World must learn to live with joke that turned into a nightmare
AMERICANS and, I guess, the rest of humanity are waiting with some trepidation to see what Donald Trump makes of the untrammelled power entrusted to his reckless hands by a befuddled electorate this week.
American voters have made their bed. Now the rest of the world will have to lie in it.
Commentators lulled us with assurances that there was no way this ignorant, mendacious man could end up in the White House. He was an empty suit chancing his luck, and the voters would soon find him out. It goes to show how little these smart alecks know about their own society.
Now this twisted demagogue has the Oval Office at his command, and his party has control of both houses of Congress. It’s a stunning usurpation of power by a man who has never held elective office and who is patently ill-equipped to wield such power with any modicum of responsibility.
What’s so distressing about Trump’s victory is that lies and insults and bigotry — throw in ignorance for good measure — have been rewarded. Being obnoxious is apparently no longer a bar to success. Such an elevated office for such a thin-skinned man will come in handy in settling old scores.
The launch pad of Trump’s route to power was birtherism, the lie that Barack Obama was not born in America. He pursued this distasteful canard with dogged zeal, cheered on by many on the right. Obama, though hurt, tended to publicly make fun of him.
This week, Trump, a joke no longer, arrived at the White House to claim his prize. Birtherism had served its purpose. Things have certainly gone according to plan. Obama, target of such wounding racist barbs, played the perfect host.
How ironic that the first black president should hand over the baton to someone who’s stuck in the distant past. All that gushing about a postracial US now seems like a bad dream. The pendulum has viciously swung a couple of years backwards.
Trump will damage the fabric of American society. Already, racists, xenophobes and homophobes have crawled out from under rocks to embrace him. Hate of all sorts has been given a cast of legitimacy. His slogan, “Make America great again”, seems to hark back to a past which many cannot recall without opening wounds that have barely healed.
Trump and his Republican zealots will be straining at the leash to mount an ideological offensive against the liberal agenda and what’s left of its welfare state. Obama’s healthcare reforms will come under the knife. The groundbreaking Paris agreement on climate change is also in danger (Trump believes climate change is a hoax). The Iran nuclear deal could unravel, although the other co-sponsors may not play ball. A trade war with China could be in the offing. In fact, on most major issues, Trump may find himself swimming against the tide of international public opinion.
But the biggest missed opportunity for the left is the Supreme Court. It was tantalisingly close to being captured. It’s been in the clutches of conservatives for years and could have swung liberal had Hillary Clinton won. Even a one-term Trump presidency could give the court a right-wing inclination that could last decades.
The loudest cheer must have been in the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin and FBI director James Comey are the real midwives of the Trump victory. By hacking into the Democratic Party website and revealing its contents, Russian spies ensured Clinton was on the defensive throughout the campaign. One wonders what relations between the two countries could have been had she won.
Comey’s intervention was of course decisive, cynically alluding to a new investigation of her e-mails when victory for Clinton looked a mere formality.
Now that Putin has his puppet in the White House, he can go ahead with his cherished dream of reassembling the old Soviet Union without fear. The Baltic states must be quaking. Ukraine is toast. Washington under Trump will simply sit on its hands.
Europe should be mortified. Trump is no fan of the EU. He’s cheered Brexit. He’s also said the US won’t honour its commitments to Nato unless other countries pay their “fair share”.
But one suspects that resistance to Trump’s foreign policy posture will come, not from abroad but mainly from the neocons in his own party.
What can Africa expect from a Trump presidency? Nothing. If he has no time for black Americans, why should he give a fig about darkskinned foreigners? At least he knows South Africa does exist. He’s called this country “a mess”.
Africa should learn to stand on its own two feet. It’s hypocritical to rail against the so-called Washington consensus on the one hand while seeking favours from its leaders on the other. If you want charity, try Oxfam. World leaders are not in the charity business.
All that gushing about a postracial US now seems like a bad dream