Opinion
An
Absurd and Dangerous President
The
United States has voted for a dangerously inexperienced and racist
man -- one who was swept into the White House by an army of
disenfranchised white working- and middle class Americans. It's a
movement that now threatens democracy around the world.
© DER SPIEGEL By
Klaus Brinkbäumer
November 13, 2016
12:54 AM
Donald Trump called
for a ban on Muslims entering into the United States, he described
Mexicans as rapists and announced his intention to build a wall and
make Mexico pay for it. He boasted about sexually harassing women
and, when women came forward to say that he did in fact harass them,
he said: Oh no, not her. Just look at her. You really think ... with
her? Trump said Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States, and
when it was proven that Trump had lied, he said that Hillary Clinton
was the one who created the lie in the first place -- yet another
lie. He founded a university and cheated students out of their money.
He said he has a plan for the economy, and that this plan is to
double growth.
There's nothing new
here -- it's all information stemming from the election campaign. But
it still remains important.
In the days after an
election that horrified the world, one might be tempted to think all
of this isn't so bad given that Obama and Clinton accepted the defeat
with dignity and congratulated Trump. And because Trump said, in the
moment of victory, that the time for healing has come. And because
the outcome was reached democratically and the people, of course, are
always wise.
But that isn't true.
Although Trump will become the democratically elected 45th president
of the United States on January 20, he remains a dangerous man. He is
dangerously indifferent, unbalanced and inexperienced -- and he is
dangerously racist. Trump believes in the superiority of the white
race, and if he implements the worst of his campaign promises, he
will not be the first elected leader to do so.
In other words, 60
million Americans acted stupidly. They cast their votes for
xenophobia, racism and nationalism, the end of equal rights and
social conscience, for the end of climate treaties and health
insurance. Sixty million people followed a demagogue who will do
little for them. And yet ...
... this election
goes deeper than that. It says more than that, and all of us,
including the media, politicians and civil societies, and
unfortunately the entire West, which is now threatened, would be wise
to pay far closer attention.
Those who have lived
in New York or experienced dinner conversations in Georgetown and
debates at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, know
how brilliantly intelligent and worldly Americans can be. But these
are closed circles -- ones that are unfortunately nowhere near as
open as they like to claim, inaccessible as they are to the vast
majority of Americans who could never afford access. Once you get
outside such circles, such cosmopolitan thinking isn't nearly as
widespread.
Those who have
traveled recently from the East Coast to the West Coast, and
witnessed the neglect and deterioration of entire towns and cities in
states like Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana, have seen with their own
eyes that connections have been severed in American society. Those
who have seen what the disappearance of the steel industry has done
and what the computer chip has wrought is familiar with the
widespread frustration among the white working class, a group that
has been left behind.
Harvard University
and Akron, Ohio, or Wall Street and Birmingham, Alabama, no longer
have anything in common when 0.1 percent of society possesses 90
percent of the wealth. This is when the American dream is dead and
when hate thrives -- hate for immigrants, women, the media, and hate
for anything that seems elitist or is simply different. This doesn't
justify the hate -- it simply explains it.
The tragedy here is
that Clinton offered ideas to fight the roots of this hatred, ideas
like a higher minimum wage and investments in infrastructure and
education. It is tragic because it was too late for credible plans.
Trump had no ideas,
but he sensed that the left-behinds yearn for strength. After Barack
Obama's victories, the pundits said that demographic change meant
that no US election could be won again without the Latino vote. But
Trump gave the Latinos a big fuck you, insinuating that the
left-behinds are superior. His words were as crude as those spoken in
Germany 80 years ago.
One hesitates to put
these thoughts to paper, because they have slowly become clichés,
but here it goes. For one, the media should be delving far deeper
into social problems and not writing about superficial things. In
other words, it needs to stop focusing on lies and angry outbursts,
which only serves to inflate the importance of false entertainers.
And despite Clinton's defeat, politicians and anyone involved in
education should try to reestablish ties to those who feel left
behind and strive to achieve true equal opportunity.
This election was
about the impotent and about power. Trump, be it strategically or
accidentally, understood that the army of the powerless was so
enormous that it could become a movement and carry him into the White
House. He knew well what he was risking -- the possibility that, in
their rage, they would set fires, break all rules and, as a result,
could destroy democracy. In America. And, following the election of
this absurd president, potentially around the world.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário