Foiled Trump assassin was only chasing the Whippy Cream American Dream

Alameen Templeton

Americans’ distaste for American democracy keeps growing apace, with the latest dissenter being caught in the bushes Sunday with an AK-47, waiting for Donald Trump to start his afternoon golf game at his Palm Beach resort.

US news channels are agog today at the latest attempt to subvert American democracy. Usually, that only happens in TV studios or in editors’ news planning conferences, but Secret Service agents say the latest attempt featured an ordinary American called Ryan Wesley Routh from Hawaii who was spotted taking up a position with his rifle on the Palm Beach golf course about 450m from where Trump was due to start playing.

Last time that happened, in Pennsylvania on July 13, the Secret Service only responded after the gunman had already taken a few shots at Trump. So, realising another amateur was trying to subvert their democracy without any approval to do so from any of the major parties, or a billionaire or Aipac, the agents decided to act.

Secret Service agents immediately opened fire at about 1.30pm local time and Routh reportedly fired back. After exchanging fire, he dropped his weapon, two backpacks and other belongings before fleeing in a black Nissan.

A very American feeling

So, that’s the second time in this election season that an amateur has tried his luck at preventing American democracy. Sensing the competition, Trump is getting ahead of the pack, warning of dire consequences is Americans get it wrong and vote for someone else, come November 5.

Trump knows what it’s like when Americans don’t like American democracy  – the Democrats tried to get him thrown out of the Oval Office and to overturn the 2016 election result that got him there by accusing him repeatedly of being a Russian spy.

Of course, we shouldn’t forget American democracy left also such a bad taste in Trump’s mouth one January 6 morning that thousands of other Americans invaded the Capitol and almost prevented an election outcome from being officially registered.

So, Trump will know how Ryan Wesley Routh feels – it is a very American feeling, after all – even if he doesn’t agree wholeheartedly with his method.

Trump, being a serial rejecter of American democracy – remember, he tried to kick Barrack Obama out of the White House by claiming he wasn’t an American and had forged his own birth certificate – might even sympathise with Routh.

The President’s job

But he’ll never accept that an ordinary loser without billions of dollars and the best friends and even better words who doesn’t know anything about being a president and no one knows more than Donald Trump how to be a president can veto American democracy with just one bullet.

Vetoing democracy is the President’s job! That’s the whole thrill. No other motivation enthuses Donald Trump’s ambition more than the determination, the desire, the drive to veto bills from Congress. That’s real power: when you can circumvent the combined will of the most powerful nation on earth with the flick of your wrist and a disdainful sneer.

It’s the cherry on the top of the Whippy Cream American dream. And every American wants it.

After all, they’re surrounded by American democracy every, single day. They’ve supersized themselves up on convenience devoid of sincerity, on reimagined genders, border walls rearing up on every side, an economy addicted to ever more quantitative easing trillions, a manufacturing base welded to a war business model that’s dependent on exporting genocide for its survival and a business and social elite who care no more for the man on the street than they do for a child in Gaza.

Tragic legacy

The experience is so awful that Americans have taken to exporting their democracy without any regard to World Trade Organisation rules, genocide conventions or respect for human life. The results have been tragic.

Bombed out ghost cities devoid of human life, sprawling refugee camps, drowning boat people, social media posts crammed with images of death and destruction and meaningless international conventions rendered irrelevant by the relentless grind of the genocide machine.

It is no wonder Americans don’t like American democracy and want to stop it. It’s almost as if the only reason American’s participate in their democracy is because every, single one of them wants to be the one to press the veto button.

But no one wants it more than Donald Trump. He loved the veto button while resident in the Oval Office. He treasures that button, and he’s determined no one else is going to get their grubby hands on it.

You have to be special

Certainly, no Ukrainian war sympathiser who only drives a black Nissan deserves it. No one’s even heard of Ryan Wesley Routh … well, until Sunday, anyway. And he’s not even a millionaire!

You have to be special if you’re going to veto American democracy, single-handed. That’s Donald Trump’s job; he’s got the experience – it’s in his resume. See how good he got at wielding the veto power while in office. His skills were so sharp he even tried vetoing the Venezuelan elections when he insisted that Guan Guaido guy should be the president instead of Nicolas Maduro.

Routh never had the right stuff. His posts show he wanted the election candidates to be compassionate and caring, keeping America “democratic and free”. He’s now under arrest for participating in the American dream, for chasing the cherry, for making a lunge for Trump’s coveted veto button and trying to prevent American democracy.