Cometh the Barbarian

The real horror wasn’t Trump’s statement, but what was happening on the other side of the microphone

“America is the only nation to have gone from barbarism to decadence without having passed through civilisation along the way” — which is a slight paraphrase of a well-enough-known comment of slightly obscure origins. Donald Trump. The Donald. A little portly these days with the orange skin favoured by those who spend far too long on sunbeds and an angora hamster bolted to the top of his head. “Worse than Voldermort” says J K Rowling, a woman who knows a thing or two about The Dark Side. “Unhinged” according to Jeb Bush, another nowhere-ran in the American presidential race. “Unfit to be president” — the White House, which in this instance is both entitled to an opinion and absolutely correct in its observation.



Having bypassed civilisation very successfully and dialled into the latent barbarism so dear to American hearts — well, Republicans, anyway — Trump has brought the nation full circle. What started as something of a political joke in the eyes of many remains a joke but one in the poorest of taste. No matter, the joke is getting told increasingly often, getting the all-important airtime and the equally important cheers as Trump taps into the yawning gap between those Americans who would vote to bomb Cuba if they could and those aghast at the prospect that a racist misogynist lunatic might, just might, attain the presidency.

Trump’s latest excursion into stage-managed controversy (this was no misspeak or slip of the tongue but carefully contrived) was his comment that all Muslims should be banned from America, presumably excluding those already living there. Like Mohammed Ali, for instance. Those going abroad for their holidays must be excluded on their return to make sure they have not been radicalised by their visits to places like Iceland, Goa and the Seychelles. They must be excluded until “those in power find out what the hell is going on”. And any Muslim thinking of paying a visit to their relatives in the land of the free and the home of the brave well… fergeddit. Jus’ fergeddit.



Watching this horror story unfold as I munched my muesli what struck me most forcibly was not so much the possibility of a Trump presidency which is remote indeed even allowing for him being up against Hilary Clinton; but what was happening on the other side of the microphone in the arena before him. And that is where the real horror lies.

The whooping and the cheers were not stage-managed or an audio track superimposed on the clip, these were the whoops and cheers of real live Americans, men and women old enough to vote, and who may choose to exercise their democratic right by putting their ‘X’s in the Trump box come election day. And there are millions of them. Many with guns. And they just had placed in their hands the tinder that attaches to the hammer of the flintlock that descends into the flash pan when the trigger is released and ignites the powder therein. The powder flashes through to the chamber, ignites the charge which then explodes and sends the bullet down the barrel.

No apologies for the extended metaphor above because that process of ignition has a set of stages identical to that which Trump pulled the trigger on; and America is highly charged in the wake of the Paris attacks and the killings in San Bernardino carried out by a self-radicalised couple, one a native-born American but both with Pakistani origins somewhere in their genes. Even his Republican co-candidates thought he had gone too far and many were quick to condemn him, some more robustly than others. Unusually, governments outside America were also condemnatory. Unusual because there is a kind of ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ among national governments not to comment on the electoral processes and practices of each other. Plenty of comment below the level of governance, but government-to-government is beyond the Pale.



Trump has made America a more dangerous place for everybody and played straight into the arms of the very terrorists he claims that he would fight against were he to be elected. They will be whooping and hollering for The Donald on the streets of Raqqa. The Barbarian is through the gates. There will be no mercy.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2015.

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