President elect Trump..what now?

I cannot pretend to have been enthusiastic about the US election, but I do worry over some of the ramifications of the outcome: President elect: Trump  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/donald-trump/

I can wait and see what happens to the so-called ‘special relationship’, but it does depend on whom you ask! https://www.rt.com/uk/366024-president-trump-special-relationship/  

But I  dread to think what will happen in just two areas: the rise of xenophobia and all that entails, followed by the prospects across the globe for war or peace. 

As Clinton and Trump slugged it out, post nomination, we saw the rise and rise of extremism. It is now acceptable for politicians to openly label a section of the population ‘rapists and murderers’, without serious challenge or opposition. In a country founded by people fleeing religious intolerance, we heard the call to ban all people of one particular faith. And in the same country once famed for accepting the ‘huddled masses’, it is now acceptable to hear the assertion that a wall will be built to keep certain people out. This has been articulated through negative rhetoric of the wooing kind, playing to the basest of instincts and the worst of fears.  The wooing has seduced millions by saying that which was previously 'unsayable.' 

Now unleashed that rhetoric has found a home mostly but not exclusively within white males, unemployed and in  communities that believe  they have been overlooked and suffer from a lack of prospects: financial, social, educational, employment. Whereas the previous President Clinton and the incumbent Obama were orators of the smooth and silky kind, Trump’s showmanship has negatively exploited diversity and divided a nation even further than it was 8 years ago. As the rhetoric went unchallenged and slipped into respectable acceptability, facts and figures went unchecked, unchallenged and are now regarded by many as ‘true.’ 

The alienation of large sections of the voting population cannot be laid exclusively at Trump’s door. Will it be proven true that many black Americana stayed at home, disenchanted by the democratic party, previously seen as their natural political home? Is America working for them? Just how effective is local policing, or more appropriate, just why have some many black African Americans (mostly men) died at the hands of the police? 

And let’s face it, no one should ever consider any ‘ethnic’ block as homogeneous. Who can say that all Latinos did vote for Clinton, or that the democrats should have counted on their votes. 

It will be interesting job, keeping analysts going for a long time as they pour over exit polls and statistics. 

But for the future, and with regard to one aspect, foreign policy, Clinton was a recognised ‘hawk’, so just how far would she have gone to keep USA military out of wars, the  type not called ‘wars’, but known as  ‘interventions’? ‘Interventions’ that are meant to ‘stabilise’ a region, or remove a perceived bad guy for the USA’s good guy? Remember Libya? 

Will a businessman have a more pragmatic approach to working with the opposition? Will a businessman put profit before war, or profit from war? Only time will tell. 

 

But don’t tell me we can’t see similarities: Sanders, Corbyn, Farage: mass meetings with politically energised people, slogans on buses, billboards. Unchecked, unchallenged facts. 

Some people expressing the failure of capitalism and seeking change, pushing public ownership, public services. 

Others looking for ‘free markets,’, and restrictions on the movement of peoples, the fear of the outsider. 

We have seen the emergence of right wing parties such as The Alternative for Germany: (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_for_Germany  and the Greek Golden Dawn, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dawn_(political_party) and very worryingly, the resurgence of the right wing within political parties and the population of the UK.   

Maybe the USA is far away and I didn’t have a vote, but I ponder the long term both for the USA, its population and ourselves.

So beyond pondering, what will we learn? 

Following on from the general election of 2015, and the Brexit vote of 2016, are we witnessing a backlash aimed at an out of touch establishment,  politicians and their parties that have taken various ethnic votes, block votes, geo-based votes for granted and for too long? 

Am I wrong in believing that the new cadre of younger voters that voted in indeyref2014 are more than capable of listening, analysing and voting for their future? No, so I look forward to that high uptake as evidenced in 2014 continue in future elections.

More than anything though 

I hope we have all come to realise that voting is not a once off, and very especially, if you don’t get the result you wanted, all the more reason to continue to engage, criticise, challenge the politicians, their parties and policies. 

We have to return every time, time after time,  to cast our votes. 

Women died to have the privilege I have, my vote. I’m not going to disown that privilege by opting out.

I just hope that Americans have voted in a President that will serve their interests not his own, that will enrich the world with his actions, plans and policies…… not impoverish it.

I can but live in hope, and keep on voting.