Over the years, as a youth growing up, I have held several offices: student councillor, youth club president, class monitor, different positions within my church, etcetera. Back in those days I was taught that I had to behave in a certain way in order to set an example for the individuals who report to and look up to me.

We were taught that we ought to respect the authority of an office even if there is no respect for the person who sits in the seat; therefore, nothing must be done to bring the office into disrepute.

We were taught how to speak and that we must behave a certain way in public spaces because someone is always watching us.

Having got older and managed different organisations, those principles still remain the same. The landscape has changed, and even individuals holding some of the most powerful offices across the world have thrown these basic principles through the window.

In 2015 when Donald Trump was nominated as the republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election against the Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton, many, including myself, laughed at the Republican Party for selecting Trump as its candidate above so many other people who I would say were presidential material, because Trump’s behaviour was far from presidential.

Fast-forward to 2016 and the election was won by Trump with a resounding margin against his more ‘presidential’ opponent, someone who used all the right words and represented herself well. Trump destroyed her at the polls despite the fact that so many scandals had emerged from his past life during his campaign. Trump won despite the whisperings of members of the Republican Party hierarchy who weren’t in support of his candidacy. But the few who supported him were smiling because he, despite his antics and many scandals, was able to occupy the White House as commander and chief of one of the most powerful countries in the world.

During his tenure as president, his behaviour didn’t change; after all, he can’t seem to do anything other than be Trump. Taking on the press, saying COVID-19 was a hoax, and calling the country of Haiti a s…hole country were just a few of his antics during his time at the White House.

He lost the next election against Joe Biden, but that was not without controversy and chaos because he refused to conceded the election and said that it was stolen from him.

After four years in the wilderness, and despite being blamed for the January 6, 2021 riots on Capitol Hill as well as the numerous court cases against him, Trump is once again the Republican Party’s only hope of taking the White House from the Democrats in the next presidential election come November.

Trump has proven that you don’t have to act presidential in order to be the president of the free world, he has proven that you can have a bad record and still become president.

Many people are currently making the mistake of using Vice-President Kamala Harris’s background as state attorney to compare her to Trump’s not-so-good record to say that she is more presidential and, therefore, will not lose to Trump. These people need to understand that voters no longer care about the past of presidential candidates. As long as what he/she is saying resonates with their ideology, they will be supporting that individual, no matter what.

The Democratic Party and Harris campaign team must ensure that what they are saying and doing resonates with the man in the streets, the man who doesn’t watch mainstream media but lives on the internet, follows bloggers, watches political podcasts with people sharing a range of ideas, and finds funny the sensational things Trump will say just to dominate the news cycle.

They must learn from their mistakes with Clinton — underestimating the power of the Trump effect. Harris’s pretty background and behaviour alone won’t give her the White House, because Trump will say and do anything to sit in that oval office again.

dinham.rasford@gmail.com