The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Trump

  • Trump and rise of populism

    SIR: Though very few saw this coming, Donald Trump surprisingly pulled a rabbit from the hat. He is the president elect and our Hilary isn’t. The world must now deal with the reality of a Trump presidency, the uncertainties and inherent cataclysmic consequences.

    Described by the New York Times as the most unprepared individual to assume the Oval Office in the history of America, one is forced to question a system of government that swings in favour of the majority even if the said majority are ignorant of the issues or have been tactically deceived using a carefully crafted campaign strategy that instigates irrational behaviour. The home of the brave has been cowed if not conned by an egomaniac whose foreign policy proposal sounds a lot like the 1968 Italian classic movie “Kill them all and come back alone” by Enzo Castellari. With all America stands for and the values it projects to the world, this for me has been nothing short of heresy in the house of the prophet.

    It would be necessary to state unequivocally that Hilary Clinton lost this election on the back of a combination of factors prominent of which was the October gift (the FBI reopening of her email investigation just days to the election) but certainly not because of her gender. Of course a few pundits have argued that America isn’t ready for a female president, and even the voting demography showed that about half of American women voted against the female candidate, I still tend to believe that her biggest undoing was her inability to connect to voters in the electrifying manner with which Bernie Sanders did, not to even mention her being perceived to be untrustworthy.

    Perhaps, the biggest influence in this election, even though grossly underestimated (especially by the democrats) was terrorism and the instability of the Middle East. Liberal politicians have often ignored human behavioural pattern of self preservation when faced with extinction threat whether real or imagined. In other words, fear will influence the decision of the rational mind far more times than hope would. I predict you will run faster to save your life from a raging lion than you would for a medal. This human trait formed the core of Trumps rhetoric, his showmanship and the audacity to make repugnant and sometimes provocative statements without necessarily loosing the core of his support. As he rightly said, he could shot someone in the middle of the street and would not lose a vote because the people he appeals to have had logical reasoning shut down by fear.

    The threat of ISIS and the mass exodus of Arabs to Europe for a better life has become the springboard for sudden popularity of right wing populist politicians across the West. Nigel Farage, a right wing politician in the UK used the same narrative (the fear of immigrants) to hatch BREXIT, even though the veil seems to be gradually falling of their faces now. Angela Markel, the German chancellor has seen her party loose 10 out of 16 seats in the just concluded regional elections to right wing populists, while Nicolas Sarkozy, another right wing politician and former President of France is gaining popularity over President Hollande and is favoured to win the 2017 elections. Without a doubt, right wing populists have the momentum going into any election in the West because their protectionist message resonates with a lot of the electorates who are terrified by ISIS and the influx of strangers from the Middle East.

    The right wing populist movement might have the nod now but its success at the polls always comes with a caveat, “Populists often lose their popularity once they get into office” largely from over-promising and under delivering.

     

    • Ayodele Adio,

    @iamayolawal

  • I’ll deport three million illegal immigrants, says Trump

    I’ll deport three million illegal immigrants, says Trump

    United States President-elect Donald Trump has said he will deport or jail up to three million illegal migrants initially.

    Those targeted would be migrants with criminal records, such as gang members and drug dealers, he told U.S. broadcaster CBS in an interview.

    He also confirmed that another election promise, to build a wall with Mexico, still stood but could include fencing.

    The Republican defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in last Tuesday’s presidential vote.

    His victory shocked many who had expected Mrs Clinton to win following favourable opinion polls.

    Mr Trump is due to take over at the White House on January 20, when Barack Obama steps down after two terms in office.

    Both houses of Congress are also under Republican control.

    For the first time since winning the U.S. presidency, Donald Trump has put a number on how many people he plans to deport from U.S. soil and it’s a big one – two to three million.

    Although he says this group is comprised of violent criminals, drug-dealers and gang members, to hit such a high mark would involve either casting a very wide net that covers even the smallest infractions or also deporting legal alien residents of the U.S. with criminal convictions.

    To pull this off, an expanded “deportation force” would almost certainly be necessary, but Mr Trump’s advisers have spent the past few days downplaying the prospect of such an organisation.

    Trump also has curtailed the scope of his “big, beautiful” border wall, acknowledging that it could be a fence in some areas. All of this is evidence that Mr Trump is grappling with exactly how to make his controversial immigration promises a reality.

    Proposing a multi-billion-dollar wall and mass deportations is easy. Delivering, in the face of fiscal realities and opposition within one’s own party, is a different matter entirely.

    There are around 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, many of them from Mexico.

    Trump pledged during the election campaign to overturn amnesties introduced by President Obama, and strictly enforce immigration laws, deporting those without correct documents.

    In his first major interview to a U.S. broadcaster since the election, Mr Trump told CBS: “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.”

    Asked about his plans for the Mexican border, he said “a wall is more appropriate” in some parts but “there could be some fencing”,

    Other undocumented migrants would be assessed once the border was secured, Trump added.

    However, another top Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, said yesterday that border security was a greater priority than mass deportation.

    “We are not planning on erecting a deportation force,” he told CNN’s State of the Union programme. “I think we should put people’s minds at ease.”

    Forcing Mexico to pay for a border wall became a rallying cry among Trump supporters during the campaign.

    Their candidate caused outrage by suggesting Mexicans were exporting “their rapists” to the U.S., along with drugs and other crime.

    The US-Mexico border is about 1,900 miles (3,100 km) long and traverses all sorts of terrain from empty, dusty desert to the lush and rugged surroundings of the Rio Grande.

    It is one of the busiest borders in the world, with at least one million people using it each day, as well as 400,000 cars and 15,000 lorries, according to Mexico’s El Universal newspaper.

    Some 650 miles are covered already by a non-continuous series of fences, concrete slabs and other structures.

    Mr Trump has previously said his wall would cover 1,000 miles and natural obstacles would take care of the rest.

    In another development, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, warned Trump that “going it alone” was not an option for Europe or the U.S.

  • Enter President Trump

    FIRST, to eat the humble pie: I was wrong in my projection – mark it: not prediction – last week that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would win the United States presidential election. No hair splitting is intended here, but there is a distinction between projections and predictions. Projections are evidence based and logically derived. On the other hand, predictions, like prophecies, range from being truly divinely inspired to being downright whimsical and merely pretentious to arcane insight. That is the stock of the psychic tribe, like the T. B. Joshuas of this world.
    Rational projection on any endgame simply is punditry. And the last time I checked, it was perfectly admissible intellectually to play the pundit. But pundits do have their bad day, and I had mine last week. So, let’s move on. Maybe I owe some explanation, though, of the rationale for my projection on the American election that went so terribly wrong.
    I make no pretenses about my personal wish that Hillary carried the day in that election, and any seeming evidence of that likelihood bolstered my courage to openly take a stand. But it is universal knowledge now that Hillary didn’t win the U. S. election. Republican nominee Donald Trump did, and resoundingly too, in an epic upset that locates him to take office on January 20th, 2017, as the 45th President of the United States. It was as well an electoral sweepstake that saw the Republicans retaining the control of both chambers of the U. S. congress.
    Without prejudice to the choice American voters have made, which is now law, it had seemed improbable that Mr. Trump would wade all the tides that beset his candidature. Actually, leading up to Election Day, there were reasons to think the tycoon-turned-politician was headed for a punishing electoral defeat.
    To begin with, he is the first in his country’s entire history without scant experience in political office or military service to attain the presidency: a real estate developer and reality television star, coming in from the wintry world of business. At 70 years, he will be the oldest to be inaugurated to his first term in the top job. But easily the most formidable chink in his political armour were self-sabotaging eruptions that dogged his electioneering. And we could just recap samples here.
    In a country founded by immigrants, and where Latinos along with other minority groups formed a quantum of the voting population, Mr. Trump entered the presidential race swinging at Mexican immigrants whom he dubbed rapists and criminals. He also vowed erecting a frontier wall on the southern border with Mexico. On campaign trail, he proposed a ban against Muslims entering the United States. And he wasn’t shy putting it on record that he would mass deport illegal immigrants if he becomes President. Now, that is not counting the many misogynistic slips, which ordinarily should alienate female voters.
    The potential challenge to Trump’s candidature wasn’t limited to his personal traits, there was also the dysfunction of his party platform. The Republican establishment so underrated his political value that the party palpably flinched at handing him its ticket. And when sheer voter power threw him up as the nominee, the party viewed his emergence with helpless trepidation and near-fatalist resignation to what seemed to it its dimmest chance ever of getting a serious shot at the White House. The party establishment was at such odds with Mr. Trump that, against the run of historical practice, Republican leaders hobbled on promoting his candidature. And following the leak early October of an old recording of the reality star bragging about improper contact with women, the party platform swiftly cut lose from the Trump ticket, in apparent fear that he could well drag Republican congressional candidates facing their own elections down with himself.
    Those factors considered, Mr. Trump seemed an improbable winner in an election tightly fought with another candidate who was apparently politically grilled, and who ran on a united party platform bolstered by a keen power of incumbency. But that wasn’t even the sole basis for my faulty projection. Polling of potential voters is an integral part of electoral practice in the West, and virtually all reputed pollsters on the American election for many months before Election Day projected a Clinton win.
    The trend, to boot, was by no means limited to American pollsters. On the eve of the November 8 election, Clinton was ahead by four points in a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aggregate of opinion polls, even though that projection fell within the stated margin of error. Not that it was the first time the polls were wrong: the polls were widely off mark on the 2015 British elections, and as well on the Brexit referendum in June, this year. So, why were the polls so wrong again?
    Data analysts in the West are yet probing for answers, but it seems agreed as it were that true voter behaviour can hardly be gauged with accuracy ahead of polling. “We treat polls like weather forecasts, but voters are inherently unpredictable…Politics can feel as unpredictable as the weather…But those are two very different kinds of forecasts. One is based on natural science, the other on social science. People are different from planets – they can change their minds, they can decide to not share their opinions or they can flat-out lie. And that’s before you even get to some of the statistical issues that make polling inaccurate,” data journalist Mona Chalabi wrote in the UK Guardian last week.
    A mollified pollster named Mike Murphy was so disillusioned that he vented his grievance on his Twitter handle, @murphymike. “I’ve believed in data for 30 years in politics, and data died tonight. I could not have been more wrong about this election,” he said.
    Mr. Trump winning the U. S. presidential election came down to one thing: voter power. Pollsters obviously underestimated the number of hidden Trump voters – people who stormed the polling precincts on Election Day but never showed up on survey radar. A self-proclaimed lover of polls himself, Mr. Trump, before the results emerged last week, said he no longer believed most of them. “I do think a lot of the polls are purposely wrong. I don’t even think they interview people, I think they just put out phony numbers,” he told journalists.
    Well, let me be clear that I yet think Mr. Trump’s victory in the American election did not make his bullish pedagogy right. But the beauty of democracy is for voters to have their way – however their choice may seem. And there are useful lessons to learn from Trump’s doggedness and cult following among the American electorate, which successfully upended the Washington establishment in a voters’ revolt.
    In the face of a cold shoulder from his party, and a forest of survey data suggesting he was on the back foot, Trump defiantly affirmed he would win the election, and he won. He needed a near-perfect run through the swing states, and he got it – taking Ohio, North Carolina and Florida, among others. But he didn’t go pursuing victory by seeking to compromise the system, he rather dug in with voters. And from voting demographics, it has emerged that his appeal resonated with a largely overlooked bloc of blue-collar whites and working-class voters who felt the American promise had eluded them, and who found in Trump a champion.
    Every attempt anywhere to pervert due process of the electoral system is directly indicative of disregard for the electorate. But supremacy of voters is the very essence and hallmark of democracy, and that is a virtue we must continually strive to entrench even in our own experience here in Nigeria. On this score, it is clear the U. S. elections have again shown the way.

  • Trump and fateful U.S. election

    Trump and fateful U.S. election

    ONE of the reasons the United States of America is pejoratively called the policeman of the world is its insistence on global adherence to the values and virtues that have ennobled humanity over the centuries. The policeman was not always the best law and rights enforcer, and sometimes he showed himself to be clay-footed, but he projected human rights in ways that endeared him to many counties, made him denounce Chinese and Russian abridgement of those rights, caution and cajole African countries to embrace strong institutions instead of promoting strongmen, and often try to coax or discipline the rest of the world to embrace libertarian values. In short, the U.S., despite its own weaknesses and appalling race records, rose over the last hundred years to become the conscience of the world, especially when juxtaposed against Europe’s equivocation, malleability and vacillation. Whether acknowledged or not, it was this zeal to promote and defend human rights and other great human values that have propelled America to world leadership. Military machines are a small part of that greatness.
    But that position is today threatened by the Republican Party’s Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s presidential poll. Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party lost. Mr Trump’s life and ideas, if they are worth anything, brutally and arrogantly refute the foundations of America’s greatness. The vacuum a Trump presidency will, therefore, create will not simply foster fascist regimes, it will also obliterate any obstacle to authoritarianism, whether in Asia or more accurately in Africa, especially in places where there is no genuine democratic conviction. Even before Mr Trump won the election, some African countries had prepared their exit from the International Criminal Court (ICC), fearing that the court unfairly targets them. That exit may now be hastened. Since Mr Trump never believed in women’s rights, press freedom and the rights and liberties of minorities, his dangerous proclivity will encourage African countries like Nigeria already struggling with the constraining concept of the rule of law to pussyfoot.
    Worse, in the near future, there will be no one to fill the vacuum the US. under Mr Trump will be creating: not China, not Russia, and not Europe. The U.S. may be confronting a major tragedy of untold proportions with the assumption of office of a businessman and politician who finds the inspiring philosophies and uplifting examples of the great framers of the American constitution an inconvenience, but the tragedy is worse for Africa whose rulers have never felt comfortable with constitutions they love to amend for entirely selfish reasons, or the rule of law, which they foolishly believe limits their elbow room to impose law and order. The scale of the tragedy will begin to manifest in the next one year or so as more countries take the liberty to enact and inspire their own cocktails of repressive measures to whip their countries into line, as the Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte has already done. With the emergence of the vacuous Mr Trump, there will be no one left to give voice to the voiceless, and no one found to defend the defenceless. With so repugnant a personality promoted into the White House by essentially economic and racist reasons, it is no exaggeration to say that American prestige and power will start to erode, and with it the signal virtues that had shaped human development in the past few decades, and which America was its chief custodian.
    Commentators have focused almost exclusively on Mr Trump’s personal failings to justify their intense disapproval of him. He had trounced their darling candidate, Mrs Clinton, whose foibles are, however, not as shocking or off-putting as that of the Republican Party’s candidate. But in the end, even if reluctantly, the outraged world which had looked to the U.S. for leadership and had expected a fairly predictable and cerebral person to occupy the White House, has no choice but to concede to American voters the right to put anyone they like in office, whether that choice is sensible or not. The almost universally reviled Mr Trump will now have the distinguished honour of sitting on the chair once occupied and ennobled by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
    There are fears the president-elect will be unable, even incapable, of ennobling that distinguished chair. As many leading U.S. newspapers have said and defiantly reiterated in excoriating editorials even after the election, the president-elect ran a most divisive and appalling campaign that bore disturbing parallels to German fascist propaganda in the 1930s. But he won, obviously because his campaign and what he stands for resonated hugely with the electorate, especially the disaffected, anxious and dispossessed middle-class working American families, many of whom some analysts suggest would probably have voted for the Democratic Party presidential aspirant, Bernie Sanders, had the Vermont senator been picked. But whether Mrs Clinton’s loss had to do with her seeming inability to develop a resonating message or her character flaws, or with Mr Trump’s destructive manipulation of base and bigoted emotions, or with the meddling of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), or with other more arcane and complex issues, both external and local, the Democrats lost the election and must contend with that fact, including how to rebuild their party’s platforms going forward.
    Whoever won the election would have had to contend with an obviously bitterly divided America. The idiosyncratic Mr Trump will naturally have a much tougher job of healing those divisions since he was in fact the major exponent of the polarisation certain to convulse the American system for a long time to come. His spontaneity, abrasiveness, coarseness, not to say his indefensible attitude towards the media, women and minorities, are bound to reverberate throughout the system. Mr Trump, as president-elect, should naturally be transforming from a campaigner to president, assuming he is capable of that separation. But there is nothing he has said or done before and after his victory that gives hope he is in fact capable of separating the two contrasting and presumably conflicting personalities: one so repugnant it is hard to imagine it on the American throne, and the other so abysmally flighty it is frightening to imagine what damage it could do to American prestige internationally. Either way, U.S. voters may soon discover they have probably bought a pig in a poke.
    The American voter knows where the shoe pinches him, and therefore has the right to choose a president who may not necessarily fit into the perspectives, and cater to the sensitivities, of the rest of the world. But it is dangerous when, despite the developments around the world, that voter appears inured to the political events around him, especially events that have far-reaching consequences for U.S power and global peace. No candidate who understands the components of U.S. power and global dominance can afford to undermine or disregard his country’s media, or sneer at the values the country has projected over the decades, many of which have become universally accepted. By electing Mr Trump, American voters have not seemed to demonstrate the discriminating, nuanced and breathtaking understanding expected of citizens of a superpower country. They are not infallible. Nor does it seem they gave too much thought to the control insidiously exercised by outsiders on their electoral process through WikiLeaks and the alleged Russian-inspired hacking of the Democratic Party computer servers and Hillary Clinton’s emails.
    Post-election protests will not reverse the outcome of the election. They’ll only probably remind Mr Trump that the country is more divided than he thinks, and perhaps also compel him to recognise that more people actually voted for his opponent than his electoral college dominance implies. It is not obvious he would be restrained by that fact, nor by the widespread protests against his victory. He is also unlikely to understand the implications of the resurgent and probably destructive nationalism his election will engender. That nationalism was triggered by Brexit which saw the United Kingdom exiting the European Union (EU). That nationalism, which the U.S. under Mr Trump will domesticate and encourage, may sweep through Europe dealing a final death blow to multiculturalism and the balance of power that had seemed to sustain peace on the continent for many decades. That nationalism, which may gradually morph into some form of isolationism in the U.S., will, however, be unable to anticipate and checkmate the nationalism of competing powers such as Russia and the stable and prosperous China. In fact, it may even partially weaken the intricate network of alliances and military coalitions that have guaranteed world peace and stability.
    The U.S. president-elect cannot give what he does not have. Regardless of whether he surrounds himself with competent aides or not, and assuming his presidency is not hijacked like that of George W. Bush was captured by the demagogic exponents of the New American Century, Mr Trump will continue to his erratic, bombastic self. That self is, sadly, fundamentally at odds with the principles and practice of democracy. And though the simple arithmetic of his election cannot be questioned, that self really possesses instincts that are wrongly placed to detect just how pervasively his person and views chip away at the enduring symbols and ramparts of American superpower status.
    Disturbingly, many analysts are beginning to fear that the cracks they see in the U.S. may be reminding them of Rome in the Fifth century, Macedonian Empire after Alexander the Great, and even Britain after World War II when a paranoid Winston Churchill mournfully complained that the exhausting and debilitating military victory achieved over Adolf Hitler had sapped Britain of its vitality and transferred global dominance into the hands of the U.S. That country across the Atlantic, added Mr Churchill gloomily, might be too naive or too inexperienced to understand the Soviet Union, and too bewitched and undiscriminating to understand the complex nuances of the geopolitics of power. Might history be repeating itself, or had finally a moron taken the White House who is both incapable of ennobling the American seat of power and of being ennobled by it, no matter how much the system tried?

  • Trump Triumphant

    Trump Triumphant

    The Revenge of the old Right

    This past week will long be remembered in American and global history as the week when the unthinkable became the unavoidable. Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States of America. All lovers of liberal democracy and its most bullish rampart must be saddened by this development. In a way this may presage the precipitous decline of America’s global hegemony, the unravelling of the nation-state paradigm and the resurgence of the ancient National Question even in the most seemingly secure nation on earth.

    The auguries are hideous but intriguing. In their haste to dismiss the old establishment, the Americans handed over their country and its nuclear arsenal to a man without any record of public service and one that had been adjudged by many to be temperamentally unfit to handle sensitive matters. But the nightmare having become a throbbing reality, the daydreaming must stop henceforth. Realpolitik suggests that Donald Trump must be promptly engaged before he can do any grievous damage to his country and the world at large.

    The blissful but not so innocent narrative of relentless human progress has now been dramatically halted on the plains of Middle America and in the same country where such possibility was first mooted at least in modern history. Once again, we are confronted by the fact that humankind is not a fallen angel but a rising hominid. But more important, America is sending signals to the rest of the world that the modern nation is no longer an expanded community of organic values. Everybody must find their way out of the apocalyptic cave. Picking up the pieces from this Trumpian inferno may take quite some time.

    For twelve long and lonely hours on Tuesday, yours sincerely kept vigil with the American people and the American dream. It is not for a love of hyperbole that American presidential contests have been described as “the American melodrama”. It is full of strange turns and twists. It is breathless and breath-taking in sheer electrifying drama. It is not a political fare for the fainthearted.

    It was a nail-chewing finale. For sheer poetic beauty perhaps nothing could beat the CNN female anchor who casually and offhandedly blurtedout that there was no more nail to bite. At 2 am Nigerian time when the tide began to turn strongly and finally against Hillary Clinton, yours sincerely decided to call several Nigerians living in the US. Not a single one returned the call. It was an ominously pregnant development. The called could no longer hear the caller. Donald Trump was about to be loosed upon the world. America will never be the same again.

    Yet according to virtually all known and unknown pundits, it was supposed to be history of a different and more ennobling type that was in the making. America was all set to complete a historic double. All trends and political statistics pointed to the election of Hillary Clinton as the first female president of the United States. Having elected Barack Obama as its first African-American president, America was on its way to becoming a truly egalitarian society by electing its first female executive. The gender glass ceiling was about to be shattered forever.

    But it was not be. History does not progress in such neat and linear geometrical order. America may now have to wait for years and even decades before such a perfect opportunity presents itself again, and probably in diminished circumstances. In a cruel irony of fate, the Obama presidency itself may now be viewed by posterity as a last-ditch effort by the American establishment to stem the tide of evil political retrogression and social anarchy; a heroic effort to circle the waggon before the whole country goes under in a tsunami of right-wing extremism leavened by ethnic and religious bigotry.

    A decent, solid and dignified fellow brimming with compassion and the milk of human kindness, this is not the kind of history Barack Obama would have wished to make or the kind of legacy he would have wanted to be associated with. But as this column never tires of asserting, history often moves forward by lurching sideways. In the fullness of time and when the historical meandering has run its course, Obama would be rightly regarded as an avatar of modern American history.

    Although history moves in a mysterious manner often beyond the full and immediate comprehension of humankind, there are many codes that can be enlisted in cracking the mystery. Many discerning observers have noted that there is a familiar global ring to what is happening in America. It is duly noted that the global resurgence of right-wing fascism and extreme ethnic nationalism coupled with religious fundamentalism has berthed in America and found fertile and productive soil.

    The Donald Trump phenomenon in its shrill xenophobia and crude loathing of the other is all at one with the Brexit vote that has crippled Great Britain, the persistence of ultra-nationalist parties in France, the resurgence of Neo-Nazi groups in Germany and the xenophobic murmurings despite Angela Merkel’s countervailing personal heroism, Russia’s relapse into an ancient pan-Slavic nationalism and the human fiasco the Middle East has become. This is not to talk of the devastated phantom nations of post-colonial Africa. It is a broken world crying to be fixed.

    But in order to do this we must get certain myths out of the way. As we have seen with the current demographic crisis in Europe and the revolt of the right in America, all human societies no matter the development and the sophistication behave in the same manner when faced with want, hunger, generalized fear and insecurity. They turn their xenophobic fury and paranoid resentment on those who do not belong to their ethnic and religious categories. Even in racially homogeneous societies, they pounce on those who do not share clannish commonalities with them.

    The notion of a lunatic fringe is one of the comforting myths of modern civilization. The lunatic fringe is not so much a fringe of lunacy as it is a glimpse into the darkness of the human heart in which subliminal impulses common to all are given free expression or acted out by a few. When the chips are down, the fringes disappear but not the lunacy. The genocidal Hutu tribesmen of Rwanda, the old German middle class that acted as Hitler’s compliant executioners, the implacable isolationists who voted for Brexit in Britain and the millions who have just voted for Donald Trump cannot be regarded as belonging to a fringe of the society. They are the mainstream acting in errant communality.

    To be sure since its inception as a nation, America has always boasted of such extremist, murderously xenophobic groups: White Aryan Resistance, the Ku Klux Klan, White Order of Thule, the White Knights etcwho might have been responding to the wanton brutality and savagery that accompanied the birth of America as the most modern nation the world had seen.

    Yet the notion of American Exceptionalism inheres in the fact that by coming up with rules, laws, institutions and ideals which should nudge the sweltering commonwealth of disparate souls to a higher telos, the American founding fathers and many of their successors have managed to restrict the savage contrarians to their primeval forests and the antediluvian margins of American society.

    These American titans were far from being perfect. In fact some of them were morally culpable while one or two were psychologically flawed in a profound manner. But their fundamental nobility of spirit and considerable intellectual talents enabled them to rise above their own human failings to envision a better and more humane societyand one to be guided by the finer ideals of civilization. The brotherhood of humanity, irrespective of race, creed and social status is one of these ideals.

    But where hunger and want prevail, where inequity and inequality of staggering and idiotic proportions persist, the prospects of a better and more humane society evaporate and the brotherhood of humanity disappears. The result is a hopelessly divided and bitterly polarized society which paves the way for the emergence of a reactionary right-wing huckster and hustler like Donald Trump. It is all so eerily reminiscent of the rise of NAZI Germany.

    If there is a silver lining in this cloud that has descended on the greatest liberal democracy the world has seen, it is that no society can afford to take its own goodness and greatness for granted. Donald Trump is a mere symptom of a more fundamental human malady. This is where the death of good old socialism as a countervailing global force against the grosser moral and political absurdities of savage capitalism must be regretted.

    Given the fallibility and frailty of human nature, the communist dream of a paradise on earth may represent a phantom impossibility. But while its writ was in place in vast swathes of human space, it compelled and committed the capitalist world to momentous social re-engineering which birthed a more humane and compassionate society in leading capitalist countries.

    For these nations, the fear of a communist take-over was the beginning of wisdom. With the collapse of the socialist world, the capitalist order has reverted to the sadistic prototype of the Dickensian bleak house. History works in mysterious ways and without realising it, humanizing capitalism may well have been the main historic leitmotif of the socialist challenge.

    After the collapse of socialism, America has not been helped by the intellectual and ideological quietude from other global epicentres of knowledge production. Beyond the early stirring of Negritude, all has been quiet on the African intellectual front, except the jejune mimicry of western ideologies of the right and left by its jaded middlemen of ideas. It is only in South America where an alternative narrative to western modernity has evolved, where the concept of No-Capitalism has been developed and where Liberation Theology flourished among its Jesuit intellectuals that there is a stirring of redemptive hope for humanity.

    Do we then say so long America? It may be too early to count out God’s own country. For one, its major state institutions remain in place as the seamless transition from Obama to Trump attests. The funeral of a lion is not a spectacle for domestic dogs.As the most powerful nation the world has seen, America must now find it within its soul and spirit to recover the essence of American Exceptionalism and the repudiation of its finer ideals which the ascendancy of Donald J Trump represents.In the interim, welcome to trumped America.

  • TRUMP: Our fears, our expectations, by Nigerians resident in US

    TRUMP: Our fears, our expectations, by Nigerians resident in US

    The emergence of Donald Trump as the President-elect of the United States of America has shocked the entire world.

    Africans, Mexicans, Muslims and several other people and interests, who were the target of Trump’s campaign have expressed different views on the president-elect.

    Trump, the candidate of the Republicans Party, defeated Hillary Clinton, candidate of the Democratic Party, after a bitterly fought election that was marred by a blackmail-filled campaign, which left the people divided.

    Trump’s campaign, tagged ‘Make America great again’, was largely hinged on threats to send immigrants back to their home countries.

    With the emergence of Trump as the next president of the US, The Nation spoke with some Nigerians resident there (US) on their  reactions to  some of Trump’s campaign issues.

    For George Nikoro, a Nigerian resident in Denver, Colorado, it is still premature to say whether Trump will carry out his threat. He, however, said the president-elect may have made those threats as a ploy to win the election.

    He said: “There is fear, but it is too premature to decide that Trump is going to carry out all those threats. From all indications, he was just saying all those things to appeal to the electorate.

    “When he starts acting as president, all these things he said that he is going to build a fence, he was just spewing them out to appeal to the electorate during the campaigns.

    “Also on deportation, America is a country that is organised. I don’t see Trump coming up with a deportation squad. So, I don’t see it happening. He is not going to do anything without the approval of congress.”

    In the opinion of Oluwaseun Ogunniyi, who lives in Maryville, Illinois, all immigrants in the US are anxious over the anticipated Trump’s policy on immigration. According to him, Nigerians, like other immigrants in the US, are scared that it will be more difficult to get opportunities to remain in the country on a long term basis.

    “Nigerians here have the same fears as those of immigrants from other countries. There are anxieties about how Trump’s immigration policies might make it more difficult for people to get visa to study and work. Ultimately, people are scared that it will be more difficult to get opportunities to stay here on a long-term basis.

    “There are also concerns about how this can further aggravate violence and all forms of abuse against minorities. People are also worried about how sound his foreign policy will be, if it will not be disastrous for the rest of the world. This is due to the fact that this man will be controlling the most powerful army in the world,” Ogunniyi said.

    Olagbenro Oladipupo, resident in Madison, is not surprised with the emergence of Trump.

    “I wasn’t surprised. For some reasons, I knew Trump would win. The Democrat Party, media and public intellectuals tried to trivialise Hillary’s baggage of scandals. This is a great undoing on their part. Someone is telling you to “Make America Great Again”, he is getting a lot of followers to buy this message and you think he is stupid? For a long time, liberals in America have pursued liberal ideologies that are threatening the values of white middle class Americans.  In trying to please everyone, liberals robbed some of their values. They voted Trump as a protest.

    “As a Nigerian, I really do not care if Trump is elected or not; I am not afraid. I am here illegally. As a Black man, my humanity will be a little bit bruised. But, really what do we expect? America is not my country. I don’t expect myself to think I can act anyhow here. America belongs to those who own it.

    “The worst scenario is that America gets too hostile for me to live in as a Nigerian. And the last time I checked, I wasn’t exiled from Nigeria. I can always return home. Maybe a mass return of Nigerians in Diaspora would even help shake things up and make Nigeria great again if we were ever great. Only those who think they can’t make it in Nigeria or anywhere else should be afraid.”

    Francis Fapohunda of Tucson, California, condemned the reactions by Nigerians who took to twitter, facebook and other social media platforms to mock their kinsmen in the US. He is, however, optimistic that Trump may turn out to be a good leader like the late Ronald Regan, who was also an entertainer.

    “In my honest opinion, I think Trump said all those things to become president. I am expecting he is going to be different from his campaign now that he is president-elect. There is fear, but I am sure the American people will not allow him do all that he threatened to do.

    “On Nigerians at home mocking Nigerians in America; they don’t understand the politics of America. Yes, the victory was a major setback, but the American congress will checkmate his activities.

    “Ronald Regan was more of an entertainer than a politician, but he did well as president. Let’s just watch and see how things unfold.”

  • Obama, Trump meet

    Obama, Trump meet

    President-elect Donald Trump said yesterday it was a “great honour” to meet United States President Barack Obama for transition talks at the White House.

    Obama said he was “encouraged” by their “excellent” and “wide-ranging” conversation, which lasted for about 90 minutes..

    Trump had questioned Obama’s US citizenship and vowed to dismantle his legacy.

    During the campaign, Obama called Trump “uniquely unqualified”.

    The businessman also called Obama “the worst president in the history of the United States

    However, Obama said he was “rooting” for him after his shock defeat of Hillary Clinton.

    After their meeting at the White House, Obama said: “My number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president-elect is successful.”

    He said they had discussed domestic and foreign policy and he had been “very encouraged” by Trump’s interest in working with his team on issues facing the U.S.

    Trump said he would “very much look forward” to interacting with President Obama in future

    “I have great respect, the meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half, and it could’ve, as far as I’m concerned, it could’ve gone on for a lot longer,” the president-elect said.

    “We discussed a lot of different situations – some wonderful and some difficulties.”

    Trump, who said he had never met Obama, called him a good man and said the two had discussed both “wonderful” things and the “difficult” challenges the country was facing.

    On Wednesday, thousands took to the streets of major US cities denouncing Mr Trump after his shock defeat of Hillary Clinton.

    White House spokesman Josh Earnest has insisted Obama is sincere about ensuring a smooth handover.

    With the Republicans now holding a majority in both chambers of the US Congress, Mr Trump can more easily target key Obama initiatives like such as his healthcare reforms.

    The president-elect’s transition team for the 10-week period until inauguration will be led by Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey.

    Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is a leading contender to serve as attorney general and Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, is a top choice for Homeland Security secretary, according to people familiar with the matter. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is interested in serving as defense secretary, the people said.

    Mr Trump, who has never held elected office, has said his immediate priorities will be restoring the country’s infrastructure and doubling its economic growth

    Trump flew from New York on his private jet and landed at Reagan National Airport, just outside the nation’s capital.

    The president-elect was accompanied by his wife, Melania, who had a meeting with First Lady Michelle Obama.

    His motorcade arrived at the White House’s South Lawn, where reporters weren’t able to observe the two men greeting each other, shortly before 11 a.m. New York time.

    White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was seen walking with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a close adviser to the president-elect, on the South Lawn while Obama and Trump met. Obama and Trump met alone but posed for photographs with a handful of senior aides after the meeting.

    White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters the meeting was “robust” and “valuable.”

    “It is no secret that the president-elect and I have some pretty significant differences,” Obama said in the Rose Garden on Wednesday. “But remember, eight years ago, President Bush and I had some pretty significant differences.”

    Obama said he had told his “team to follow the example that President Bush’s team set eight years ago, and work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a successful transition for the president-elect.”

    Trump didn’t mention Obama in his victory speech early Wednesday. He called for unity, saying, “It’s time for America to bind the wounds of division.”

    “I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans,” Trump said.

    Neither man has addressed post-election protests in several major cities, including New York and Washington, where demonstrators have criticized Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric about African-Americans, Latinos, women, and Muslims.

  • The Trump enigma

    SIR: Most people did not give him a fighting chance when he announced his intention to run for President of the United States. It became worse after he emerged as the Republican Party candidate for the post and he turned himself into a loose cannon. What with his brashness, the flaunting of his wealth etc… He even commissioned a new hotel complex as the heated election campaign wore on.

    He did not help matters by championing radical solutions to key issues. He would build a wall, which Mexico will pay for, to keep Mexican immigrants at bay, he insisted. He was mad at Moslems, was not enthused with Blacks and other minorities but was going to make the rich, like himself pay less, not more taxes.

    He was friends with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin who has been calling the U.S. bluff in Syria. He had good business connections with China which is moving to surpass the U.S. as the World’s economic power. He wrote off the military campaigns in Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and especially Iraq as ill-conceived and badly executed. It looked like he had an axe to grind with every conceivable position the U.S. establishment stood for. It got so bad his opponents insisted that he should not be entrusted with the U.S. nuclear code given his well-advertised temperament.  An Arab American even wondered whether he had read the U.S. Constitution.

    Trump said he was not a politician, only a billionaire businessman. He blamed the politicians for most of the country’s ills. He was fed up with the way his country had been run even when they maintained the self-imposed role of the world’s policeman by the sheer strength of their military might and had kept their dollar as the world’s currency. A nation of immigrants from all over the world since Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespuchi, the Pilgrims and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Trump seemed to disdain this fact and appeared set for a new policy of Exclusive-Isolationism in America.

    He lost in all three presidential debates with ‘Secretary’ Clinton. He was not bothered about what was said of him including the ladies who suddenly emerged with allegations of ‘inappropriate’ advances. He chided the press for their reportage, abused anybody at will and refused to say whether he will accept the election results whichever way it goes. He even stated that the elections have been rigged before it started.

    Despite all of the above and much more, Donald J. Trump was massively elected the 45th President of the United States pulling off a stunning upset. Despite its anticlimactic and stunning close, Nigerians should learn from the process called Democracy and not make some mockery of it.

     

    • Comrade Charles Onyeagba,

    Awka, Anambra State.

  • Putting the Trump victory in a context

    Putting the Trump victory in a context

    SIR: Donald Trump has won and a new dawn has begun, people must be wondering how the hell this happened. Well, this is how.

    First, in recent times, across the world, from Brexit in the UK to Le Pen in France and now Trump in America, there has been a recent surge in “nationalist” and “anti-establishment” movements. I dare even say that if IPOB (Biafra movement) were allowed to contest elections in Nigeria, they would do very well in some states. The establishment has often failed to address core issues and have failed to listen to people at the grassroots for such a long time. Now, the “establishment” is paying the price, starting with the western powers.

    Second, it baffles me that the Democrats chose Hillary Clinton, who for long has been part of the establishment with relatively poor results (Libya, Syria etc). A more credible candidate like Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders would have blown Trump away but they decided to appease Clinton and this is the result.

    Third, people make this seem to be only about race.  While it is true that race played a major part as many “white supremacists” like David Duke supported Trump en masse, race is not the only factor. Clinton’s close affiliation with Wall Street was seen as corruption especially by people in the rural areas who were losing jobs due to technology as Wall Street significantly represents big businesses, her e-mail investigation and her calling Trump’s voters a “bunch of deplorables” didn’t help either.

    Also, it should be noted that one tenth of white people in the Midwest who voted Obama in the last election voted Trump this time.  Surely, not a simple change of mind? Clinton’s reputation surely did not help matters; race was only one of the many issues which helped Trump to the White House.

    Again, many people who dreaded a Clinton presidency because they believe she would get her way most times irrespective of checks and balances decided to vote Trump speculatively, believing that the Congress would effectively regulate any rash action (s) he tries to take. Let us hope this is the case because if it turns out otherwise, it would be dreadful. However, you can’t fault these people; blame the Democrats for their poor choice. I sincerely hope that this does not give the racists and bigots the voice they have longed for to persecute minorities. If that turns out to be the case, I hope all the minorities will stand strong and fight the oppression together and in four years use the same power to drive Trump out.

     

    • Oladapo Olaniyonu,

    Reading, United Kingdom.

     

  • Trump shocks the world

    Trump shocks the world

    Shock swept through the world yesterday after the unexpected election of Republican Donald Trump as United States’ 45th President.

    Bolaji Akinyemi, a professor of political science, described Mr. Trump’s victory as a worrisome development and “a victory of the ugly side of the U.S.”

    Prof.  Akinyemi, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, said global predictions of the Democratic candidate, Hilary Clinton’s victory was cut short by Trump’s win.

    “It brings uncertainty into international politics because the world now has to deal with a man who is inexperienced, does not understand the complexities of international politics and has no respect for anyone who is not white or American; I think that is dangerous.

    “There has always been an ugly side to the U.S. just as there is with every country in the world but the good side in the U.S. has always prevailed so that in tackling American problems, the interests of the U.S. are not defined in antagonism to the interest of the whole world.

    He added that that it would be difficult to predict Mr. Trump’s policies toward Nigerians or Africans in the Diaspora and the continent itself

    A former Nigerian ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Ambassador Dapo Fafowora said Trump’s victory was a lesson to Nigerians and Africans to remain in and contribute to the development of their countries.

    “There is nothing in his background to suggest he has any durable interest in Africa.

    “I think it is a lesson for Nigerians; people should stay here and make contributions in developing our country.

    “When people go abroad, they contribute to these foreign countries; one must agree that conditions are difficult but if Nigerians abroad work half as hard as they do abroad in Nigeria, we will be a better country.

    “I think it is a good development for Africa that we should look inwards and try to develop ourselves without relying on any major economic power.”

    Nigeria’s former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, advised the leadership of Nigeria and Africa to promote policies in the interest of the citizens.

    He said such interests would encourage development and reduce the flow of African citizens to western countries.

    “as Africans, we have survived slavery, colonialism, apartheid; I think the strength of the African people will enable us to survive any negative consequences arising from this results.

    “The important thing is for the leadership of our continent to put the people ahead of anything else and if the link between the people and the leadership is strong, then we will survive the decision by the Americans to elect Donald.”

    The don expressed optimism that U.S. laws and institutions would protect Nigerians and Africans in the U.S., stressing, however, that “clearly, we should be prepared.

    “The Africans in the Diaspora are the sixth region in Africa as being decided by the African Union so we have to be supportive and look out for them.”

    According to a survey of people across the world by the NBC, the Trump Presidency is evoking fear.

    From Rome, Italy on hearing that Trump had won, Alessio Renda, a 25-year-old music student, was incredulous. “Seriously? It’s impossible. Oh my god. It’s really strange, that’s my first reaction.”

    Anna Maria Fagetin, a 35-year-old lawyer, reflected on Trump’s pledge to bring his business acumen to the White House — and drew parallels with Italian tycoon and ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

    “Berlusconi said the same thing when he ran in Italy … that he would run Italy like he would run his companies,” she said. “The companies were successful, but Italy was not. So, what advice can I give to the Americans? Good luck.”

    Michele Angelini, a 24-year-old student in Rome, said that the first thing that came to his mind when he learned the news was that he would “have to create a nuclear shelter in the basement.”

    His second thought was: “Well, now [Americans] have Berlusconi, too.”

     From Tehran, Iran, a 27-year-old civil engineer, who did not give his full names said: ”I’m happy Trump got elected because I think he is going to pull America down and weaken the country.

     ”I think the election of Trump means the weakening of America and it will be good for Iran.”

    Suleiman Mordai Rad, a 58-year-old cab driver, said: “We are revolutionaries …whether its Trump or Clinton, it makes no difference. As the supreme leader said, we will deliver a massive punch to America’s mouth. They have to respect us, that’s it. But they are not going to because they take their instructions from Israel.”

    Trump will have a “negative effect” on the Middle-East “if he can’t control himself,” said Hesam Modir, a 60-year-old mechanical engineer. “He seems to favour conflict. But today, after the nuclear deal, I don’t think America will have any effect on Iran, good or bad.”

    From Tokyo, Japan, Yoshihiro Iseki, a 78-year-old retiree said: “I think the result will bring huge damage to the Japanese economy,” said. “Mr. Trump has said Japan should defend itself on its own, if that’s the case it’s going to be a huge problem.”

    Kumiko Kurosawa, a 47-year-old who runs her own business in the music industry, said: “I’m afraid Japan will now appear weak to China and North Korea because Mr. Trump doesn’t appreciate the strong U.S. and Japan security alliance. I think Japan should shoulder its fair share of responsibilities in terms of security, but not having a strong U.S.-Japan cooperation is a problem.”

    Trump “seems to poke at the weakness of others,” said Yasushi Tetsuka, a 49 -year-old male white-collar worker. “I think having him as president will be a disadvantage to us. I am deeply worried about the future of our economy.”

    From Beijing, China, Feina Zhen, a 27-year-old from Shenzhen who lived in the U.S. for six years and works at an investment firm in Beijing, said:”We’re seeing a disaster coming, from my perspective, because I think he’s crazy,” said Ironically sporting a blue “Make China Great Again”, Feina expressed concern about her Chinese friends in the U.S. because of Trump’s stance on immigration. “If I had the right to vote, I’m definitely not voting for him,” she said.

    Mico Ma, a 41-year-old business consultant from Jiangsu Province living in Beijing, said: “I’m very surprised you American people vote for a person like that as a leader, as a state leader. I don’t think he’s … a cautious person in terms of speeches and behaviour and presenting his political viewpoints – not only to the American people,  but also to the world.”

    “I think Trump being president will bring a very positive influence” to China-U.S. relations, said Gao Yan, a 42-year-old professional investor in Beijing who hails from Henan Province. “Unlike Hillary’s e-mail controversy; he will discuss a few things with Chinese government in a transparent way. Trump is a blunt man. So, he won’t hide what he does.”

    From Tel Aviv, Israel, Michael Eladi, said:Trump is “a one-of-a-kind-guy” and America is ready for him “because he steps out of the border, he says what he thinks and people like that.” Eladi, a 26-year-old media director added: “He is going to do something new. I’m actually happy. Trump might be a little childish, but he is not a liar. He is the lesser evil.”

    Omri Shuva, a 30-year-old computer scientist, said: “I’m not sure Trump is capable to this job and I hope he will surprise us all. I think that for us it’s bad that Trump won. If he weakens the U.S. worldwide, then it’s bad for Israel.”

    “I’m surprised, I’m shocked. But to tell you the truth, I was very happy because he ran alone and Clinton had the support of President Obama,” said Shoshana Klien, a 65-year-old who works in a bank and lives in Jerusalem. “Concerning Israel, I don’t see any difference between the Democrats and Republicans. And I hope Trump learns about foreign relations. He has a lot to learn and he will be a good president. Yes I’m happy, very happy.”

    From Paris, France, Jean Pierre B, a 65-year-old retiree, said: ”My reaction is probably the same you will hear many times in France because people don’t like him at all. They are afraid of what that guy has said all the time and for us he’s really the picture of the redneck American.”

    “Well, the reaction is really shock,” said Genevieve Derouvre, a 60-year-old guide book writer. “I’m really shocked and deeply sad for the country. For all that has been done before by Obama, all the projects that Hillary Clinton had, all that I hope will not collapse. But it will be in danger.”

     Kabul, Afghanistan

    “People often associate Mr. Trump with what he had said during election campaign. For example his comments about Muslims were not only deeply offensive here, but it also alienated lot of people,” said Bilal Sarwary, a 34-year-old journalist in Kabul. “But more importantly, this is a country (that) heavily relies on the U.S.A. Almost $3.5 billion and even more is paid every year by the U.S.A. to pay the salaries of Afghan security forces to run the country’s military forces. So, if I were President Ashraf Ghani … I would be worried about first guaranteeing the money keeps on coming.”

    “American elections results took me, like many others, by surprise. I am concerned about the future of human rights in America as well as U.S. foreign policy,” said Shaharzad Akbar, a 29-year-old political activist. “The president-elect’s campaign rhetoric, and his lack of political and military experience, are both causes for concern. The world will be watching the U.S. with anxiety and concern in the months and years to come.”

    Ramallah, West Bank

    Naser Abdel Hade, a 53-year-old restaurant owner in Ramallah, said Trump’s victory was “an international political earthquake.”

    “I think America got what it deserves, I think it shows the true picture of America, it’s racist,” he said. “I think it’s a wake-up call to the people of America to become more compassionate, to become fairer towards itself and the world. So, I think we will wait four more years to see the repercussions of what happened this morning.”

    “In my opinion, all of them are liars. No one will improve the Palestinian issue,” said Doha Sheikh, a 21- year-old student in Ramallah. “No one cares about Palestinians issues, but about themselves.

    “I think it will be four miserable years for the U.S. for normal citizens and also for Arabs,” said Omar Ziadi, a 29-year-old writer.

    Peshawar, Pakistan

    “I personally thought a woman should win the election as it would have changed U.S. history … We have seen their male presidents always fighting wars,” said Shehzada Khan, a 60-year-old farmer in northwest Pakistan.

    Mohammad Jan, a 24-year-old who sells fruits and vegetables in Peshawar, said he was also a supporter of Clinton because he believed she might be able to control terrorism in Pakistan. “I was hurt when I learned that my favorite candidate has lost,” he said.

    “Now, when Donald Trump has become the new U.S. president … you can convey to him our appeal to work for peace.”