Trump wins as America votes to hate

Much like the Brexit vote in the UK, the majority of Americans voted for a man whose campaign was predicated against the other: Muslims, Mexicans, liberals, and the establishment. Trump didn’t need to put himself against African Americans; the American system already does that.

What we have witnessed today and six months ago here in the UK is the last vestiges of any notion of a white 'Empire’, striking back.  Time and time again Trump told Americans that he would return his nation to greatness again.  Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson sung a similar jingoistic tone, which harked back to the days when US/UK greatness depended upon the exploitation and subjugation of peoples and their countries.

Much to the dismay of many Right wing leaders in  Western countries there has been small but sizemic  shifts ; Countries have become more liberal, more diverse, more global, and at times more tolerant.  But within that shift some areas in the US and the UK have been left behind primarily through Nation States  lack of investment. These areas include middle America and many northern parts of the England, and Wales.

And it’s  been to those who feel  forgotten that Donald Trump has gained unprecedented support.  He has told them lies and half truths, he has given them promises he couldn’t possibly deliver, whilst blaming outsiders  particularly the Mexicans, and the Chinese  for their difficult plight.

When things aren't what they used to be when a nation perceived itself the most powerful place on the planet, then an  identifiable bogey man/enemy needed to be created, to which Trump delivered up all Muslims on a plate.  “Here’s your enemy," he told a willing audience,  "and I’ll make sure no more will enter our great country”.

So we wake up today not full of hope and optimism but  full of fearful anxiety.  Today Trump and Putin are best friends,  but what happens when both can’t get their own way? It’s all well and good being protectionist for the US businesses, but how does he expect the outside world to react, tit for tat?   And where does the future of climate change stand with a President who thinks its a hoax?

Much of Trumps rhetoric has been illiberal so can Black America really expect Trump to tear down the institutional barriers that have been erected over decades?

I guess the biggest worry of a Trump presidency is the fear that he is both unpredictable and a bully. And whilst commentators have said that the American system has safe guards about a leader doing crazy things, those safe guards didn’t protect us from G W Bush waging war on Iraq when there was no threat there.  Let’s not forget we’re still paying the price of that war. What if Trumps much worse?

If there’s one overriding message to be learnt from today’s shocking political result, it’s that democrat engagement really matters.  Those who turn their backs on politics in some kind of protest, actually open the door for the scary demagogues such as Trump and Farage to prevail.  They in turn proudly boast, ‘the people of spoken’, before unleashing the politics of hate and fear.

Simon Woolley