Saturday, March 19, 2016

Trump: Some Historical lessons.



When Donald Trump announced his decision to make a bid for the Republican nomination for the Presidential race, many of us choked on our dinner and said, "He did what?" The thought of a man who had driven a couple of companies bankrupt, been crude about women, and essential portrayed himself as the epitome of greed and avarice being taken seriously was a remote possibility. Even the Republican Party vanguard considered this billionaire upstart as nothing but an irritation. As the Trump message picked supported with the extreme, mostly white, working class and the young Republican voters, his bid for the nomination became not only real but as it has now emerged he is most likely going to be the nominee of a party he has taken over through nothing short of a hostile raid.

The joke that Trump is also carries with it now the need to seriously look at the danger of the man and most of all the historical lessons we seem to forget in even considering him as a contender for the White House. There is no denying that Trump has a fascist flair to him; extolling supporters to 'punch' a protester at his rally. He has a bent of mind that is racist, (Muslims not welcome in America and Mexicans to be walled out), and a fascist tendency to blame others for the ills of America. His solutions to every problem is radical, lacking intellectual thought and most of all based on a egocentric belief that only he can fix things.

As the Trump bandwagon has gained momentum there are many of the Republican Party who will hop on to it, and eventually even the vanguard may realise that they are better off backing the man they cannot depose. While this may sound like an endorsement of the Trump dictate, the truth is that it highlights a schism which is a moral one. Trump extolls his audience to violence with carefully planted words and innuendos, his recent one being if he loses the nomination then there will be 'riots'. Most of all he has shown a unique trait of going after his most vocal critics with a pettiness that is not becoming of a public figure. He has be particularly harsh on Megan kelly of Fox News and David Brooks of the New York Times, both of whom are established journalists.

History teaches us that even Hitler was elected and as his bandwagon gained momentum many sane thinking men joined it not because they may have believed in Hitlers racist views but because they felt they could temper the message from the 'inside'. History tells us that this did not work. Stalin and Hitler and many other dictators showed an intolerance for being questioned by the press or by people who even dared to say that their views or policies were misplaced.

Hitler hated the Jews, Trump seems to hate the Muslims and wants to keep out the Mexicans. One forgets that Trump was fine accepting being paid by the Muslims for endorsing projects in the Muslim world with the Trump brand name. His solution for bringing back jobs to the US is at best emotional. The very electorate that endorses him also want the cheapest products at Wallmart, forgetting that if they want the price lower for a US produced item then it means lower wages. Thus the out sourcing of production has been to meet the very need of his backbone support to buy cheap! His stance on immigration is contradictory considering two of his wives (one of which is an ex wife) are immigrants; the pun being that perhaps he could not find an American woman who would accept his chauvinistic views so he had to import a woman.

On a serious note, Trump stands for everything that the vast majority of educated American abhor; racist, fascist, ego centric, sexist and enticing people to violence. He appeals to the anger of a segment of the population, who may count well in the Republican nomination race, but on the broader national platform will be a minority. Americans must stop and think if they want a petty minded ego maniac to be in the White House? A man who will divide rather than unite, a man who may isolate America from the rest of the world, a man who lack the finesse and manners that are essential for being the leader of the strongest nation in the world.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Anwer,

Your thoughts/feelings about Trump are right on. This man will NOT be our next president. It just CAN'T happen and someone much more competent running for the presidency will win.