The banal presidency is back

One era ends; another begins. As J-Lo sang her patriotic wine bar set at Joe Biden’s inaugural in Washington DC, the outgoing president and his outgoing wife landed in Florida, Melania looking happy for the first time in four years because it was finally all over. Donald Trump’s refusal to attend the inauguration reminded me of Gore Vidal’s description of Richard Nixon’s sulk after Watergate: ‘He was simply acting out his Big Loser nature, and, in the process, he turned being a Big Loser into a perfect triumph by managing to lose the presidency in a way bigger and more original than anyone else had ever lost it before.’

For the record, I enjoyed Joe’s speech; particularly when he realised the microphone was on and he could stop shouting. It was the perfect articulation of American liberalism, which is not, whatever its critics say, socialism. Socialism sees society as divided into classes in permanent conflict, and picks a winner.