Protesting against Donald Trump is a waste of time… Brits should focus on the fights they can win
Trump has become the representation of all the world's ills despite being elected by 60 million people
THE bogeyman takes many forms. In Spain he is known as El Coco, a ghost with a pumpkin head.
In Brazil he is a humanoid alligator. In Hungary he is a giant owl with a copper penis.
In the UK he wears red ties, sports a hairstyle of heroic individuality and was recently sworn in as President of the United States.
The hysteria surrounding Donald Trump is remarkable. Each presidential tweet or comment is followed by a dramatic inhalation of smelling salts.
Trump has become the ultimate bogeyman: a representation of all the world’s ills, mentioned in the same breath as Hitler and Mussolini.
Millions are in the grip of Traumatic Trump Syndrome and boy, is it starting to wear.
Of course, we are entitled to feel concerned by some of his policies, not least the three-month suspension of arrivals from seven Muslim-majority countries.
But to compare Mrs May to Neville Chamberlain for her delay in condemning this is nonsense.
Trump is not a fascist dictator. He is a democratically elected President representing the wishes of more than 60million people, whether we like it or not.
Strangely, there was not the same outcry when Obama banned refugees from Iraq for six months in 2011.
What, ultimately, does the demonisation of Trump accomplish? It achieves, primarily, a glow of righteousness for Trump-haters.
Take the mayor of Berlin, who cried last week: “Dear Mr President, don’t build this wall! We Berliners know best how much suffering was caused by the division of an entire continent with barbed wire and concrete.”
Eh? Trump’s wall may be a foolish waste of money, but in what sense is a barrier across an existing national border comparable with the Berlin Wall?
The mayor no doubt got a few pats on the back for his bravery in speaking out, though.
British politicians are falling over themselves to get on the bandwagon.
Tory MP Sarah Wollaston said Trump was “a sickening piece of work”; Ed Miliband criticised May for aligning herself with Trump’s “project”.
So much of the criticism is branded as a “fight back”, with promises not to take the presidency lying down.
But what do the anguished luvvies, the angry tweeters, and the animated talking heads achieve through their obsessive vilification beyond the trumpeting of their own moral credentials?
It is easy to rail against Trump, to harrumph about his latest outrageous comment — yet it is so pointless.
Related stories
Marching in London, tweeting in Manchester, stamping your feet in Stevenage; it won’t make the slightest difference to his executive orders or the policies he pursues.
The biggest problem of bogeyman politics is not the irritation of seeing the virtue-signalling classes at work.
It is that Traumatic Trump Syndrome represents an enormous, wasteful displacement of energy.
Spluttering about Trump’s latest tweet displaces the time people might have spent making a real difference.
We are promised more rallies. They will be as effective as flies bashing fruitlessly against the bomb-proofed windows of the White House.
For those engaging directly with the President, the best approach is that demonstrated by the Prime Minister last week: not slavish, but respectful of the office and open to collaboration.
This is the way to deal with a thin-skinned but important egotist — as shown by May’s shrewd delivery of Trump’s “100 per cent” backing of Nato.
For the rest of us, the next four years cannot be spent at this pitch of hysteria, indulging in hyperbolic predictions about the end of civilisation.
Focus on the fights we can win, on making the world better in a million small ways.
Raging against the bogeyman is simply a waste of time.
Clare Foges is a former No 10 speech writer. © The Times