People turn so quickly
from weakness or the shadow of it. To get away from failure—even the mere
suspicion of it— that seems to be a subconscious feeling with the average man
and woman; we all avoid non-success as though we fear that it may prove contagious.
Theodore Dreiser – Jennie Gerhardt (1911)
Amid the outraged howling over Donald Trump’s presidential
victory, it is worth reminding ourselves that Obama’s tenure led to Trump’s. If
Trump is politically deplorable then this is how a large number of American voters
have reacted to eight years of Obama. To explain Trump we first have to explain the divisive reign of Obama.
From this side of the Atlantic it is not easy to identify
with political passions obviously stirred up by both men, but it is worth
remembering that Obama began the stirring. He was there first, setting the
agenda, crafting the narratives and the tone of his presidency which clearly
riled so many Americans. He was the catalyst for Trump. He created the
political vacuum which Trump spotted and exploited.
In which case, Obama must have been disliked and admired by
the American electorate in approximately equal measure. In other words he was divisive. Trump is divisive too, but his election and his political tactics suggest he inherited a divisive political reality from Obama. He didn't create it because it was already there. Millions of words have
been written about the election and no doubt they will be followed by millions more, but
to my mind the core issue is as much Obama as Trump.
From this side of the pond Obama seemed weak, sequacious and too fond of virtue-signalling. He look down on half
of the electorate and made his disdain far too obvious. Not from a position of strength, but from a somewhat messianic and politically
correct pedestal he did nothing to earn from a host of absurdly uncritical followers.
Hillary Clinton gave the game away with her reference to
‘deplorables’ because she was speaking from the same bubble as Obama. Many
educated middle class people in the developed world appear to see a world of
deplorables beyond the narrow reach of their politically correct comfort zones. They look down on
people who do not share their views. They also seem to fear them - the political atmosphere reeks of it.
If you do not share a politically correct outlook then you are an outsider, no
better and no more welcome that barbarians at the gate. It isn’t a new
situation - it arises from weakness and Obama was weak in ways Trump seems to
understand. No doubt we’ll find out if he knows how to exploit his insights in the real world beyond the rhetoric.
Now the deplorables have a leader who in spite of his reported
deficiencies seems to understand well enough why he was elected. He was elected
to be stronger than the poseur he replaces. Perhaps that is where the fear comes from - from a whiff of testosterone. How deplorable.
4 comments:
When the Kaiser referred to the British Army of 1914 as a contemptible little army, the surviving veterans of that group called themselves with pride the Old Contemptibles, now alas all gone. I rather like the idea of being an Old Deplorable.
Now if you're going to start all that begetting, I'd need to be Methuselah.
A bit fashionable in right-wing circles to p^&s on Obama's time in office. Conversely I don't think Obama led to Trump but what did lead to Trump was a timely conjunction of globalism, the over-professionalisation of politics and economic carelessness over many years. Globalism led to loss of working class jobs and the 1% taking all the cash. Over-professionalism led to a vile slickness from all politicians (Obama was far from the worst). Economic carelessness led to the undoubtedly correct impression that the politicians and the 1% did not care a s%^t.
What Trump and friends will do about all this is anyone's guess. But I suppose if you stir up the body politic and economic enough something will change. Whether that something is good for those at the bottom of the heap I rather doubt.
Demetrius - so do I.
James - no, I've done with begetting.
Roger - with the benefit of hindsight we should be grateful that Obama kept John McCain out of the Oval Office, but I don't see much else to be grateful for.
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