Or did it….?  A comment from Mike Pompeo would be most timely at this point.  Has anybody seen him lately?

Now when placed next to Mr. Trump (a rank insult and injustice to Mr. Granger), there is simply no comparison, no necessary measure.  The words and actions of both men speak to the rafters.  For his part, Mr. Granger was content to be reticent in his time of trial and political ordeal, as is his characteristic style.  That alone separates the two men: one sober and shrewd, but lacking in the muscle to give him the edge and carry him over the top; the other at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue all empty bluster and false bravado, with the result that buffoonery became the order of the day, and American competitors and adversaries chortling with unabashed and unconcealed glee.

Mr. Trump made himself a spectacle, which is bad enough, since he is (or was) the president of the United States and leader of the so-called free world.  But in his ravings and ranting, he made America into a ragged effigy to be speared and slashed at first, and last burnt in ignominy.  This consequence of presidential conduct is unpardonable, should have been made impeachable.  He hung on too long to the third rail, spoke too much, and just didn’t know when to say enough is enough, and it is time to move on.  And even at this late hour he refuses to move on and insists that the rest of his ship go down with him; except that he wishes-indeed, commands-that they go down first.

David Granger went first when his own people refused go.  If he had to fall on his sword alone, he would and he did.  The American could learn from the Guyanese in yet another area of what it takes to be a real leader.  One with mental confidence, intestinal sturdiness, and the kind of manhood that has been missing over there in DC since early November.  There are some things that are not taught, for they come naturally, and as the gods would have it, only to a select few.  David Granger was one of those: I will go.  Donald Trump doesn’t even know what he is missing, does not even care, so full is the man of himself, and of the monsters that have taken full control over his head.

America!  America the beautiful, from where did you and could you get such a, ah, ah, troubled specimen of a leader.  America does not deserve such a man.  And such a man as Donald Trump does deserve to be cast out into the outer darkness.  He has already reserved for himself one of Dante’s circle, and even there he meets with objection and rejection.

Where the American was all thunder and sizzling brimstone; the quiet Guyanese man was all ice in the veins and not a gloss on the brow.  Sometimes, it pays to hold one’s peace and let the world go by, which is what David Granger is unusually good at, however examined.  So it comes to this any time and any day that David Granger is compared to the other man in Washington, DC: he is class and dignity personified.  And as for the other leader?  One of these days when things are cooler and quieter, I will get around to finding a few words that hopefully will not bring cringing.