Trump and the System's Imperatives

The big banks and the big corps on Wall Street and Main Street backed her. The editorial boards of the New York Times and other prominent mainstream newspapers endorsed her candidacy. Her campaign spent $534.4 million as against Donald Trump’s $367.4 million. The political establishment of the Democratic Party went all out on her behalf even as the GOP establishment cold-shouldered her principal opponent. Fifty former national security officials who had served in Republican presidential administrations considered her as reliable, and Trump, unfit and unacceptable as the commander in chief of the United States (US) military–intelligence complex. Her election campaign took full advantage of the Democratic Party’s long-time political correctness on matters of race and gender, and her GOP opponent proved to be a racist and a misogynist. Indeed, almost all the pre-election polls and the media commentators seemed to have unanimously predicted a Clinton victory, and a relatively easy one at that. And yet, even as Hillary Clinton’s share of the popular vote in the US presidential election on 8 November was marginally better than Trump’s, 47.6% as against the latter’s 47.3%, she lost heavily to Trump in the vote that mattered—as we go to press, her projected Electoral College vote was a mere 232 to Trump’s 306. What happened? And, what can one expect of the coming US presidency as Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the US on 20 January 2017.

Is it that for the 47.3% that voted for Trump, it did not seem to matter that he denies the existence of global warming, wants to dismantle environmental regulations, and says he would refuse to assist developing countries in their adaptation to and mitigation of climate change? Is it that his voters did not seem to care that Trump wants to deport 11 million Mexican immigrants and ban Muslims of the “terrorist” nations from entering the US? Is it the case that this section of the electorate cares a damn that Trump is open to using nuclear weapons, supports police high-handedness, especially against blacks and Muslims, defends those who assaulted African–American protestors at his rallies, and pledges to increase military spending even as he cuts taxes on the rich, and thereby does away with what remains of the social welfare “safety net”?