Trump, The Kim K. Of Politics?
We are at least 10 months away from the first vote being cast in the election cycle, even then, there are as many sub-plots in the current US election cycle as the latest Star Wars movie. To try to write one piece on what stood out in this election season so far would be to condense the hundreds of episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians into a single episode.
Meaningless scandal, healthy dose of slander and insults, anger and viciousness towards powerless sections of the society, broad characterizations and empty assertions. Remind you of anything? Reality TV. A lot of us watch it time to time as it represents the ugliest insecurities and material aspirations amongst us. Trump has brought it to American politics this election season. It represents the complete takeover by the reality TV industry of the Republican process so far. Donald Trump (like his reality TV colleague Kim) is more about the hair do and less about the head underneath. Don’t believe me, look at a YouTube video of her judging Carly Fiorina to be unfit to become president due to how her face is! Donald Trump who started of this election cycle as a joke and in minds of most observers as a buffoon performing a temporary side show, has been hurled by the reality TV industry (which includes most news media in the US) into the center stage. He is currently the front-runner four weeks into the first primary. If this is a divine joke, it has surely run its course.
In a democracy people get the government they deserve, said Joseph Maistre a French counter-revolutionary 200 years ago. The Americans I meet and work with every day are hardworking, well meaning, enterprising people who value their hard work, faith, country and family. They don’t seem to deserve this wave of political misfortune which Donald Trump leads. Then why this disconnect between popular support for Trump and everyday American values? How did Donald Trump come to enjoy the support of more than 30% of Republican voters? I think the answer lies in the propaganda machine of the reality TVisque media complex, which for a few hours every day, transforms these fair minded Americans into fear minded voters. They suddenly become science hating, Islam hating, gun toting zealots, who would go to any lengths to save their country. Save their country! As it is being taken away by “them”; the environmentalists, gays, Muslims, immigrants, liberals, women and anyone else. It is this us vs. them mindset which has also stood out for me so far this election cycle. America deserves a leader who can call this out for what it is and lead this country to a more hopeful future.