Come back America
Trump’s stance has aligned him with the far right in Europe
The writer is an author, public policy analyst and a former federal interior secretary. He teaches at LUMS
“Aa jao, mein nay sunn lee terar dhol ki tarang/Aa jao, mast hogayee meray lahu ki taal/Aa jao, Africa/Aa jao, mein nay dhool say maatha utha lia/Aa jao, mein nay cheel dee ankhon say gham ki chhaal/Aa jao Africa”
(“Come back, for I have heard the beat of your drum/Come back, the beat of my blood is in a trance/Come back, Africa/
Come back, for I have lifted my forehead from the dust/Come back, I have peeled the layer of grief from the eyes/Come back, Africa”)
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
While flipping through Faiz’s rare collection, Zindan Nama, I came across these powerful verses which he composed 60 years ago with a clairvoyance of awakening in the dark continent, Africa, far beyond the shores of the Atlantic where the forefathers of native Africans were shipped as slaves to the newly discovered land called America. Centuries later, an Atlanta-born black American, Martin Luther King Jr saw a dream. It was a dream about the America of the future. King did not live to see history being made when the first African American entered the White House as US president. The euphoria this historic moment generated gradually fizzled out. In the midst of the most virulent presidential election campaign of recent history, and even after, one finds walls in the cities of the US scrawled with the message “Make America great again”. Disturbingly, what one also sees are messages on the same walls sneering and jeering at African Americans who are told to “Go back to Africa”.
This was a campaign with a distinct signature of fear and paranoia, of hate and racism, of misogyny and sexism, of targeting and scaring of minorities. During the campaign, Donald Trump had the confidence to lay his own party on the wayside as he marched on relentlessly. He had the cavalry to play on the fears of the majority and further polarise an already divided society. As a student of American history, it is worth pointing out that the earlier generations took over 200 years to stitch the fault lines that had always divided American society. These stitches were ripped apart at the seams during the vitiated campaign. However, it will be unfair to lay all the blame for this on Trump as the vibes of his message proved to be more powerful than the rhetoric of his opponents and their attempts to question his suitability to the office of president. The jobless, underemployed white American readily gravitated towards Trump’s camp as he had fairly simple answers to the most complex of problems. Trump’s villains, China, Latinos and Muslims, were far too easily identifiable and were a neighbourhood phenomenon for most Americans. His rantings against China in which he accused it of slicing away manufacturing jobs, the language used to describe Latinos and the threat to peace that Muslims were made out to be sunk in well with his audience. Trump made history, being elected as an outsider with not a day’s experience of holding public office. His lack of exposure and experience in public office turned into his strength, his naivete paid off as he was never tuned to the intellectual discipline that public responsibility fosters. He vowed to create a database of Muslims, having no problem with profiling of a distinct community at the national level in a country founded on the abiding tradition of the Bill of Rights and a strong judicial review system where every such move will be judged on the touchstone of equality before law. Muslims in the US number 3.3 million. They are not the boat people of the 1960s. Some of them set their feet on American soil for the first time as far back as 1880 during the Ottoman era. They belong to different ethnicities, African Americans, Arabs and South Asians prominent among them. The largest chunk of American Muslims is of South Asian origin, around 34 per cent of the community. Most of them are highly educated professionals and their income levels are often many notches above the national average.
Trump wishes to build a wall on the border with Mexico where there is a movement of a million people on a daily basis. The low-paid Mexican workers contribute $500 million per annum to the American economy. To brand them all as rapists and criminals was highly incendiary.
China may well have taken away American jobs but such a development was the byproduct of neoliberalism and the surging wave of globalisation, a bequest of the Reagan era. Of all the countries, the US has been the biggest beneficiary of globalisation. Trump’s message to allies, like members of Nato and Japan, to share more of the burden of expenses borne on their defence missed the flip side. If the US wants to lessen the burden of its financial responsibilities in this regard, is it also willing to give up its role of being the sole global superpower? Trump’s stance has aligned him with the far right in Europe which is now questioning the relevance of Nato. How does this narrative pan out keeping in view the muscle-flexing by Russia in Europe, Cremia, Syria and the rest of the Middle East, and China’s ascendancy in the South China Sea?
The election results highlight the sharp societal divide with there being little hope of early healing. This has raised serious questions about the efficacy of the prevalent electoral system. The victorious candidate bagged a greater number of electoral college votes than his rival but lost the popular vote. The rationale behind this system was understandable 200 years ago when it was first adopted as at the time the southern states had more disenfranchised slaves than voters as compared to the northern states. Over the decades, the American political system has strengthened the party system which takes care of diverse proclivities. There is a need to revisit the system in place right now. The matter is already under serious consideration. The US Constitution empowers the states to decide the manner in which electoral college votes can be allocated. State legislatures can pass enactments that can allow for the final vote count in the state polls to be counted towards the popular national vote. In this regard, the National Popular Vote Bill has already been enacted in 11 states, which represent 165 electoral college votes. For a change in the system to be effected, a tally of 270 electoral college votes is needed. The Bill is under active consideration in a few more states representing 96 electoral college votes. One hopes that this movement will gain further momentum to ward off the kind of situation that we see at present.
Trump’s election will be a real test of US institutions, and their effectiveness and efficacy to rein in the unbridled instincts of the highest office holder of the land will be tested. How the hallowed insides of the White House play around the primordial instincts of its chief resident will be interesting to see. Will they be able to blunt the edges of an outsider? Only time will tell.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2016.
(“Come back, for I have heard the beat of your drum/Come back, the beat of my blood is in a trance/Come back, Africa/
Come back, for I have lifted my forehead from the dust/Come back, I have peeled the layer of grief from the eyes/Come back, Africa”)
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
While flipping through Faiz’s rare collection, Zindan Nama, I came across these powerful verses which he composed 60 years ago with a clairvoyance of awakening in the dark continent, Africa, far beyond the shores of the Atlantic where the forefathers of native Africans were shipped as slaves to the newly discovered land called America. Centuries later, an Atlanta-born black American, Martin Luther King Jr saw a dream. It was a dream about the America of the future. King did not live to see history being made when the first African American entered the White House as US president. The euphoria this historic moment generated gradually fizzled out. In the midst of the most virulent presidential election campaign of recent history, and even after, one finds walls in the cities of the US scrawled with the message “Make America great again”. Disturbingly, what one also sees are messages on the same walls sneering and jeering at African Americans who are told to “Go back to Africa”.
This was a campaign with a distinct signature of fear and paranoia, of hate and racism, of misogyny and sexism, of targeting and scaring of minorities. During the campaign, Donald Trump had the confidence to lay his own party on the wayside as he marched on relentlessly. He had the cavalry to play on the fears of the majority and further polarise an already divided society. As a student of American history, it is worth pointing out that the earlier generations took over 200 years to stitch the fault lines that had always divided American society. These stitches were ripped apart at the seams during the vitiated campaign. However, it will be unfair to lay all the blame for this on Trump as the vibes of his message proved to be more powerful than the rhetoric of his opponents and their attempts to question his suitability to the office of president. The jobless, underemployed white American readily gravitated towards Trump’s camp as he had fairly simple answers to the most complex of problems. Trump’s villains, China, Latinos and Muslims, were far too easily identifiable and were a neighbourhood phenomenon for most Americans. His rantings against China in which he accused it of slicing away manufacturing jobs, the language used to describe Latinos and the threat to peace that Muslims were made out to be sunk in well with his audience. Trump made history, being elected as an outsider with not a day’s experience of holding public office. His lack of exposure and experience in public office turned into his strength, his naivete paid off as he was never tuned to the intellectual discipline that public responsibility fosters. He vowed to create a database of Muslims, having no problem with profiling of a distinct community at the national level in a country founded on the abiding tradition of the Bill of Rights and a strong judicial review system where every such move will be judged on the touchstone of equality before law. Muslims in the US number 3.3 million. They are not the boat people of the 1960s. Some of them set their feet on American soil for the first time as far back as 1880 during the Ottoman era. They belong to different ethnicities, African Americans, Arabs and South Asians prominent among them. The largest chunk of American Muslims is of South Asian origin, around 34 per cent of the community. Most of them are highly educated professionals and their income levels are often many notches above the national average.
Trump wishes to build a wall on the border with Mexico where there is a movement of a million people on a daily basis. The low-paid Mexican workers contribute $500 million per annum to the American economy. To brand them all as rapists and criminals was highly incendiary.
China may well have taken away American jobs but such a development was the byproduct of neoliberalism and the surging wave of globalisation, a bequest of the Reagan era. Of all the countries, the US has been the biggest beneficiary of globalisation. Trump’s message to allies, like members of Nato and Japan, to share more of the burden of expenses borne on their defence missed the flip side. If the US wants to lessen the burden of its financial responsibilities in this regard, is it also willing to give up its role of being the sole global superpower? Trump’s stance has aligned him with the far right in Europe which is now questioning the relevance of Nato. How does this narrative pan out keeping in view the muscle-flexing by Russia in Europe, Cremia, Syria and the rest of the Middle East, and China’s ascendancy in the South China Sea?
The election results highlight the sharp societal divide with there being little hope of early healing. This has raised serious questions about the efficacy of the prevalent electoral system. The victorious candidate bagged a greater number of electoral college votes than his rival but lost the popular vote. The rationale behind this system was understandable 200 years ago when it was first adopted as at the time the southern states had more disenfranchised slaves than voters as compared to the northern states. Over the decades, the American political system has strengthened the party system which takes care of diverse proclivities. There is a need to revisit the system in place right now. The matter is already under serious consideration. The US Constitution empowers the states to decide the manner in which electoral college votes can be allocated. State legislatures can pass enactments that can allow for the final vote count in the state polls to be counted towards the popular national vote. In this regard, the National Popular Vote Bill has already been enacted in 11 states, which represent 165 electoral college votes. For a change in the system to be effected, a tally of 270 electoral college votes is needed. The Bill is under active consideration in a few more states representing 96 electoral college votes. One hopes that this movement will gain further momentum to ward off the kind of situation that we see at present.
Trump’s election will be a real test of US institutions, and their effectiveness and efficacy to rein in the unbridled instincts of the highest office holder of the land will be tested. How the hallowed insides of the White House play around the primordial instincts of its chief resident will be interesting to see. Will they be able to blunt the edges of an outsider? Only time will tell.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2016.