WHY TRUMP IN WASHINGTON AFFECTS ME IN DUBLIN.

N.B. To all Americans who may not have travelled widely, Dublin refers to the one in Ireland, not Ohio.

No matter what might be said about America’s decline as the preeminent global power, there no doubt that it remains the most powerful cultural force.

Once when America sneezed the world got a cold. That may no longer be quite so true with China as the burgeoning economic powerhouse, but when the America creates something, be it music or movies, jeans or trainers, the world rushes to adopt. We remain in thrall to all thing Americana.

Pick any music genre?—?blues gospel, jazz, soul, rock, funk or rap - and you’ll find its roots in the States. Even the great bands out of Britain or Ireland would acknowledge the unpaid debt to the new world.

The vast majority of all the films that a European might have watched would have come from Hollywood.

We wear their jeans, baseball caps and cowboy boots. We chew their gum and eat their burgers. With the exception of sports like cricket or ‘soccer’ our identities have been subsumed.

So when Donald Trump, in his uniquely despicable way, boasts about grabbing women by the pussy, he gives permission for loutish men everywhere to behave likewise

When he labels some women ‘a beautiful piece of ass’, he takes us back to the 50’s. When he boasts about his daughter’s figure, we’re in the Middle Ages.

When he says that he will accept a decision only if it goes in his favour, he opens the door to chaos.

When he calls Mexicans rapists and insists they will pay for The Wall, he is giving a free pass to all those madmen who hold racist and xenophobic views.

The right wing, lunatic fringe groups in Europe are suddenly mainstream and almost acceptable. The insidious creep of fascism is spreading to occupy the middle ground.

With President Donald Trump’s tacit permission the dark forces of fear, suspicion, ignorance and hostility are taking root around the globe.

One can but hope that his overweening narcissism destroys his presidency before he fucks it up for the rest of us.