How Trump won not because he violated American values but
because he upheld American vices
This week, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to win the
US presidency. This is especially intriguing because Trump had been vilified by
America’s powerful weapons of mass propaganda; the gigantic corporate owned and
controlled media. Every pundit, journalist, academic and politician of any heft
came out to denounce him including fellow Republican Party heavyweights. Trump
just didn’t care: he belittled his Republican critics, insulted the
journalists, denigrated women and threatened ethnic minorities. The elite
accused him of “violating” every code of “American values.”
Yet in spite of all this, and I think also because of it, Trump
won. Contrary to widespread media propaganda that he was largely supported by
poorly educated rural white males, Trump got 50% of the vote of college
educated males, 53% of white women, 29% of Hispanics, 8% of African Americans
(polls had given him 2%) etc. In practically every voter segment where we had
been told he would poll poorly, Trump proved media doomsayers wrong and
outperformed former Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.
The point is US citizens know their politicians very well –
their hypocrisy, lies and deceit when they openly feign values or being
liberal-democratic, inclusive and post racial. These politicians – both
Republican and Democratic – subtly and strategically indulge in racial
pandering to win votes. To many Americans, Trump was not different from other
politicians except that he was frank in expressing overtly what US politicians
say and do with subtlety – using coded racial language to secure the support of
white voters. These politicians are foxes in sheepskins.
Trump won not because he understood the fears and prejudices
of white America better than his opponents but because he expressed them
bluntly and more candidly. He understands that people do not vote to express
policy preferences per se but rather as members of particular groups – racial,
regional, religious, or even ideological. White America is suffering from
anxiety insecurity resulting from low household incomes that have not grown in
real terms since 1973. He became the choice for American white voters because
he appealed to their prejudices more honestly and bluntly than his opponents.
In spite of the well-choreographed narrative of liberal
democratic values, the USA state is an instrument of a small wealthy, white
patriarchal order. However the system is sophisticated and adapts to changing
circumstances – not through a genuine reform of its core character – but
through cosmetic adjustments to its external appearance. Hence in appearance
the state in America looks inclusive, colorblind, liberal democratic and gender
sensitive. But this only disguises the racial propertied patriarchal structure
that forms its foundation.
America’s white, wealthy patriarchal order has always
successfully resisted any fundamental reform of this system. Whenever reform
has been successfully attempted, it has equally and quickly been reversed. Thus
when America abolished slavery in 1865, it was immediately followed by convict
leasing, a brutal system that was worse than slavery, alongside Jim Crow,
America’s version of apartheid. Major civil rights legislation of 1965 has also
been reversed and replaced with mass incarceration where one in every three of
black males is destined to go to jail in their lifetime. So, today more African
Americans cannot vote.
Politicians from both the Republican and Democratic side
have been instrumental in promoting these racist laws and practices all aimed
at keeping ethnic minorities – blacks and Hispanics – in their place as a
racial under caste. Trump is the quintessential embodiment of the character of
this state. I prayed for him to win not because I shared his values but for
subversive reasons because he would help the world see America for what it
really is. By removing the sophistication, the Trump presidency may launch a
genuine movement for real reform of the American state and its vices.
Trump is a product and beneficiary of this rich white
patriarchal order. He understands the system so well and how to game it. Once
in office, the different institutions of that power structure will force him to
govern through the same hypocrisy, lies and deceit they have always used. This
is because they know it is dangerous to govern with the overt bigotry he used
to campaign. So we are most likely going to see Trump begin to use racially
coded language like the rest of them.
Yet America and the world need Trump to govern exactly as he
campaigned. Overt bigotry can ignite international hostility and internally, a
social movement for genuine reform. America is blessed with many high-minded
people of all races who would like to see fundamental reform of the status quo.
But they have limited legroom to promote their cause because on the face of it,
the system wears the mask of fairness, equality of opportunity, democracy,
inclusiveness etc. In fact many Americans who would otherwise be critical of
the system acquiesced to its vices for their own good.
Thus, to openly oppose the status quo is to invite heavy
sanctions whereby you are denied access to opportunities for self-advancement.
If you are a journalist no major media house will employ you or publish or
broadcast your views if they diverge from the grand narrative of America being
beacon of democracy. You get sidelined to small and inconsequential media
outlets. If you are an academic, you may be lucky to keep your seat at a major
university. But you will be systematically marginalized, your research will not
find funders and your writings will not find space in mainstream and
“respected” journals or publishing houses. So you will be relegated to the
sidelines from where you will once in a rare while be invited to a seminar or
conference or media house to give your views – not so much that they can be
heard or even give an appearance of balance and diversity – but to show the
world that there exists a minority and lunatic fringe within American society
which, because of liberal democracy, is tolerated.
I have interacted with Americans from the highest
politicians and businesspersons to the most prominent journalists and
academics. The journalists, especially those in mainstream powerful media, are
less thoughtful but the academics in the best universities are. Most hold back
their true beliefs if only to be accepted by the system. The system, though
outwardly liberal and democratic, is tightly controlled to systematically
suppress divergent views. It is highly sophisticated in that it suppresses
alternative views without being overtly repressive.
For decades, politicians on both the right and left in
America, backed by concentrated wealth, have used coded racial appeals to win
white voters. Once in power, they have pursued policies that help large
corporations and the super-rich to become even richer while impoverishing the
poor and the middle classes. Race has been used to forestall class solidarity
between poor working and middle class whites and other ethnic minorities, the
majority of whom are poor or middleclass.
Consequently, there has been no real growth in average
household income in USA since 1973 in spite of considerable economic growth.
This racial politics has reached its apogee in Trump. But it is wrong to see
Trump as an oddity. His actual contribution is to bring into the open what
American politicians across that nation’s political spectrum have been doing –
indulging in racial pandering to secure white votes. Trump may be a crude
representative of this kind of politics but he is not its architect. It has
been the politics of America for decades.
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amwenda@independent.co.ug
****
editor@independent.co.ug
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