Trump is waging a war on his own people – Americans don’t want another four years of that

Donald Trump Junior, a real chip off the old block and as close to a statesman as the present administration can get (ie not very), frames the coming presidential contest as: “Church, work and school versus rioting, looting and vandalism.” His father must be proud of him, if only for displaying that famous Trump family aptitude for bombast and distortion; and the president, at the eerie Republican National Convention, is indeed elaborating on those themes. For such a godless, indolent man, renowned for his aversion to scholarship, it takes some chutzpah to do so, but The Donald has never been short of that.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, running more of a joint campaign than is customary in presidential elections, cannot be surprised by the fire and fury emanating from the virtual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The attacks on them are predictable, and so should the Democrats’ defence be – predictably calm, cool and fact-based that is.

If they are in the mood to ignore Michelle Obama’s advice and “go low” when their opponents go low, then they only need to point out some of the more excruciating episodes in the life and times of Donald Trump to illuminate his extravagant hypocrisy. From Stormy Daniels to niece Mary L Trump, in the accounts by Michael Wolff and Bob Woodward, and from the testimonies of everyone from Steve Bannon and Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci to James Comey, plus a few leaked tapes, there is ample evidence to suggest that neither church, nor work, nor school are key features of Donald J Trump.

The Democrats generally seem to have learnt a good deal from the errors of the 2016 Clinton campaign, and well they might. Mr Biden and Ms Harris go out of their way to be placatory and emollient towards swing voters and the more detachable elements of the Trump base; the word “deplorables” is not going to be heard.

They will, if they are wise, rebut Mr Trump’s propaganda with reasoned arguments rather than name-calling and disdain. They need to show that Mr Trump has no one else to blame than himself for the failures of his administration – the unfinished wall, the uneven economic record, the trade wars, the abandonment of long-standing allies, the erosion of the constitution, the Russian embarrassments, the stoking of hate and, above all, the mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis, which is hardly the ephemeral hoax Mr Trump claims it to be.

Mr Biden and Ms Harris can tell the nation truthfully that they want to end the riots and division, not provoke more violence the better to manipulate it for political ends. Only a few years ago America gave a second term to its first president of colour; there were and are plenty of racial injustices, the cause of the protests. It is only President Trump who has a vested interest in exacerbating and prolonging the tensions. Most Americans long for peace and rest. Mr Trump will not give them any respite. Who, apart from the Trumpists, desires four more years of Trump-inspired rioting, looters and vandalism?

Sometimes US presidential candidates come along and promise to win or end “the war” of the moment, meaning some overseas conflict, as in Europe, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East or the Cold War rivalries with the Soviet Union and China. This time round, the Biden-Harris ticket should pledge to end the war being waged by the man in White House on his own people. It is one promise that will be easy to keep.