OK, I really did intend to leave off blogging for a while (https://bernardjporter.com/2026/10/28/the-last-post/). But yesterday’s American ‘Mid-Terms’ has sent me scurrying back to my keyboard.

Along with Hungary’s and Serbia’s recent parliamentary election results, and the present tribulations of the ‘Reform’ Party in the UK, I’m beginning to think – and to hope – that Trump’s come-uppance is a sign that the modern rise of neo-fascism may be stalling globally. At the very least it means that a little over half of Americans have seen through Trump; although whether that’s because they’ve suddenly grown more perceptive, or simply because of the price of gasoline at the pumps, we can’t be sure. Hopefully it’s the former. The world needs more perceptive Americans.

Obviously we can’t lower our defences. The underlying conditions for full-grown fascism are still there, in the US, and possibly everywhere. (Certainly in Britain, and even here in Sweden.) Trump can’t be the only one of his kind. And American capitalism is likely to throw up more.

My relief at the results of the American elections is only tempered by this thought; and by my regret that my old friend Professor Roger Louis – imperial historian extraordinaire and Texan latterly – didn’t live quite long enough to see it. He was a true American democrat. RIP.