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| The Wealthy Populist, Donald Trump |
From the moment Donald Trump was on the podium with the
confederation of dunces that comprised the nominees for President by the Republican Party, I knew he was not to be
underestimated. Once the race started,
I knew it was going to be close. Not
unlike everyone, I thought Hillary Clinton would have a victory. So many of us did.
If you
look at the actual popular vote, Hillary Clinton won. She had the majority of the votes. Had it not been for our outdated electoral
college, all the pundits would have been accurate. In the after math of this disaster, everyone
is scratching their collective heads wondering where they went wrong.
How could someone so unlikely, so
raw, so brazenly offensive rise to the point of dividing an entire nation and
ultimately becoming its President? It is
a scenario that defies the imagination.
In
another time and place, anyone spewing the rhetoric of Trump would have found
their bid for public office extinguished. While the politics of the past was nasty, it
was never a brutal vulgar disgusting blood sport on the same level as a roman
gladiatorial fight. At the very least,
those had some entrainment value. Watching
our drawn out election cycle was like viewing a boring, dreary overwrought play
that repeats itself until It can no more.
,… there is truth that Middle Class White America is vanishing. They are in legitimate pain and no one really
gives a damn.
Interruptions, name calling, fuzzy logic, truth bending and outright
open lies are the lingua franca of political discourse. Civility has become a quaint idea from a
bygone era. The semblance, even the veneer, of being in an enlightened society
has been shredded. Our Republic has
demonstrated that it can dummy itself down to the lowest common
denominator.
Amid all the deception and boorish
behavior, one salient feature that most missed was the United States, for all
of its political correctness, has a dark blood soaked heart that takes joy in
the suffering of others. In spite of
having a real African-American President, prejudice, hatred and bigotry are not
dead. They are alive and well. Slavery has ended. The brutality has not.
Much ink has been spilled about
“The Donald” tapping into the frustrations of a White America that feels it has
been served a raw deal. While the Left
hates hearing this, and the Republicans just give it lip service to secure
votes, there is truth that Middle Class White America is vanishing. They are in legitimate pain and no one really
gives a damn.
Low wages, higher prices, home
foreclosures and sky high tuition have drained Middle America of its
strength. It is true. White
Middle Class America is in anguish. So
is Black working class America, Native American Middle Class America, Hispanic
Middle Class America and on it goes.
Certainly, White America has a
gripe. Now that they have found a voice
in Donald Trump, who points blame at immigrants, a supposed welfare state and
opportunity given to others. He has
acquired a populist sentiment that hit a cord with the states between New York
and L.A.
The reality is that the woes of the
White Middle Class have been the result of the greatest White on White crime in
history. Somehow everyone missed the mark in focusing the blame where it really
belongs, abuses in the capitalist economic system, money corrupting politics
and good old avarice . The hubris of America is that it is often
blind to both reflection and self-criticism.
One
dividing line in America that this race to the bottom made perfectly clear was
that class divisions do exist. Minus
titled nobility, we do have an educated class, an educated upper class and the
uber wealthy, who do not see their privileged status as difficult to
obtain. Our working class is stuck in
the belief that one day they will be boorish billionaires.
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| Bernie Sanders, the man who should have been nominated. |
Bernie Sanders, the most authentic of the crew, was able to round up
enthusiasm and support. Unfortunately,
he was undermined by a Democratic Party too insular to read the hand writing on
the wall.
The
American working class saw Hillary Clinton as an incomprehensible intellectual
looking down on them from an Ivy League tower or Elitism. Oddly enough, the richer you become the better
you are. The more educated, the more you
are perceived as a snob.
This
abhorrence to erudition is the undoing of a Democratic Republic. The less educated the populace, the more
likely they are to make poor decisions.
Even our founding Fathers and Mothers held this fear.
“The
Donald” is revered because he has the “common touch.” What he has is a
rudimentary command of communication that fits well with an audience dulled by
poorly funded public schools and a society that is skeptical of those who
think. The ugly face of America is that stupidity is considered a virtue. Erudition is not.
As the
blame games begin, it is clear Hillary Clinton was far from being even remotely
an ideal candidate. She carried the
baggage of Bill Clinton’s failures. That
was a history that was just too heavy to toss away.
But
most of all, Clinton lacked both a concise message and a charismatic
personality to promote her case. “The
Donald,” from all his experience in front of the camera has an instinctive sense
of how to sell himself and his ideas, no matter how silly they are. A gullible America was willing to buy into
his fictions. They were also too eager to overlook his vulgarity and common
deportment. Trump was perceived as an
outsider coming to clean house in D.C.
Bernie
Sanders, the most authentic of the crew, was able to round up enthusiasm and
support. Unfortunately, he was
undermined by a Democratic Party too insular to read the hand writing on the
wall. Sanders could have beaten “The
Donald.” The D.N.C. failed. They failed
in a big way and they carry the blame of even allowing Clinton close to the
campaign trail. It was an act of
arrogance to think Clinton, for all her abilities, could do well in a country
that was looking for a fresh face.
The
true tragedy is that the disgruntled “Bernie or Bust” crowd were too depressed
from disillusionment to care. Some may
have gone to Trump as a screw you vote, or drowned themselves in a dose of
indifference to reality and the consequences of non-participation.
Americans,
as a rule, are not political people.
This is a huge problem in a developed industrial power where no part of
life is exempt from the influence of politics.
Pericles said, in so many words, “You can ignore politics, but it will
not ignore you.” It is a truth refuted
on these shores out of fear, loathing and profound ignorance. We have been told to despise Government, the
very cure for social immobility.
Apathy,
the favorite sport of the lazy, has reared its head again. The participation was up, but the there were
far too many Americans who just remained at home. Our voter turnout rate is a
national disgrace.
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| Hillary Clinton, popular choice. |
As the blame games begin, it is clear Hillary Clinton was far from
being even remotely an ideal candidate.
She carried the baggage of Bill Clinton’s failures. That was a history that was just too heavy to
toss away.
Then
again, our wonderful system does not make voting easy. When the Supreme Court
refused to support Voting Rights Acts, it basically sent a signal to the States
that they had permission to do whatever they can to stop poor people, working
people and any other type of people from voting. It is as if we are back to the days when only
landed White men could vote and women remained home.
Our
media has some blood on its hands. From
abnegating coverage of important events to not so subtly pitting White American
against Black America and everyone else on the planet, they have created a
climate that is not only artificial, but dangerous. Any type of civil discussion of race, gender
and class is turned into one big street fight.
The fact the world is complex,
nuanced and requires intelligent solutions to problems does not sell. We demand quick solutions. Thinking is a demanding task that makes weary
a populace with short attention spans.
The
reason for the “Triumph of Trump” is surprising still. How could someone so awful, so trashy, so
unfit for any public office be the Savior of lower income White America? It seems like an impossibility.
As you start to really look at
America, from the most elite parts to the most downtrodden to everyone in
between, the reality of America is that this was just waiting to happen.
The reasons why this travesty took
place becomes clear when you do an inventory of what is wrong with
America. Slavish devotion to material
possessions, worship of the rich and famous, vapid values, poor judgement, lack
of decent public education, low wages, gun happy police departments,
politicians using race for advancement, lack of ethics, lethargy, racism,
sexism, xenophobia and perhaps the worst of the lot, laziness. The important things we discard and
ignore. The trivial we glorify and
adore.
In spite of all of this, the
ascendance of Donald Trump is a jarring thing to behold. It is a surrealist idea that gives credence
to the idea that you are living in an alternative reality. One wakes hoping that this is all a
nightmare. The glaring reality that
this is real makes it even more unreal.
The reason why people are in a
state is because so many of us believed that we operated on a higher level as a
collective group that we really do. The
one thing you could count on was that the system, for all of its glaring flaws,
would never super nova. There was no
preparation for an event like this that rocks core believes in integrity.
The fact the world is complex,
nuanced and requires intelligent solutions to problems does not sell.
Idealism has been given a brutal
beating. Hope is extinguished. Never has
cynicism been so blatant. There is such
a hollow feeling in the words, “Lets Make America Great Again.” Everything about that collection of words is
trite. It is ignorant of the progress we
have made, and could make. It feels like
a sales pitch, not a call to patriotism.
It is a marketing idea masquerading as a political one. It also overlooks one important point, “WE ARE
THE RICHEST NATION ON EARTH.”
Behind the curtain, do we have a
clown who will turn into a statesman, or do we have just a buffoon ready to
seek vengeance? Are we are getting what
we did not want or need because everyone checked out of civic responsibility?
In a Kingdom of the Blind, the one
eyes is King, so the old expression goes.
Our future is a big question
mark. We will see.
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