Acid test of the polarization of the American election

Acid test of the polarization of the American election

The historic fight between a seasoned politician and a businessman turned celebrity

When the majority of Americans woke up on Wednesday morning, November 9, they were shaken by the changing political landmark when Donald Trump won the presidency, a Republican who had no experience at all in governance, let alone deeper lessons in political science or in public administration.

As if it were a magnitude of 8 in the Richter Scale, a tectonic jolt that rocked the very traditional foundation of the US politics, and consequently the world felt the shocks accompanied by a tsunami of apprehensions and reactions. feeling affected by the US election in the most powerful country in the world.

And the Americans are still experiencing some aftershocks of the 2016 elections: protests from the various major cities; world leaders scamper for right approaches to deal with the new US administration, local and international businesses look for ways and means to win the probable economic war.

Others have said that with this election, we came to understand the inner rumblings of the US political system; we came to understand the vulnerability of a unilateral relationship; we came to know more ails and pains of a free society; we learned lessons on how powerful is the silent majority, those people who were outside the box of the political spectrum; and we learned that naivety is not a stumbling block to become the most powerful man in the world.

Take it or leave it, Donald John Trump, the 45th US President, will be with us in the next four years!

So what happened during the Tuesday voting when the euphoric Hilary Clinton looked forward as the 1st Woman President, and her husband, the former President Bill Clinton, as the 1st Gentleman; and with a glow in her eyes, with a high head for breaking the glass ceiling in the Oval Office?

At the middle of the Tuesday night, reality has sunk in. Hilary Clinton was losing and the Electoral College put Donald Trump as the newly-elected US President. She had the stunning defeat, her very self was jolted by a powerful shock that the electorate did not want a woman president, that she was rejected by millions of white Americans; and in her mind, a great fear that this country would edge out in different directions, as muffed voices of the ascendancy of white supremacy, deconstructed protectionism and fearsome nativism*.

But what happened to the Clinton magic?

Banking on her background, Clinton carries the best cards in the political arena: a successful lawyer; the first lady of President Bill Clinton; a senator and then Secretary of State; and an openly the voice of women. Look deeper into her supporters: major media outlets, print and broadcast, some titan Republicans, the black men and women, the latinos and the latinas,the Hollywood’s who is who?, big businesses, and the solid Democrat supports; and her popularity had reached the highest pinnacle of acceptance.

It seemed that all the stars and the planets, even the moon, are aligned to an easy win!

But behind this glaring background of Hilary Clinton, some dark spots dotted her political life. She suffered privately from the effect of his womanizing husband, Pres. Clinton; alleged money contribution towards their own foundation; and lately, the private emails; and added to a lesser degree, some hidden and unspoken dislike for a woman politician to lead the most powerful country in the world.

At the end of her quest for the highest and distinguished head of the United States of America had vaporized into a thin air;and the thick glass ceiling in the Oval Office was not shattered. Amid her stunning defeat, being a strong woman, she faced the reality with dignity and told her supporters to ‘greet Trump with an open mind’.

But what was the winning formula of Donald Trump, making him as the 45th President of the United States!

Trump triumphs by neglected members of the political spectrum: the poor, the ordinary white Americans and the disenfranchised rednecks, all came in droves to support Donald Trump!

Donald Trump won thru the Electoral College, a political process which every state has engaged in the election of the Presidents. A political process which reaches the every nook and cranny of the big and the small states. And how this billionaire business man who was rejected by the power-elite of the Republican party; a man whose damaging rhetoric made against the Latinos, the Blacks, the Muslims, the powerful elite, big businesses, and the millions of undocumented over-staying aliens, has won the most explosive, populist and polarizing campaigns ever staged in the country known for being the bedrock of democracy in the modern world, and noted as the most powerful country in the 21st century.

Facing the challenges of his presidency, Donald Trump at his rally in New York City:”Now it;s the time for America to bind the wounds of division. It is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time.” And he continued that the forgotten Americans are no longer forgotten.

As President Obama said that Donald Trump capitalized into the economic of anxiety.And as the French President Hollande said: “Election’s result has opened a ‘period of uncertainty’.German Chancellor Merkel looked a closer co-operation with the new president; And Russian President Putin is hoping for a new relationship between Washington and Moscow; and our very own President Duterte congratulated and sent message with enthusiasm and affection.

January2017 will begin the new era of American politics,making us more attentive to the goings at the south of the border, and watching what would be Trump’s ups and downs in the first 100 days.

(*Nativism is the political position of supporting a favored status for certain established inhibitants of a nation (self-identified citizens) as compared to claims of new comers or immigrant. According to Fetzer (2000) opposition to immigrants is common in many countries because of issue of national, cultural and religious identity. WIKIPEDIA)