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Reason Wafawarova on Monday

Trump’s rise is anchored in the establishment of an identity through restoration of white privilege, a restoration that comes through the marginalisation and isolation of the minorities. He has defiantly maintained his hard line policy.

The self-proclaimed beacon of democracy and freedom is fast becoming a stark reminder of not only white suprematism, but also of outright fascism. The world was baffled when Americans retained George W. Bush for a second term in the aftermath of the infamous Iraq misadventures, and it appears like there could be a more perplexing shocker if Donald Trump continues to ride the tide of blatant nationalism the way he has been doing since he launched his bid to take over White House after Barack Obama.

While it may be considered far-fetched to declare Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a fascist, his outrageous campaign aggression draws interesting parallels.

Some people have expressed fears of dark memories brought about by the Trump campaign, and not without cause.

In a democracy considered to be thriving above sloganeering, dogmatism and jingoism, it was shocking to see Donald Trump leading tens of thousands of his supporters into raising their right arms and taking an oath after him, pledging “no matter how I feel, no matter the conditions, if there is hurricanes or whatever; will vote on or before the 12th for Donald Trump for President”.

This is the kind of cheap politicking associated with struggling democracies, the kind of stuff that led Julius Malema and others to vow that they would “die for Jacob Zuma”, if he did not become South Africa’s next president after Thabo Mbeki. Of course, Malema has repeatedly apologised for the thoughtless vow — of course after the effect, deadly effect to be precise.

Donald Trump comes across as a popular scoundrel, as a morally deficient populist authoritarian nationalist. It is hard to understand the vulnerability of the United States in the wake of Trump’s rising populism.

Hillary Clinton does not command a lot of international support after her disastrous tenure as Obama’s Secretary of State, especially the monumental blunder of invading Libya, and her infamous giggling over the murder of Muammar Gaddafi. However, with Trump as her opponents the family of nations is more than keen to embrace Clinton as a tainted saintfacing competition from a hated demon.

Donald Trump has simply refused to be politically correct, knowing very well that American nationalism far outweighs internationally accepted political correctness.

Some have argued that Trump’s rise is the consequence of alienation of Americans who live in marginalised states like Kentucky or Oregon, states who have lost touch with the goings on at the White House, at the Pentagon, and across the country. The traditional white dominated America has been slowly slipping away from the sight of these traditionalists, and Trump has capitalised on the crisis — successfully so too, at least for the political journey he has walked so far.

Barack Obama has significantly restored the dignity of the American economy, growing the economy by 2,4 percent in 2015, and reducing unemployment by 5 percent. This was after George W. Bush wrecked the economy with his military extravaganzas and his ill-advised bailing of loss making business entities. The United States is still among the top richest countries in the world, and it is still one of the largest markets.

Yet this growing wealth remains restricted to a minority group of multimillionaires and billionaires who are largely disconnected from the majority population. The rise of nationalism through the Trump campaign points to an exhausted democracy, a stuck capitalist system failing to filter down pacifying crumps to the suffering masses.

The average annual family income has declined by $5 000 since 1999, and assets for an average American family have shrunk by a third. Two thirds of American families are reported to be deeply in debt, and yet their country has been spending trillions of dollars on foreign policy in the last twenty years.

Generally, the United States has deteriorated into a country of many losers and very few winners, and the mentality of the losers is being expressed through the passionate support for Trump politics.

As many commentators have been pointing out in recent years, the American Dream is hardly a shared belief any more in America. Faith in capitalism has been declining sharply among young Americans, and many of these no longer view capitalism as the best answer to economic problems. The undying striving for wealth and social advancement that once drove Americans into the Cold War is no longer as strong as it was then. The white majority is shrinking while the minority black and Hispanic communities are growing, and the competition for jobs is frustrating the once privileged white community.

Conservative columnist Dennis Prager and journalist Andrew Sullivan have suggested that there is “valid pessimism”in the United States today, and that capitalism has reached a stage where it is creating “a righteous, revolutionary anger”. Not even democracy can moderate or constrain this rising rebellion, the two have warned, adding that America is showing signs and symptoms of 1930s Europe. Donald Trump has a perfidious instinct for opportunism, and he seems to be successfully capitalising on white Americans who perceive themselves to be on the losing end of the new world order, and more importantly on those whose major fear is the unknown.

Many people have wrongly asserted that Donald Trump is primarily supported by the unemployed and by blue-collar workers. Polls have shown Trump to be primarily supported by people with a higher annual household income than those supporting his rivals from the Democrats mainly Sanders and Clinton. It appears middle-class Americans have been struck by fear of social and economic decline, and Trump is promising to halt this unwanted predicament.

Trump’s rise is anchored in the establishment of an identity through restoration of white privilege, a restoration that comes through the marginalisation and isolation of the minorities. He has defiantly maintained his hard line policy of erecting a wall along the Mexican border, and he has repeatedly declared his conviction that there is no wisdom in allowing Muslims entry into the United States.

Trump supporters apparently do not care much about the use of ethnic stereotypes, just like Adolf Hitler’s supporters did not. Trump is successfully and dangerously exploiting fear — of foreigners, and that tactic is directly from the fascist’s recipe book. The slogan “Make America Great Again” is a thinly veiled euphemism for “Make America White Again”, and it sounds like a slogan for fascist movements — the ones Washington would quickly invade and demolish if ever they happen to raise their ugly heads elsewhere in the world.

Trump has preached American victimhood at the hands of Muslims and other hated foreigners, and such victimhood is an essential rallying point towards the rise of fascism. Trump has captured the appeal to America’s white middle class, and he can even make them chant mass oaths of irrevocable loyalty to his own character and person.

As many of Europe’s right wing populists have done in the past, Donald Trump is betting on aggressive nationalism as a response to the white victimhood he so much preaches about.

Trump knows the text of the unspoken language of the white middle class. That is why he will let them chant who will pay for the erection of the Mexican border wall — the Mexicans. They love it when Trump says those protesting against his utterances deserve punches in their faces, and when he says he cannot wait for the forceful deportation of over 11 million illegal immigrants from Central and South America. Trump knows how to pantomime the wishes of his followers and how to let them fill in the text.

So confident has Trump become that he does not even have to hide his rogue authoritarianism.

He has openly promised hell fire for the CEO of Ford, whom he says he will force to close down his auto plants in Mexico within 48 hours if elected into White House. Trump has also openly declared that if elected, he will force Apple to stop making iPhones in China. It is like how Michael Sata promised to chase away Chinese workers working for Chinese owned mining companies in Zambia if elected. Trump’s words have made similar impact to that of Sata’s words before he won Zambia’s presidential election.

This aggressive nationalism is paired with an absurd authoritarianism. Indeed, there is something operatic about Trump promising his voters that after he wins the election, his first official act will be to call the CEO of Ford and force him to move his auto plants from Mexico back to the United States within 48 hours — not to mention his vow to force Apple to stop making iPhones in China.

Fascist Characteristics

Fascism expert Paxton compared Trump’s rallies with those of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini and arrived at a remarkable conclusion. According to Paxton, Trump not only resembles Mussolini in the way he sticks out his lower jaw, but also in his speech. His short, blustering sentences sound similar to those used by “Il Duce” in his speeches, Paxton writes. Like Mussolini, Trump is masterful at handling large crowds. And even in his contempt for the establishment, he resembles the leaders of revolutionary movements in the Europe of the 1920s and 1930s. Trump isn’t leading a party but a movement, and his supporters are pledging their oath of allegiance to the candidate, not the Republicans.

History isn’t repeating itself. There are no signs that Trump would be prepared to invade other countries or murder millions of people. Nevertheless, some of his key demands — forceful deportations, blanket entry bans for Muslims and the refusal to rule out torture — have fascist characteristics. But Trump is no fascist — he doesn’t, after all, want to abolish the Constitution. Yet he is playing with totalitarian elements in a dangerous way.

American democracy has never been “so ripe for tyranny” as it is today, warns Andrew Sullivan, comparing the situation in the United States with that of the Weimar Republic. Is Sullivan exaggerating? Perhaps. But there are no guaranteed “happy endings” in politics. Democracy has to be defended.

It is up to America’s elite and its civil society to react to the challenge. Clinton, the Democrats’ likely candidate, is only partly suited for this task. As someone who has been involved in politics for decades, she represents the establishment, and politics has made her a multimillionaire.

America needs a major social debate over the causes of the rage, the unfair distribution of wealth and the excesses of capitalism. It was once the Republicans who, under Abraham Lincoln, decided to abolish slavery, thereby laying the foundation for the modern American age. The party will be challenged once again at its convention in July. Before it nominates its candidate, it could exclude all forms of racism and hate from its platform, and Trump would then have to decide whether he could run for president on this basis. On the other hand, this summer could also mark the end of a de facto two-party system, in which Republicans and Democrats no longer represent the interests of many people. Why not field a third or fourth candidate?

Trump’s answer to the crisis is the exclusion of others. But the correct answer should be inclusion — not just of Trump’s supporters, but also that of society’s weakest. There’s much more at stake in the United States right now than the contest between two candidates. This is a question of tolerance, pluralism and the very future of a deeply drained democracy.

This is the kind of cheap politicking associated with struggling democracies, the kind of stuff that led Julius Malema and others to vow that they would “die for Jacob Zuma,” if he did not become South Africa’s next president after Thabo Mbeki. Of course Malema has repeatedly apologised for the thoughtless vow – of course after the effect, deadly effect to be precise.

Donald Trump comes across as a popular scoundrel, as a morally deficient populist authoritarian nationalist. It is hard to understand the vulnerability of the United States in the wake of Trump’s rising populism.

Hillary Clinton does not command a lot of international support after her disastrous tenure as Obama’s Secretary of State, especially the monumental blunder of invading Libya, and her infamous giggling over the murder of Muammar Gaddafi. However, with Trump as her opponents the family of nations is more than keen to embrace Clinton as a tainted saintfacing competition from a hated demon.

Donald Trump has simply refused to be politically correct, knowing very well that American nationalism far outweighs internationally accepted political correctness.

Some have argued that Trump’s rise is the consequence of alienation of Americans who live in marginalised states like Kentucky or Oregon, states who have lost touch with the goings on at the White House, at the Pentagon, and across the country. The traditional white dominated America has been slowly slipping away from the sight of these traditionalists, and Trump has capitalised on the crisis – successfully so too, at least for the political journey he has walked so far.

Barrack Obama has significantly restored the dignity of the American economy, growing the economy by 2.4% in 2015, and reducing unemployment by 5%. This was after George W. Bush wrecked the economy with his military extravaganzas and his ill-advised bailing of loss making business entities. The United States is still among the top richest countries in the world, and it is still one of the largest markets.

Yet this growing wealth remains restricted to a minority group of multimillionaires and billionaires who are largely disconnected from the majority population. The rise of nationalism through the Trump campaign points to an exhausted democracy, a stuck capitalist system failing to filter down pacifying crumps to the suffering masses.

The average annual family income has declined by $5000 since 1999, and assets for an average American family have shrunk by a third. Two thirds of American families are reported to be deeply in debt, and yet their country has been spending trillions of dollars on foreign policy in the last twenty years.

Generally the United States has deteriorated into a country of many losers and very few winners, and the mentality of the losers is being expressed through the passionate support for Trump politics.

As many commentators have been pointing out in recent years, the American Dream is hardly a shared belief any more in America. Faith in capitalism has been declining sharply among young Americans, and many of these no longer view capitalism as the best answer to economic problems. The undying striving for wealth and social advancement that once drove Americans into the Cold War is no longer as strong as it was then. The white majority is shrinking while the minority black and Hispanic communities are growing, and the competition for jobs is frustrating the once privileged white community.

Conservative columnist Dennis Prager and journalist Andrew Sullivan have suggested that there is “valid pessimism”in the United States today, and that capitalism has reached a stage where it is creating “a righteous, revolutionary anger.” Not even democracy can moderate or constrain this rising rebellion, the two have warned, adding that America is showing signs and symptoms of 1930s Europe.

Donald Trump has a perfidious instinct for opportunism, and he seems to be successfully capitalising on white Americans who perceive themselves to be on the losing end of the new world order, and more importantly on those whose major fear is the unknown.

Many people have wrongly asserted that Donald Trump is primarily supported by the unemployed and by blue-collar workers. Polls have shown Trump to be primarily supported by people with a higher annual household income than those supporting his rivals from the Democrats mainly Sanders and Clinton. It appears middle-class Americans have been struck by fear of social and economic decline, and Trump is promising to halt this unwanted predicament.

Trump’s rise is anchored in the establishment of an identity through restoration of white privilege, a restoration that comes through the marginalisation and isolation of the minorities. He has defiantly maintained his hard line policy of erecting a wall along the Mexican border, and he has repeatedly declared his conviction that there is no wisdom in allowing Muslims entry into the United States.

Trump supporters apparently do not care much about the use of ethnic stereotypes, just like Adolf Hitler’s supporters did not. Trump is successfully and dangerously exploiting fear of foreigners, and that tactic is directly from the fascist’s recipe book. The slogan “Make America Great Again” is a thinly veiled euphemism for “Make America White Again,” and it sounds like a slogan for fascist movements – the ones Washington would quickly invade and demolish if ever they happen to raise their ugly heads elsewhere in the world.

Trump has preached American victimhood at the hands of Muslims and other hated foreigners, and such victimhood is an essential rallying point towards the rise of fascism. Trump has captured the appeal to America’s white middle class, and he can even make them chant mass oaths of irrevocable loyalty to his own character and person.

As many of Europe’s right wing populists have done in the past, Donald Trump is betting on aggressive nationalism as a response to the white victimhood he so much preaches about.

Trump knows the text of the unspoken language of the white middle class. That is why he will let them chant who will pay for the erection of the Mexican border wall – the Mexicans. They love it when Trump says those protesting against his utterances deserve punches in their faces, and when he says he cannot wait for the forceful deportation of over 11 million illegal immigrants from Central and South America. Trump knows how to pantomime the wishes of his followers and how to let them fill in the text.

So confident has Trump become that he does not even have to hide his rogue authoritarianism.

The further this campaign progresses, the greater the extent to which Trump modifies his domestic agenda. He deliberately targets those at the losing end of society, people threatened by social decline. He promises not to touch social security, and he guarantees that no one will starve in the streets. With these promises, he is opposing his own party, where the term social welfare state is seen as being synonymous with communism. He promises a strong government that guarantees its citizens jobs and protection. He projects both a nationalist and social message.

America needs a major social debate over the causes of the rage, the unfair distribution of wealth and the excesses of capitalism. It was once the Republicans who, under Abraham Lincoln, decided to abolish slavery, thereby laying the foundation for the modern American age. The party will be challenged once again at its convention in July. Before it nominates its candidate, it could exclude all forms of racism and hate from its platform, and Trump would then have to decide whether he could run for president on this basis. On the other hand, this summer could also mark the end of a de facto two-party system, in which Republicans and Democrats no longer represent the interests of many people. Why not field a third or fourth candidate?

Trump’s answer to the crisis is the exclusion of others. But the correct answer should be inclusion – not just of Trump’s supporters, but also that of society’s weakest. There’s much more at stake in the United States right now than the contest between two candidates. This is a question of tolerance, pluralism and the very future of a deeply drained democracy.