Trump Turmoil
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
After 9/11, Trump’s election is the cataclysmic event in America.
It was driven partially by anger, resentment, and fear over declining white supremacy on the browning of America with its rapidly changing demography.
These were motivating factors triggering the unanticipated huge turnout of whites in rural America, who were mostly bypassed by the polls and did not participate in them. This was a blind electorate – blind in the eyes of the coastal elites who didn’t see it coming.
53 percent of white women voted for Trump – despite Hillary being a white woman and Trump’s well-documented demeaning of women.
Trump tapped into America’s deeper dysfunctional underbelly and galvanized disgruntled white voters.
This was also a stinging rebuke to Obama’s legacy – reinforced by over-enthusiastic canvassing by Obama and his wife, Michelle, for Hillary – as many saw Hillary as a continuation of that legacy.
Trump was lucky that the tainted Hillary was his opponent. Many voted to bar the Clintons from the White House.
When all is said and done, a known philanderer and self-confessed tax dodger – with consent of the American electorate – has been elevated to the nation’s highest office.
Importantly, Trump shall try to fill the currently vacant 9 th seat on the US Supreme Court, which will tilt the Court in favor of ideologically right-wing conservatives. That could recalculate the direction of America. Ditching the Iran nuke deal may not be that simple and easy, since it is a six-nation agreement.
With the changing geopolitical dynamic, Trump’s electioneering pitch of “America First” is neither tenable nor sustainable.
Trump’s elevation is a rebuttal to the oft-cited boast of American exceptionalism. It is becoming similar to countries whose policies are often derided in the US media.
Revealed quickly shall be the big difference between campaigning and governing when limitations of unilateral arbitrary action are exposed before deeply embedded Washington institutional impediments.
There are silver linings. Trump thwarted the Republican establishment, by nailing the Bush dynasty, and the Democratic establishment, by quashing the Clinton dynasty. He may have done a favor. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim congressman, could head the Democratic Party.
Then there is ongoing litigation over alleged misdoings regarding the defunct Trump University, plus legal issues over Trump’s consistent dodging of federal income tax. These are not going to disappear. In striking contrast, Obama’s Presidency was scandal-free.
America today is a divided country with a resurgence of white tribalism and neo-fascist populism. It may be a last stand against inclusive multiculturalism, which is now irreversible. Post-election protest rallies display “Dump Trump” placards.
It is degrading and a self-fulfilling inevitability to see Muslims coming on TV saying they are scared and thinking of quitting America. It further emboldens and rewards those who seek to delegitimize Muslim presence in America.
Trump’s win, counter-intuitively, may accelerate Muslims to motivate and mobilize as first-class players, who otherwise would have lapsed into a false sense of security had Hillary won. Herd mentality drove their support of Hillary.
Through incendiary rhetoric, their foes have shown where they stand. As a collective unit, Muslims have not shown where they stand. They can show it now by not quitting.
