Why the great Trump tragedy is a product of American values
The dust of the US presidential elections may have settled in, but its stunning results still reverberate across the globe. It's because this election is no ordinary political event of our time. The world had never expected that Americans would elect a man (Donald Trump) with no public service experience whereas they would disown a woman (Hillary Clinton) who has been the most experienced presidential candidate in US history.
Despite witnessing the caricature and obnoxious things that Trump said and did during the campaign, it's highly hallucinating to see how Americans (mostly white, working class of rural America) decided to rally behind a man of such divisive character, which no one has ever seen in American political history.
What virtue (if any) did the American voters see in Trump that they found missing in Clinton? Is that virtue in harmony with the American value system?
Americans voted for an outsider showing vengeance to insiders
Since the last 40 years (started in 1975 during the Vietnam War), there's been a growing anti-establishment sentiment in the US that continues to make people believe that anything coming from government agencies is mired in corruption. Many Americans see the politicians as a bunch of incompetent folks who hardly think or and act in public interest.
This trust deficit (between the state and its people) deepened with time with the re-enforcement of globalisation and the influx of immigrants. Because a certain section (especially the working class of rural America) of the white population holds these two global processes responsible for their job losses; and, in return, believes that their political representatives have simply fallen flat in handling these situations.
In this election, Clinton, coming from a stereotyped political background, represented a status-quo. On the contrary, Trump sold himself as an outsider who wanted to enter the corridor of power to make America great again. Even if it was a deception, people thought of voting for Trump because they got an opportunity to express their visceral hatred against the insiders of the corridor of power (anti-establishment anger) and send an outsider into the world of power. The choice of Trump gave his voters an illusive sense of self-emancipation.
It's really ironical to see that these vibes of anti-establishment, which have surfaced in a certain section of society, have the roots emanating from the policies adopted by various Republican governments themselves (followed by the Democrats as well). They relied heavily on opening the American borders and that of neighbouring nations for free trade so that their country can milk the maximum from the theory of "consensus of Washington".
American adoration for entrepreneurs
America is the mecca for free market liberalism. For obvious reasons, promoting the craft of entrepreneurship is imbedded in American culture. Their popular belief considers entrepreneurs the real carrier of the American dream.
In America, business is regarded as the pivot activity of society;because it creates jobs, and thus runs the economy. Moreover, the role of government agencies is only (apart from discharging fundamental functions of a state) limited to helping the entrepreneursgrow their business.
Dick Meyer (a Washington-based columnist) puts it best: "Americans show unquestionable faith in the virtue of entrepreneurs". People with an entrepreneurial background are barely scrutinised through the prism of scepticism and criticism. All these yardsticks are applied to other vocations, but entrepreneurs enjoy a deep trust amongst ordinary citizens.
The idolatry veneration for entrepreneurs earns them a natural right to be part of the celebrity world. That's where Donald Trump benefited a lot when it came to branding vis-à-vis Clinton. He, thus, was exempted from all critical evaluation (especially by his white voters) despite his dirty, sexist, racist and bigoted discourses.
But, Trump is not the first one to use such divisive language to attract the working class white voters. Before him, Richard Nixon had already launched a GOP "Southern strategy" in the 1960s where he'd used such rhetorical devices to attract his voters.
The Trump phenomenon is an American political tragedy, and the situations that led to it are the consequences of the American liberal democracy (globalisation, unbridled capitalism, immigration due to the shortage of skilled and unskilled labour in their own country) itself .
The America that the world knew for decades, for promoting the ethos of laissez-faire economics, welcoming talents from across the globe with a true sense of internationalism, providing moral leadership to other nations, is not going to stay the same under the Trump presidency.
Trump's policies will act like a spade that will dismantle each branch of the tree that is called America. The voters those who chose him will be responsible for America's cultural and moral reverse metamorphosis in the coming months and years.