The combination of Donald Trump's speech to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio and Wikileaks' dump of emails on its Democratic counterpart suggests we are entering a disturbing phase in US and international politics, whatever the result of the US presidential election.
Let's first consider Trump. Various people have noted with alarm the racist and authoritarian tone of his speech, with its promise of safety which only he could bring. Indeed, his speech has uncanny echoes of that of Hitler to the Reichstag in 1933, setting out a wish list to be achieved under a Nazi government: safety, economic security and a redress of perceived historical grievances — especially against foreigners and people of other ethnicities and religions.
Interesting, too, that Trump (despite being a man of considerable means) cried out against the evils of capitalism and preached economic and political protectionism at the same time as hatred and fear of the ethnic and religious other. So, not just a nationalist agenda, but an avowedly national-socialist one.
The choice should therefore be an easy one — and this is indeed what many in the media have been saying. The consistent cry has been to vote for Clinton, since whatever her failings, they cannot compare with the risks inherent in putting someone with as little respect for democracy as Trump in charge of the world's largest economy and military, not to mention access to nuclear weapons.
Unfortunately, it is not hard to see why people (especially those without much knowledge of the history of such thought) have fled to Trump as a breath of fresh air. I have previously noted that his campaign capitalised on the increasing vacuousness of America's politics, with big money officially enshrined as part of American elections leading to increasingly bland, corporatist policies characterising both parties.
It is into this context that the latest Wikileaks dump springs. While there had been repeated allegations of vote rigging of the Democratic primary (all angrily dismissed by Clinton's team), the latest cache of emails provides damning proof of just that.
Far from being the neutral brokers they claimed, the emails show beyond doubt that Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials actively conspired with Clinton staffers on how to exploit everything from Sanders' Jewishness to his campaign organisation in order to rig the primary in her favour.
Clinton had persistently faced questions as to her judgment and links to big business. Now, however, her closeness to establishment figures