Land of The Free, and The Home of The Knave
USA Election Fallout
In the words of the new president elect: “Wow.”
I wrote a big ol’ political series leading up to this election because I believed there wasn’t enough broadcasting of the political philosophies, which were almost entirely drowned out by the cult of personality surrounding Trump.
What I was really trying to get at was that
You’re not voting for the persona, you’re voting for the principles, ethics, philosophy and beliefs represented by the persona.
Education
Yesterday I saw this video from Jimmy Kimmel’s YouTube channel where Trump voters were asked very simple political questions and were totally unable to answer them, except by clearly regurgitating nonsensical catchphrases. This got me thinking that actual political education is imperative.
But, it’s such a landslide really, especially if you look at the map.
I’m not claiming that education would necessarily change the result, I simply believe that voting for something you don’t fully understand is a huge risk. The same thing happened in the UK for Brexit. Promised all kinds of riches and goods and wellbeing for leaving the EU during the campaign, and then, in the reality of it, many Brits are significantly worse off.
Poor education about the governance of the society, about who benefits from which policies, and how certain policies affect certain people, is almost always terrible for the community as a whole.
I really thought / hoped, that the vote would swing toward Democrats. I know they have some crazy ideas, but Trump has more of them, and by the looks of it, ideas that benefit a small minority. I was wrong, I thought it would be a swing toward self-care. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next four years.
I’m not upset, not celebratory. It is what it is.
Identity
Harris tried to appeal to the good nature of others and our own altruism it seems, but Trump tried to appeal to the pride in oneself and the “Greatness” of America.
Trump knew this was a war of identity, and so he galvanised voters by persuading them to identify with one, collective ‘great’ identity — America itself.
Harris on the other hand, seems to have looked to appeal to 300 million individual identities as a means of inclusivity and acceptance of diversity. It’s an idea with its heart in the right place, but it is much harder to believe in the isolation that comes with unique identity — and then get each identity to come together as individuals — than it is to find a common enemy and common value and gather people to dance around that maypole together.
The use of a common enemy is a fascist tactic, used on both sides of course, Dems used Trump as their common enemy. Unfortunately for the Democrats, Trump created an image of himself as winning, successful, brave (assassination survivor), and USA’s traditional values incarnate. To oppose Trump is to oppose American values. Unfortunate.
Again I appeal to poor education as rationale for being so easily fooled by the lies and personality. In modern capitalist cultures there is — as far as I understand it at any rate — no education for citizens on how to appropriately recognise, frame and see through propaganda. It’s too beneficial for “the powers that be” to have a population susceptible to misinformation it seems. That way you can lie and gain power. Easier than telling the truth, no?
Projection
At worst, Republican ideas this time around will mould the American community from the same cast as Trump’s legacy of lies, hypocrisy and hyperbole. “Greatest Country in the World” — let’s check in a few years against a few important metrics.
There is an extraordinarily high potential — based on the winning policies — of a great increase of inequality, especially financially. In that there’s a very high likelihood of a recession/depression and a fall to much poorer living standards for the majority.
It seems from my amateur perspective, that by 2028 the US will have very well defended poverty, with a very small wealthy percentage of the population in luxury towers claiming it’s a meritocracy, if only they’d use their lives more effectively.
It’ll be interesting to watch. I hope I’m wrong. I hope I learn something. I hope American citizens flourish and this is a great thing for them. I really do.
Anyway,
Peace out.
