Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Donald Trump

I haven't been blogging and I realized why that was. Even though Pulpetti has for years mainly focused on crime fiction in its many forms, I realized I can't go on pretending nothing happened.

You know, I've been devastated. I know now that there were many flaws with Hillary Clinton's campaign, and I hoped Bernie Sanders would've been the Democrat candidate. I don't know whether he'd been able to defeat Trump, but it still would've been the same, right? And maybe Sanders could've set something else entirely in motion. (There's still that Clinton got more votes than Trump. She was more popular. Maybe the Americans should do something about how the votes are counted.)

But Trump? I can't begin to understand what went on here. You would've thought his story would've ended during many points of his career, like when he made condescending remarks about a journalist with a handicap. C'mon, you let this guy run your country?! Okay, I've read lots and lots of reports and articles about how bad things are for the American middleman, but this is still no excuse to vote someone who runs on racism, hatred and bigotry. (Not to mention the notion that also the rich voted for Trump. They are the real ones who benefit from Trump and his politics.) Lots of people have been trying to be moderate and saying that maybe Trump will not go with what he said during his campaign, but however his campaign and his victory made hate speech and vitriolic racism more acceptable.

And it made it more acceptable not only in the US, but all over the world. There's been a lot of racist backlash in Europe and Russia, and I'm beginning to fear we are not seeing the end of it. Talks about building a wall on the Mexican border (which sounded only absurd at first) don't much differ from talks about building camps for special people.

"It couldn't happen here." That was the title of Sinclair Lewis's novel of the rise of the American fascist. That's what they said about Hitler as well.

PS. I don't even want to think what this might mean for Putin's Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe and Middle-Asia. 

4 comments:

Patrick Murtha said...

You are exactly right in everything you say. I am an expatriate American living in Mexico, and I too am appalled. I also feel quite lucky to be living permanently outside the US. I try to explain what happened to my Mexican friends and students, who are in a state of shocked disbelief. But I run out of words because, as you say, there truly is no acceptable explanation.

jurinummelin said...

Thanks for your comment, Patrick!

Unknown said...

Please, someone could explain to me how it come that he won in Georgia where I think the majority of voters is black? Or in Florida where it seems that many latins went to vote?
Thanks!
Tiziano Agnelli

jurinummelin said...

Sorry, can't really comment on that, I'm not that ardent follower of the details of the US politics.