Trump’s triumph can undo America’s superpower status

Building walls along borders, barring Muslims from entering and coercing marginalized people are some of his trump cards which are supposed to win him the Presidential poll

America’s grandeur  has bewitched the minds of the rationales for a long time in terms of technology, science and human development. But that splendor seems to be crumbling with the ascent of bigotry and its caput like Donald Trump.

In the words of Noam Chomsky “The rise of Trumpism and the Republican candidate’s competition to be the most extremist and racist reflects deep-seated ‘perception of loss and fear’ among many Americans”

Undoubtedly a surge of racism and violence has tipped the American society into an incomprehensible state of affairs, which is showing the world footprints of a lost paradise, which still distinguishes it from rest of the world.

The country which used to be the champion of human rights and diversity is emerging as Saudi Arabia or Iran of the West with the rise of dogmatism under the banner of people like Donald Trump.

According to New York Times Donald Trump has a 75% chance of being nominated as the Republican candidate. And with his (Trump’s) rise, the world sees the rise of madness and homophobia in a country which claimed to be liberating and democratizing the other nations just a few instances ago.  

It would be such a pity if a country like US fell victim to religious extremism and racism. Human civilization owes a lot to the Americans from their still being the biggest innovators in the fields of medical sciences, information technology and entertainment to being able to emerge as one of the most benevolent imperial powers in human history.

There were times when United States (US) boasted itself to be a champion of human values and showed the polarized West world how a country could rise from ashes with the help of its multicultural and mostly immigrant population.

The upcoming presidential elections are very decisive in nature whilst another dimension has risen in the campaign which is astoundingly peculiar for the world: Trump and his daft followers at large.

However, with the emergence of more respectable candidates among the ranks, there is still a ray of hope for the world as they wish the Americans choose Hillary Clinton (who could be the first female US president) or a gripping phenomenon called Bernie Sanders who also has a chance to make history by being the first Jewish US president rising to the ranks most surprisingly with the support of American Muslims.

Muslims supporting a Jewish candidate seems mindboggling, but this also teaches us volumes about the cold art of politics and also that the man (Sanders) has some talent to win hearts and minds or some touch that can drift his natural opponents towards his allegiance. 

Sanders recently surprised the world when in the city of Dearborn (a city with 40% Muslim population) he won the show with an overwhelming support of the Muslim residents of the area.

In another development, the people of Chicago seemed disgusted by the political jugglery of Trump and almost forcibly stopped him from conducting his campaign rally. Sanders was also considered the beneficiary of Trump’s embarrassing treatment by the people of Chicago and later in Kansas city.

The protestors were chanting slogans against Trump’s ugly communal politics and in support of Sanders’s immigrant policy and vision for the future of US.

The eminent question remains whether this remarkably strange wave of supporting a Jew can sustain the pressure of right-wing extremists in a significantly conservative country.

Lately the NTY reported that Obama has made his choice in order to back a democratic candidate and that would be Clinton. Later, the White House declined these rumors.

Concisely Sanders has a special kind of response to such pessimism. Specially after losing to Clinton in a number of south-eastern states, Sanders is still convinced that ‘with a low voter turnout, somebody like Trump can win and with a high voter turnout, the Democratic candidate will win.’

Anti-fascism campaigners in Chicago and Kansas included Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and Asians gathered outraged against the hatred that Trump was till today gladly disgorging around.

This public trend to resist Trump might prove a turning point for good. One wishes a similar outcry by other nations too when fascism tries to grip their civilization. For example a similar trend to discourage extremism in Pakistan is also a good omen for the evolving country.

Communalism and dictatorships throughout the history have taken birth out of chaos and trumpeting the scapegoat politics, where minorities have always remained the biggest losers. In current circumstances America’s vague justice system could also provide an ideal recipe for the fascist forces.

According to the findings of The Guardian, 1,140 people were killed in 2015 and 194 people have already been killed in 2016 by the US law enforcers. The rate of killing black citizens is five times higher than the killing of white men.

There is no justification for such heinous acts at such an out of proportion scale but it seems the accountability is being butchered in the name of the law.

Growth of Trump-like individuals under current circumstances undoubtedly exposes the degeneration of a society.

How appalling it is when a ludicrous idea of bigotry allows the masses to take the law in their hands .A supporter of Trump, John McGraw, 78, punched a protester in the face and later averred that he might kill him next time. This is a clear picture of how such a demagogue incites violence with his provocative speeches against his own fellow citizens.

Building walls around borders, barring Muslims from entering and coercing marginalized people are some of his (Trump’s) trump cards which are supposed to win him the Presidential poll. He and his fans even lack the ability to understand the cost of such acts that this great country would have to pay.

However, it is also emerging as if the US establishment is also getting sick and tired of Trump’s rampant political adventurism and some believe the growing opposition in different parts of US could also be a product of this development.

It is putting the US to shame also before their partner nations mostly in Europe who have already marched far ahead in terms of human development.

A Trump fan wrote in one of his articles that he (Trump) spent a good part of his time talking about trade – maybe his single biggest concern; as if this angel had nothing to do with bigotry and this single trait is enough to win him the Oval Office chair! But what kind of an economy would it be? How can he promise to bring prosperity for Americans by isolating them in a North Korea style cage?

In fact just like rest of the world, I never took Donald Trump seriously for his hollow slogans and visionless political approach. But then he proved us all wrong by showing the world how even a clown could get an audience significant enough to impose his existence on others.

As we know from history that bigotry knows no boundaries! Today he wants a wall against Mexico the next day he would claim the other less-white or less-Christian or less-American US states are snatching everything from, for example, California – so let’s build a wall between the California and rest of the US.  One can clearly see how damaging the Trump debacle is for already struggling US supremacy and the upcoming US election would inevitably determine the fate of a superpower in the global arena.

Khadija Khan is a journalist and commentator based in Germany. You can follow her on Twitter @khadijakhanlodh

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