Somehow I was not surprised when Donald Trump stepped forward as a Republican candidate for the US presidency. Such an absurd and hopeless attempt to enter the political arena at the highest level was consistent with the brash, overconfident character I had seen on ‘The Apprentice,’ the television program that gave him an international profile.

But as the campaign continued and Trump wacked off one opponent after the other, I began to think his attempt may not be all that absurd and hopeless. Then between the bluster and his uncontained and undisguised rage at the leftist political establishment it became obvious (at least to many of us) that he was making a connection with the equivalent in America of what former Prime Minister Robert Menzies called the forgotten people. In this case, it was not just the working middle class but the blue-collar class that had been forgotten and with whom Trump was connecting. Continue reading A rare pleasure – the left suffers shock and awe →