Cosco on Sunday morning in Medford, Oregon is busy but the warehouse housing the wholesale market occupies is so large it can handle crowds of deal-hungry folk. Wire carts are twice the size of ordinary supermarket carts in the expectation that they will exit pied high with clothing, garden implements, huge boxes of cereal, plastic packets of blueberries from Peru and strawberries from California, biscuits, chunks of cheese, sides of Scottish wild or farmed salmon, bunches of flowers, books, and household appliances. MacBooks on sale for $2,300 rest on a stand across from sweaters going for $14.99. Rural farmers pile denim work clothes into their carts, overweight women tins and packages of processed food, and restauranteurs prime cuts of beef, chicken pieces, and vegetables. Cosco has something for everyone, for every pocketbook.

An odd man in a blue top hat walks around tidying shelves. He doesn’t have a badge identifying him as staff or a cart suggesting he is a customer. Maybe he is just a lonely soul looking for company and something to do. A woman with a full cart is accompanied by a man pushing a trolley bearing a refrigerator in a tall box. Check out is brisk and at the exit a clerk briefly inspects departing carts to make certain there is no shoplifting of small high-priced goods.

The US is a nation of shoppers, of bargain hunters, people often bamboozled by conmen who promise quick fortunes for small investments. While united by conspicuous consumption, the US is also a country deeply divided against itself.

On Oct.2, former President Donald Trump appeared in a Manhattan courtroom charged with fraud for overvaluing Trump Organisation properties to encourage banks to provide loans and investors to do business with his firms. The prosecution seeks to impose a financial penalty of $250 million on Trump and to place restrictions on Trump operations in New York State. Trump called the trial “disgraceful” and claimed the attorney general who lodged the case is “corrupt.”

This and other legal proceedings he faces have not derailed his campaign to win the Republican Party’s nomination to run again for the presidency. With a rating of 53.8 per cent he is far ahead of his rivals in opinion polls although only 40 per cent of US citizens have a favourable opinion of Trump and 56.4 per cent have an unfavourable view.

His rating among Republicans enables the arrogant rogue Trump to refuse to debate any of his challengers. Instead of taking them on, he attends rallies or campaign events on days the debates are held. Many if not most of Trump’s base of supporters are loyal whatever he did or does. They have remained loyal despite his false claims that he won the 2020 election although Joe Biden had seven million more votes than Trump and Biden won the electoral college. For his largely white working and middle class followers, Trump represents rejection of the ruling elite, controls on guns, vaccinations, racial coexistence, and social harmony. The great “American dream” has left them out, they are adrift and filled with anger, antagonism, and psychological upset. Their distress is exploited by internet platforms and fueled by false news. They do not care that he tends toward authoritarianism and is no democrat. His base is more like a cult than political constituency.

He also has the backing of Christian Evangelicals because he claims to be dedicated to the advancement of their conservative agenda.

Meanwhile, moderate Republicans are afraid of Trump and his base. With the exception of a few brave souls, the moderates go along with Trump because he can command votes. Republican representatives in Congress are interested primarily in their own prospects for reelection as they are obliged to run every two years. Consequently, they begin a new campaign as soon as they are elected. The two-year term should have been scrapped long ago as it contributes to the broken US political system. A four-year term could, perhaps, rescue the country from ongoing political chaos.

Polls show that Trump — with 46 per cent — and President Joe Biden — with 47 per cent — are neck-and-neck in the run-up to the 2024 race. However, polls do not tell the the whole story. Most citizens are not well informed on the precarious state of the nation. They do not read quality newspapers or get news from Channels other than unreliable Fox. Many rely on Facebook and social medi where news is skewed by people with agendas. Trump’s own Truth Social is popular with his base.

Biden gets no credit for invigorating the Covid vaccination campaign which Trump failed to support at a cost of thousands of lives. Most US citizens believe Biden has done a poor job with the economy although his programmes have created millions of jobs and inflation as been lowered to 3 per cent. He has been unable to stem the tide of migrants from entering the US but this did not begin with Biden.

Trump alienated European allies and withdrew from important international organisations and agreements. Biden returned the US to most with the risky exception of the 2015 accord limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions. Biden made up with European partners and other allies and restored a modicum of trust in the US — which Trump had destroyed. The very thought that he could return to the White House has undermined this trust to a certain extent. Many people around the world hope and pray that the 91 criminal charges Trump faces in four trials will deny him the right to run again and if he does deny him the presidency a second time.

Photo: TNS