Surviving Trump’s times

They say a week is a long time in politics. Nearly a week after Donald Trump’s shock victory though, the news is yet to sink in across the globe. The world cannot seem to wrap its head around what has just happened.

I hope all those liberals and leftists in and outside the US who have been rooting and cheering for Trump because of his breathless adoration for Russia’s Putin and support for bloodthirsty tyrants like Bashar al-Assad are happy and content now. Hillary Clinton had been so unpalatable for the Left that anyone pitted against her was acceptable, even if it happens to be someone as bigoted and bonkers as Trump.

I have never been a big fan of Hillary myself. With her absurd sense of entitlement and reputation as the ultimate Washington insider with proximity to Wall Street and special interests, she was hardly perfect. Besides, she looked jaded, tired and too familiar for her own good.

Like many Americans and people around the world, I believe that the avuncular Bernie Sanders, with his liberal worldview, personal integrity and immense popularity would have been a better choice and ideal candidate to beat Trump. Yet he had been left out in the cold thanks to the heavy clout of the Clintons and alleged manipulation by her campaign team during the primaries.

Unfortunately for Hillary, she could never inspire the kind of dedication of the party faithful or commitment of the larger support base that Sanders would have rallied or Barack Obama not long ago did.

Apparently, while the white working class voters, anxious over the disappearing jobs and the economy deserted the Democratic Party to vote Trump, even the dependable African Americans and Latinos who played a critical role in Obama’s victory did not come out in enough numbers to back Hillary.    

The average American voter was clearly looking for change, even if it meant voting for someone as unorthodox as Trump. This is why many Democratic supporters, including Muslim Americans, were convinced that Sanders represented that change while being a perfect antidote to the madness and bigotry on the other side.       

But I guess there is no point in crying over spilled milk. What the world needs to worry about right now is the big headache called Trump. 

And, mind you, this is not just an American problem. Considering the stranglehold of the last superpower on the global affairs, including the world economy, it is our headache too. The world has just turned upside down. Let us all buckle up and get ready for a long, rough ride ahead.       

Amid the gathering darkness, what is heartening is the wave of massive, spontaneous protests against Trump’s election across the US and indeed around the world.

For days now, thousands of students and ordinary Americans have come out on the streets and university campuses to demonstrate against the billionaire businessman who simply revels in hate and demonisation of the Other – minorities, immigrants, women and even the physically challenged. Many of those protesting against the new order have defied police and security clampdown to protest what clearly promises to be the darkest chapter in US history.        

It is these courageous voices of resistance that should give us all hope about the future of the great democracy. They did not wait for a formal call to resist tyranny and bigotry, taking to the streets on their own, spontaneously, sensing the clear and present danger to their hard-won freedom and democracy.

It is the commitment of these free spirits to their ideals and those of the founding fathers that may in the end protect the land of the free, not its powerful military and its state-of-the-art weaponry. This is what truly makes the US great.

Compare this with our own craven response and meek surrender to tyranny and you would know why the most powerful democracy remains miles ahead of the world’s largest. Using the fig leaf of electoral mandate, our lot sought to whitewash their sins and we quickly fell in line, cheering the emperor’s shining, new robes. At least, Trump does not have blood on his hands.

These young Americans have been quick to realise that accepting Trump is embracing and legitimising his dangerous politics and bigotry. His regressive worldview coupled with his hubris and intolerance makes him an extraordinarily deadly combination, someone who makes even the Republican fringe and former presidents like Bush senior and junior uncomfortable.       

And he is headed to the White House.      

Trump’s own biographer Tony Schwartz, who ghost wrote his 1987 memoirs, calls him a “sociopath”, someone whose presidency “risks the end of civilization.” A nervous Republican strategist John Weaver has warned Americans that “the racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office.”

Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate minority leader, is convinced that Trump’s electoral campaign, targeting Muslims, immigrants, Hispanics and blacks “has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America”.

No wonder the FBI has reported a staggering 67 percent spike in attacks on Muslims in US over in 2015. This year could be even worse.

And all those who have reassured themselves by saying that the madness of the campaign trail couldn’t possibly be replicated in the world of real politik need to look at the names that Trump has picked up so far to join his administration. A white supremacist and Islamophobic racist like Steve Bannon, known for his corny documentaries celebrating Sarah Palin and others, has been chosen as his ‘chief strategist’.

Another anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney has been identified for the important job of national security adviser. Many of Trump’s wild theories about Muslims are said to be inspired by him. 

There is talk of fanatics like John Bolton and Newt Gingrich being appointed to top jobs like secretary of state while former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, known for his famous ‘stop and frisk’ police methods, could be heading the justice department, unleashing a massive clampdown on civil liberties across the land of the free.         

Trump has already signalled that he would push ahead with his radical agenda targeting immigrants and religious and ethnic minorities. He has vowed to deport up to three million undocumented immigrants “immediately”.

The change is also going to reflect in American foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. The Russian and Syrian jets have started pounding Aleppo with new vigour and finality. And look at the scenes of celebrations in Israel. He has promised to accept Jerusalem as the new capital of Israel besides much else.

Looks like this is going to be a rough ride for the Arab and Muslim world, including Pakistan, which has long been in the crosshair of the neocons as the lone Muslim nuclear state and ‘breeding ground of terrorists’. 

So all those who thought power and presidency would introduce Trump to some sense of responsibility and much needed realism should think twice. As John Oliver, Steven M Thrasher and Owen Jones have argued in the          Guardian, Trump being elected the US president is not normal. Let’s not accept any of this as a new normal. This may be the biggest disaster to strike the land of the free yet and we may all have to live with its consequences.

This is why many Americans have begun resisting the new order. The least we can do is support them.      

The writer is a Middle East based columnist.

Email: aijaz.syed@hotmail.com