The real estate mogul who will ruin America

In a way, the various presentations, broadcasts, talk shows and interviews to determine which candidate will finally represent the two major parties in the 2016 national election in the United States has been highly significant. I don’t think there has ever been an election anywhere in the world that has been free from bitter controversy. However, looking at some of the candidates who have their eyes on the Oval Office has given me the distinct impression that the quality of the Republican candidates has gradually deteriorated with the passage of time. Isn’t it strange that it was a Republican president by the name of Abraham Lincoln who abolished slavery in the United States, while the Democrats fought tooth and nail to hang on to the slaves?

But 2016 has so far been quite unique. It has established some kind of record for the repeated use of highly inappropriate language when responding to TV personalities. The culprit is, of course, the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, the real estate mogul who apparently thinks the only way to put a point across successfully is by being rude and making insulting personal remarks against female anchors. The victim was a highly attractive and popular Fox News anchor named Megyn Kelly who, he claimed, was ovulating while acting as a moderator in a GOP debate. This was followed by a series of insults which were hurled against the woman by his rabid supporters. In fact, somebody actually totted up the number of times this television personality was publicly slighted by Trump’s misogynistic supporters.

I have no record of the number of death threats that Megyn Kelly received. And then Trump made himself even more unpleasant by steamrolling an attractive NBC reporter over the issue of immigration, which left the woman tongue-tied.



It is a little different in the East. The invectives on the telly are usually tossed against rival male candidates and not news anchors, and that too in countries that practise what passes for democracy. Invariably, the attacks usually involve time-honoured accusations which focus on corruption, incompetence, lack of experience, feudal clout or just plain ineptitude. At times a rival just gets kidnapped. In dictatorships, rival candidates have a nasty habit of falling off high rises or trying to swim across a river with their hands and feet tied. But I could never imagine a politician publicly insulting a female television anchor in an Asian country even if the country has the reputation of being one of the world’s most mis0gynistic and testosterone-fuelled places where they chop off men’s and women’s heads for committing adultery.

The fact that Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump in the Iowa primaries, and might continue to outshine his main rival in the other states has apparently not come as a surprise to a number of critics. There are a lot of Republicans who don’t like Trump’s pantomime evilness and malevolent whimsy. His bluster and truculence might get him a lot of applause, but little else. Many have also found him wanting in the techniques of statecraft. In the first place, he is totally unqualified for the job of president. Every one of the previous 44 US presidents had either government or military experience. Trump has neither. During his campaign, he repeatedly revealed his ignorance in matters of national importance, like economics, foreign policy and military strategy. He has displayed an infinite reluctance to acquaint himself with national issues. He never prepares himself before a debate and appears to have a two-point agenda — ban Muslims from entering the US and keep out the Hispanics. A Trump victory will not bode well for the Republicans or for America.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2016.

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