The American desire to metamorphose into an
imagined past glory is not going to likely turn into an enchantment the
dreamers are expecting.
For one, the good ole’
days is a notion that was created through rhetoric and not based on facts. America is a great country, but the thought
that it was greater in the past is a concocted image. The ideal principle that the
nation was built on, that is, the Constitution of the United States of America,
was a document that meant white all along.
The inclusion of other races was an afterthought -- a move brought about
by necessity not sincerity, accepted reluctantly and grudgingly, forced upon
the losers by the victors. The North fought the racist South who saw blacks as
less than human. Such attitudes clearly
have not changed today as much as we would like the world to believe, and laws
cannot force people to alter their feelings.
Laws exist to maintain order -- to draw lines to make “good fences” –
not good people.
America was a country that took a
long time to see beyond color. It has always
been an America for the whites, not even Caucasians, since northern Indians
from the subcontinent were denied the right to become citizens. It was not for the Orientals: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 made that clear. As late as 1942, similar racial sentiments
motivated the issuance of Executive Order 9066 that interned over a hundred and
fifty thousand Japanese. After all, this was a nation that lynched for sport
and even had “hanging judges,” the most notorious of whom was from Fort Smith,
Arkansas. White women may not have had certain
rights, but at least they did not have to bear the humiliation of colored
people. Such examples, including personal accounts, are testimony to these
attitudes towards others, and they have lingered and surfaced through history,
and it has now culminated in a people showing in this election that they still
feel the same way.
My focus here is not as much on the
president-elect as it is on America itself.
Trump has made it clear to us as to who he is: his attitude, opinion and position about
issues, and maybe life itself, are apparent.
Yet, according to TIME, he won the election with the largest margin of
victory in the electoral college of any Republican since 1988. However, what is shocking is that even after
having heard all his honest, unbridled feelings of dislike and disdain for
certain people and religion, he got elected.
In covering this election, even shocked reporters were trying to put on
a brave front in its aftermath; they, who had relied on polls and political
pundits for a look into the immediate future, were thrown off course: this was almost another Truman-Dewey scenario
for them. They appeared stunned -- uncomfortable
and lost: they looked like deer caught in headlights; they are only now
beginning to regain their composure: the trenchant analysis of Meet the Press and Dateline London still sound stiff and voluble since the election.
They have lost their rhythm.
People did not care if
Trump was condescending towards women or evaded taxes or that he insulted
Hispanics or Muslims or manufactured facts as he went along -- he was voted in.
He manipulated and fabricated statistics. We are not at all shocked to learn politicians
lie. It is troubling when so many are
unaffected by it and are happy that he had done so very convincingly, and thus,
rewarded him by voting him into office.
No people in recent times have been more pleased to have been lied to
than Republican voters. Trump has set a precedent. Lying and manipulation is a
winning formula. He has proven that the art
of exaggeration wins elections. We can
expect a more brazen attitude from politicians from here on out. We will no longer know what to believe and
what not to believe. Since political correctness
was abandoned during the campaign, let me “say it like it is”: “No matter which way you cut it, it just doesn’t
add up.” What is apparent is that this long,
seething, simmering racism has burst at the seams, and a two-term
African-American president has stirred WASPs and WTs into a state of frenzy: They are never going to let that happen again,
and they are not going to let a woman into the White House -- unless it is a Trump-lass, who can run an equally
repulsive campaign that can capture the hearts of bigots and dogmatists. For that, at least the Republicans may have a
greater claim to getting a woman president into the Oval Office – the likes of
Palin, but maybe not as dim-witted, and if fully endorsed by Trump, it may just
happen. Secretary Clinton just did not
win in the sympathy, the charm or the believability department. The intelligence department was of no
importance to the masses this time around or maybe from here on out.
What this election has
said loud and clear to the world is that racism and xenophobia win
elections. It may be the 21st
century, but nothing much has changed in terms of racial sentiments in the USA.
Laws keep people in check; higher ideals
do not. This is a peremptory principle —
incontrovertible. When a politician says
hateful things and is elected to power, he has grasped the true nature and
feelings of a people. A vote for Trump
was not really a vote against Hillary, as the media would have us believe. The argument is a cop out, a saving grace, a
soothing balm in the face of an unacceptable, painful truth that America finds
difficult to swallow: underneath it all,
it is blatantly racist. The result of
this election can only be explained if we allow that people were not disgusted
by the openly bold display of racism. If
we are to say that the people were upset at career politicians and business as
usual in the capital, then we have to concede that their anger found the
rickety motion of the political wheel more offensive than the violation of
values deemed sacred by America and the rest of the world: the right to religion, the honor of a race,
the dignity of women, and making an honest living.
That which has driven
people to vote for Trump is some misguided, delusional notion that he will be
able to make America great again by removing that which they see as a menace in
their eyes and mind. We hope life in the
States does not turn into a turkey shoot.
If half-baked policies and laws about illegal immigrants, Hispanics,
Muslims, African-Americans and abortion are passed, the Second Amendment will
facilitate, ensure and assure hell on the land of the free. The consequences are
going to be devastating. If Trump is
going to continue to shoot his mouth off, he is also likely to shoot himself in
the foot. The making of America started
out with lugubrious strokes, and it is planning to finish with a bolder hand
and tawdrier colors.
In
both corrupt and less corrupt Muslim countries, this election will speak
volumes of an unintended message: democracy does not work. They will say that it ignores the will of the
majority (popular vote). It allows
abuse; it promotes lying; it accepts and endorses lewd behavior. These are not traits one should flaunt. Trump’s intended blanket ban on Muslims
entering the States will backfire: those
who develop a persecution complex will have increased sympathy for violent
groups; they will have a greater reason to reject democracy altogether; they
will reevaluate and reexamine the intent of America and all Western countries
towards Muslim countries. Just like
police shootings of blacks will now raise more red flags than it has in the
last couple of years, every engagement of America in any Muslim country will be
suspect. Muslims will be more easily
convinced of the malfeasance of the American government. Special interest groups will play this up and
take advantage of the situation. This is
a president-elect for whom the Klan in North Carolina is organizing a
parade. It will not be difficult at all
for detractors to embrace a message of ill intent of a president associated
with such barbaric elements. The West will no longer enjoy the benefit of the
doubt in their dealings with the Middle East.
Though many have expressed suspicion of American motivation in other
countries before, every action will now be fully scrutinized.
What Americans have voted
for is to make the world a less safe place.
They have also voted to make America a less safe place. America may have inadvertently started a
trend for right wing parties to take center stage all over the white
world. It will embolden the likes of
Pauline Hanson of Australia and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands. Marine Le Pen the fascist opposition leader
of France sees Trump’s victory as a sign of her own. These are promises of things to come in the
white world. By moving in this
direction, they have lost their legitimacy to call for moderation in the Muslim
world.
The next four years are
going to prove to be tough; we will have to hunker down and weather whatever
storms that come our way. However
America metamorphoses, the end result is going to be an ugly beast.
PROFESSOR SAYYID AJMAL RAZAK AL-AIDRUS
The International Islamic University Malaysia
The writer lived in the States from 1979 to 1996. He received all his tertiary education in
Indiana.
