Donald Trump |
It is now
becoming clear that while the front-runners in both parties have stitched
together notable public support for their ideological assumptions and personal
political ambitions what they represent most of all is a reflection of public
reaction to the consequences of the Obama Presidency. As a result, the Trump
phenomenon has actually become the most sensational element in the entire
exercise.
The major
objective of the more rational contenders on all sides of the political
spectrum appears to be to put a halt to the overwhelming juggernaut that his
campaign has become. As a result the Democratic front-runner and her challenger
have wound up fighting to convince their party members not so much that they
deserve their party’s ticket because of their record in office as because they
believe they can beat Donald Trump, even though he has not yet been chosen as
the Republican candidate.
That the
Trump presence has become so all-pervasive in the American political arena can
be traced to the deep political disenchantment that evolved as a fundamental
element of Republican reaction to Barack Obama’s policies over the eight
years of America’s first black Presidency. Hurt by the rejection of the
so-called “conservatism” that the overwhelming election successes of Barack
Obama symbolised, the GOP has generated a storm of public opprobrium for his
major efforts at reform in such areas as immigration policy, and healthcare,
and key foreign policy initiatives, especially those in the volatile Middle
East, and on Cuba. The same conservative consensus that rejected the idea of
extending America’s direct military intervention in the Middle East and
Afghanistan, under George Bush has
been transformed into a movement that now accuses Obama of not being warlike
enough in those conflicts especially in Syria and Iraq.
Donald Trump
now portrays himself as the champion of greater military intervention and
stigmatises Barack Obama as being weak and hesitant because he has focused on
paring down direct American military intervention in territorial conflicts
around the globe. In addition to this, Obama has initiated a style of
engagement with the global community based on persuasion and negotiation instead
of on demand and instruction. This has annoyed a substantial proportion of the
American populace who had grown accustomed to bullying the rest of the world.
Trump has
keyed into this sentiment of nostalgic anger with highly effective rhetorical
prowess and has proven to be a very adept promoter of his self-image as a
strong defender of the faith of American ascendancy and superiority around the
world. It is this conceit that has served as the foundation for his success as
an aspirant so far, but it is the same conceit that exposes him as being hardly
more than a salesman of the cosmetic assumptions of the worst elements of
American jingoism. Trump has spent the majority of his time as a campaigner
pandering to the worst sentiments of his followers. He has encouraged
separatism and isolationism in their attitudes towards the rest of the world
and has even shamelessly promoted religious bigotry and barely concealed racism
in his utterances.
He has shown
himself to be an unrepentant male chauvinist in his responses to hard questions
from female reporters and his take on Hilary Clinton’s aspirations reveal him
as a brutally unfair adversary who does not mind using falsehoods to smear his
opponent. When he chose to slander the global Muslim community, in an effort to
portray himself as being more prepared than anyone else to confront
international terrorism, he did not mind that his rhetoric bore clear echoes of
fascism. It would only take a short leap of imagination for his proposal to ban
all Muslims from entering the USA to be converted into a call to isolate all
Muslims already living there in concentration camps. Trump is a provocateur
rather than a mediator and appears to enjoy creating controversies. One wonders
what kind of President he would be given his penchant for provoking crises.
An
interesting source of information about Donald Trump’s attitudes towards public
office is to be found in the book entitled The Trumps by Gwenda Blair. This
study of the family starts off with the story of Donald’s grandfather
Friedrich’s arrival in New York City as a German immigrant towards the end of
the 19th century. However, without the emergence of Donald as a legendary real
estate tycoon in the late 20th century the story might not have been told for
while his grandfather and his father made a success of their own businesses it
was his adventurous triumphs and sometimes near disasters that caught public
attention and turned the family name into a global brand.
In this work
it is shown quite clearly that Donald Trump is adept at twisting public
regulations to serve his personal interests even when such conduct might be
considered barely legal. His operations as a casino owner on the Atlantic City
boardwalk exhibited this in no mean order and many observers still wonder how
he avoided being seriously sanctioned and even convicted, at least of criminal
negligence, over these operations. He has had almost as many failed business
initiatives as he has had successes, but he has also been recognised as a true
“comeback kid” as he has picked himself up and returned to the top over and
over again.
This
attribute has helped to give his campaign for the Presidency the exciting
cachet of a mission of destiny and he is playing the role of messiah to the
hilt. This is not surprising since of the many roles that he has played in life
so far he seemed to enjoy his manifestation as a popular TV reality show host
more than any other. Trump is nothing if not a boastful self-promoter, and it
will be unfortunate if such a character actually gains power in these
challenging times in a powerful nation like the USA.
The
so-called “Evangelical Conservatives”, who are little more than religious
fanatics masquerading as guardians of the nation’s moral code, have virtually
adopted Trump as their candidate although he is well known to have been at best
an irregular churchgoer. He has captured such support by playing to the gallery
of popular disenchantment without any remorse for the fundamental dishonesty
that this represents. Donald Trump has successfully unleashed the ugliest side
of American political sentiment in order to build a following that could spell
victory for him in a contest corrupted by the confusion of the times. He is
depending on the widespread economic and political confusion, which is actually
a legacy of pre-Obama mismanagement by the Republicans led by George Bush, and
the dysfunctional terrorist insurgencies generated by it to create a climate of
fear in which he can rise to power.
On this sad
but very real structure of political dishonesty Donald Trump’s hope for victory
is based. If he is successful America’s leadership might aggravate, rather than
relieve, the problems that the world is facing today. (Guardian)
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