He has divided the American society and he will have to bear the brunt of the divide
LARKANA: Donald Trump has left native liberals in a daze. His sweeping victory from unexpectedly Republican-voting states is suggestive of the idea that Trump’s protectionism and divisive election campaign had a wide impact on the American people. This can be gauged from the fact that he was swept into power from the states that used to be majority Democratic voters.
With conservative and protectionist rhetoric, Trump campaigned against immigrants and Muslim migrants who the old and middle class majority whites saw as a swarm of locusts threatening their prosperity. He played on the emotions of racists and economically disadvantaged Americans.
Trump’s hate and the divisive politics turned the tables in his favour; racist, sexist and lying bigotry has reached the White House on the heels of polarisation. Today, the United States stands divided; the public anger in some states of the country against the president-elect’s victory is a rare thing in America and demonstrates the destructive impact the Trump triumph has on the American democratic society. Protesters from New York to Los Angeles and the northwestern city of Portland accused Trump of racism, sexism and xenophobia and chanted slogans like, “not my president” and “we reject president-elect.”
The damage is done. He has divided the American society and he will have to bear the brunt of the divide. Given his volatile nature and divisive politics, the fear of unleashing an unbridled conservative agenda in Washington by the Trump presidency runs very high.
Nazeer Ahmed Arijo
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2016.
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