Nobody could see it coming until it arrived

How America ended up electing Donald Trump and what can be consequences

The immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential elections was a crisis, not political in nature but a linguistic and semantic one.

For instance, people around the globe and across the shores failed to make sense of it, they were at loss of words. Paranoia, disbelief, confusion and astonishment engulfed their soul. Trump was indeed running for president and he was candidate of Republicans, still not many in America or even outside America had given him a “cat-in-hell chance.” No American was getting himself to be ready to be embarrassed, they all thought that come what may, we shall never elect a Donald Trump. Well, this is precisely what they have done. They have indeed elected Donald Trump and swept him to the most powerful office of the world. Nobody could see it coming until it arrived and when it did, people were grappled with a crisis, not political in nature but a linguistic and semantic one, as to how to make sense of it.

The irony is that this is the same United States of America, which had elected and then re-elected Barack Obama to the White House in previous elections. Yes, voters around the world are known for their anti-incumbency traits and they generally vote against establishment, and here Hillary Clinton was an epitome of all what’s wrong with establishment. But no one expects voters to turn the tables on the history itself. Thus the victory of Trump defeats the very concept of America, which had evolved over the ages to help it becoming what it is now. An America, which had emancipated negroes, called quits on slave trade, given voting rights to women, fought tooth and nail for civil rights and fiercely debated the concepts of democracy, human rights and civil liberty, was somehow bound to elect a black Obama in 2008, to be followed by a woman president in 2016. Wasn’t to be. On the fateful day of November 9, 2016, America revolted against the logical coherence of its own history and chose to turn the clocks, back in time.

This also showed how aloof, uprooted and disconnected the liberal intellectuals and the experts of electoral politics were form the ground realities. They didn’t get a whiff of what was happening. They never smelt a rat, a rotten fish somewhere. They failed to get a grip of the popular sentiments. Trump’s persona had some serious problems. One black analyst on CNN commented on Trump’s defeat with choked voice : “What are we goint to tell our children now? These results are a tight slap on the face of immigrants, muslims, blacks. The mendate is against elite class, liberal values and it was a fierce campaign against a black man sitting in White House.” This also raise questions on the very nature of electoral politics. Trump was indeed benefitted from pitted against an exteremly unpopular Hillary Clinton, but why America had to choose between these two, when so many better people to run the nation were available, this question is now going to be heard repeatedly in United States.

Trump had challenged American status-quo, he was not part of power elites, not part of any political nexus or consensus or dynasty. He was a thorough outsider, speaking in a crude politically incorrect idiom. Is it so that the things he was hated for, precisely those things swept him into the power? That Americans have had enough of political correctness and wanted to feel “great” about themselves no matter what it takes to be a hypothetically great state. Parellels can be drawn between Narendra Modi’s victory in India two years back, when he had demolished the political dynasty and power elites, being an outsider himself. However, there is no bigger riddle and enigma today than the voter’s behavior, their choices and preferences. When George W. Bush was re-elected to power, a news journal had famously remarked as to how so many people can be so retarded. Well, the same headlines can be used again, I am afraid.

Radical, right-wing voices can be heard in all parts of world today and who knows, Trump’s election can trigger a chain reaction of sorts, in Europe, in Asia, everywhere. Who knows Trump, Putin, Modi build a block and change the direction of geo-politics of world. The new world order is bound to emerge after this, who knows if it will be a “post-American world” or a universe with its fate deeply concerned with America, yet again. “The time is out of joint”, Shakespeare’s memorable words still ring true tonight.