Across the pond, election fever has taken over. While I am not an American, and also not someone who thinks it is particularly helpful for people from one country to stick their noses into the affairs of another, I have been thinking a lot about what I would do if I did have a vote.
Well, Hillary Clinton has been on the political scene for a long time and, as far as I am concerned as a Conservative, there is much to dislike: the dodgy emails, the dodgy donations, dodgy foreign policy decisions and plans for increased taxation and extra debt spring to mind.
In addition, she has spent much of her campaign going on about the fact that she is a woman. If anything is going to turn me off even more than left-wing policies, it is that.
I would never vote for someone just because of their gender (male or female) and I sincerely hope Americans do not fall into that politically correct trap.
Then we have Donald Trump. He is precisely the opposite of a quaffed, slick, well-prepared, believe-in-nothing typical politician.
He came onto my radar a while back as he has essentially been waging as a one-man campaign against political correctness for some time. As someone who has fought a similar battle for years here in our Parliament, nobody will be surprised to hear that I can relate to that.
In the race to become the next President, he has been gaining support with a political manner that could be described as “blunt directness”. He is definitely straight-talking and, as a Yorkshireman, I certainly applaud that too.
Donald Trump takes the “Marmite” candidate description to a whole new level.
Whilst nobody will agree with someone 100% of the time – and there are a number of areas where I fundamentally disagree with Mr Trump – people find it refreshing to see a politician who has the guts to stand up and say what they think, even if it is controversial and unpopular, even if they disagree with what is being said.
People are fed up of being told what they can and cannot think and what they can and cannot say. I think that we should celebrate politicians who stand up and say things that are unpopular and controversial.
It is easy for anyone to say some apple pie and motherhood or something straight from the Perfect Politician’s Handbook. Any old fool can trot it out, but it takes real guts to say unpopular and controversial things – and sometimes they really need to be said!
Hillary Clinton’s response to Donald Trump’s attack on all things PC – and an almighty mistake in my opinion – has been not to understand the frustrations of many, but to insult them.
In a catastrophic error of judgment she mirrored David Cameron’s alleged “swivel-eyed loons” jibe about UKIP by saying that Trump fans – and, by extensive, foes of political correctness – are “deplorables” rather than normal people with genuine concerns.
I hope that all those she labelled this way do not reward her for these insults.
Donald Trump’s desire to “make America great again” is also something that resonates. People both here and in America are fed up being told that their country is nothing to be proud of and that decline is inevitable.
Their reaction to that is interesting. Despite all the scaremongering that took place in this country around the time of the EU Referendum, and all the stories about how Britain could not go it alone, the British people put up two fingers to the Establishment and voted Leave.
One of the biggest reasons was because they wanted to reclaim their country and wanted better for it in the future. In other words, in that sense, they wanted to put the great back into Great Britain. This same sense of pride seems to be something that Donald Trump has tapped into in America, along with a common desire to control immigration.
Donald Trump is an interesting character. He speaks his mind, breaks every accepted political rule, but people know where they stand with him. Love it or hate it – that is the position.
In some respects I am very glad I don’t have a vote in the election in America but, as a Conservative who opposes political correctness with a passion, I know who I would vote for if I did
It might not be popular in the UK to say it – especially with our metropolitan elite – but, for all his faults, I would vote for Donald Trump.