The frills and thrills of months of hot partisan campaigns between American democrats and republicans have ended with the declaration of the Republican and billionaire businessman, Mr Donald Trump as winner of the 2016 Presidential polls. The Electoral College awarded him the victory against Americans’ preferred candidate, Hilary Clinton. But this is one victory Americans are finding difficult to swallow.
Majority of Americans are not at home with Trump yet and claim the Electoral College has bewitched them. So, protests against Trump’s emergence have been trenchant, widespread and unyielding. Those who know Trump say he is a racist and campaigner of white supremacy. Even at campaigns for such an exalted office, Trump never concealed his hatred for people his large heart believes are not “original” Americans.
His comments fired resentments to his candidature and his rival, Mrs Clinton led him severally in pre-ballot poll ratings. It reflected in the actual votes in the presidential elections from the generality of Americans, as Hillary led him in simple majority votes. But the elitist Electoral College bewitched Americans by voting in favour of Trump. But is it possible that a Whiteman could be bewitched?
In Africa, witches and wizards are some weird creatures, who steal the comfort of your night when you are in a trance-like state. They take you to their kingdom, where you are deprived of a blissful communion with your soul, your close pals and ancestors. They ferry you to a kingdom or the colony of wizards, with your eyes sealed with mucus and ask you to accept or do certain things against your wish or plan in life. They impose their will on you. But you must obey them or else, face the wizards’ king for punishment.
And it is hellish to be in the grip of witches, with no brother China or sister Japan to free you. They could beat you blue black for having the temerity to resist their instructions and ask you thereafter, whether you can identify or know the names of your ancestors. They would ask whether you contributed in making the kingdom where you have been exiled. It is a harrowing experience.
So, it was strange to know in the 2016 American presidential elections that all this while, these people in “God’s Own Country´ with all manner of mixed races know witches or at least, act like witches. Or precisely, their democracy or Electoral College behaves like witches. It, without permission from the generality of the masses, snatched the soul of Americans who popularly wanted the elegant, charming Lady and Obama’s former Secretary of State, Mrs Hilary Clinton as their next president.
Although, Hillary has conceded defeat in her famous declaration that the campaign to lead America was not about one person, but about their beloved country America. And that Trump should be supported and given a chance to lead the country, her supporters, the American masses, would not accept all the trash talk.
And since the declaration of Trump as America’s next President, peace has eluded this super power country. There have been massive protests by the American people within and outside America, with posters denouncing Trump’s choice as their President. In recent American political history, protests about presidential polls have never lasted this long and widespread.
Trump courted this trouble by his loud racism credentials and strong anti-Muslim sentiments expressed during the partisan campaigns. He proposed a ban on Muslims entering America in the event of his Presidency. And imagine that Islam has over 1.6 billion followers in the world. Trump also promised to erect a buffer between the US and Mexico and other races. These are inclinations which discomfort majority of Americans in the digital age.
America, often described as “no man’s land” is a nation very sensitive to racism or apartheid. Before now, it has sparked riots of unimaginable dimensions in different parts of America. It has led to landmark judgments in American courts out rightly condemning the resurrection of racism in any form.
America is a country with a long tortuous history of the struggle of black Americans for equality. The likes of Martin Luther King Jnr and W.B Du Bois are some of the progenitors of this struggle.
However, America properly broke the barrier of racism and white supremacy in 2008 when it elected an Afro-American, Barack Obama as President, who has spent eight years in office. But with the coming on board of Trump, Americans see a return to the old prejudices of racism and the erection of racial barriers in America’s public life.
Trump has a reputation as a champion of racist prejudices. A firm believer in white supremacy sustained for years till date. His emergence as America’s president is bad omen for this united country.
It was Trump who once qualified as illegitimate, President Obama’s Presidency on account that he was not born in the US, despite Obama’s birth certificate in Hawaii confirming it abundantly. President Obama described the outburst as “irresponsible and dangerous.”
So, the protests in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Portland, Oregon and other parts of America like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland, California and Texas loudly testify to Americans’ popular rejection of Trump.
His racist instincts are spreading fast across America and some of his adherents have reportedly seized the opportunity to propagate hate crimes of xenophobia and Islamphobia. Trump has lived, dreamed and slept on pro-racism thoughts. It reflects in his private life, much as in his business empires, social interactions and the presidential campaigns.
In 1973, as President of his family’s real estate company, the Trump Management Corporation, the US Justice Department sued the company for alleged racial discrimination for denying prospective black clients the opportunity to rent apartments in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. His workers in chains of companies complain of racial discrimination and at a point in 1992, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino was fined $200,000 by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission for spiteful fishy deals on Afro-American card dealers. That’s how long Trump has lived with the prejudice of black inferiority and white supremacy.
And in November, this year, when his supporters physically assaulted African-American protester in an Alabama rally, for voicing “Black lives matter”, the next day and after a careful cogitation, Trump justified the attack by declaring that “Maybe [the protester] should have been roughed up. It was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”
Yet, his co-travellers in the white supremacy philosophy in the Electoral College gave him the nod to lead America and animate the battle of racism against black Americans and other races.
Trump’s emergence in executive capacity over America’s soul is seen as a major foundation for the country’s future restiveness. With an unrepentant heart as racist, he is likely to enunciate policies that may promote these ideals leading to resistance and constant frictions in the polity. That would be the price of America’s bewitched democracy.