THE forthcoming inauguration of Donald Trump as President fills me not only with trepidation but also immense sadness. His destabilisation of the international order is as frightening as his cronyism towards the rich and powerful is nauseating. Although I’ve opposed not just the foreign policy of the United States but also its domestic agenda over many years, it’s still a country I know and enjoy.
I’ve many friends there and I like the people. Its cities are exciting and its landscape awe inspiring. But Mr Trump’s election is also a loss to the world, taking account of the good the US is capable of contributing globally.
I’ve visited the country on many occasions since I was a youth and it continues to beguile me. People flocked to Australia and the Far East. However, for me, and my generation, it was the US that was enticing. The country is a paradox to me as there’s so much I disagree with but also so much that I adore.
The inequality and poverty are shameful and the gun culture and violence are frightening. Race remains a scar, despite Barack Obama’s presidency.
I like the American people though even I’ve oft times criticised their government. There’s a friendliness and openness that’s engaging. Of course, some aspects are frequently mocked as false but I’ve experienced great spontaneous and natural kindness on many occasions.
Moreover, the politeness and good manners should be welcomed, not denigrated. There is something egalitarian as well as respectful about their use of “sir” and “ma’m”. Scorned in this country as obsequious, it’s certainly better than mate, fella or hen.
The naivety and ignorance of anything furth of the US can even be touching in some ways. It’s not simply that Americans don’t travel outwith their country; sometimes it’s even outwith their own state. It’s not simply the poor who are like that. I recall meeting a wealthy dentist in his 40s who’d never left Texas. Given its size and resources, he’d never felt the need.
Mr Trump’s election is a disaster for the American people, some of whom believed the shameless lies told, as Europeans have in past and recent elections. It should never be forgotten that Mr Trump lost the popular vote by a good margin; and that, sadly, so many more felt so disengaged that they failed to cast their vote.
It’s a tragedy for humanity, not just around the threat posed by Mr Trump and his ilk but also with regard to the loss of what could be contributed by the US; not only is it the world’s most powerful nation, it is also in many ways its most dynamic. Its universities and institutions are phenomenal and, in tackling global issues – whether an alternative to the combustion engine or other equally cutting-edge developments – it’s hard to see where the intellectual impetus will come from without the US.
The brain power is phenomenal and not simply in technology. The size and scale of the country allow for ideas to be generated in social policy that buck the national trend. Even in criminal justice, where the US tended to be a jurisdiction I disdained, the children’s panel came in from Massachusetts and work with ex-offenders from LA is being successfully tested in this country.
Even politically it has been a force for good in the past and can be again. The post-war de-colonisation agenda was driven by America and its support in defeating fascism and thwarting Soviet hegemony pivotal.
Many of the ideas for a better society started there and I still venerate the great American socialist writers such as Upton Sinclair, Richard Wright and John Dos Passos and love the protest songs of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. It is to be hoped an artistic backlash to Mr Trump will reinvigorate writers and singers.
Most of all, I am fascinated by how America reinvents itself as a society, as waves of immigrants arrive and settle. It has happened down the centuries. Mr Trump won’t be able to stem the tide. Change will come with younger voters and Latino, Asian and Muslim immigrants as they settle and participate.
America will survive Mr Trump; it is bigger and better than him. It’s depressing that a country that has produced Martin Luther King and Franklin Delano Roosevelt should have such a shallow and self-serving political elite. But good people are in the majority and America has many great people. It’s time they started taking their country back from the oligarchs who will soon be in charge.
Hope will come again. America will reinvent itself and the world will benefit as a result. It’s just a pity it will have to endure Mr Trump’s narcissism. The rest of us will be imperilled until he has gone.
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