Donald Trump might mellow down in his larger approach towards divisive issues as a part of larger strategy. It can be observed that on the theme of banning Muslims entering America, he has walked over to shady the canopy of obstructing people from terror countries
With America having witnessed the independence day spectacle, a couple of months back, the nation is apparently firmly in steed for its odyssey across the electoral firmament. As the nation moves across from the vitriolic race blitz characterised by Donald Trump, the official candidate of the Republican Party, Hillary Clinton has a lot to stand for. In the first post-conventions scenario, after the Michelle Obama-led jamboree at the Wells Fargo centre in Philadelphia for the Democrats and the much-contested Republican National Convention in Cleveland, the first leads have arrived.
Former Secretary of State and Senator Clinton, has recorded the first slice of a lead of eight points over the iconoclast candidate, Trump, according to a NBC News SurveyMonkey poll in the aftermath of the Philadelphia convention. Trump did not receive any fillip after the Cleveland convention.
The recent decision of Trump to rope in the services of Paul Manafort as his campaign planner has been perceived with renewed interest. He is known for being the brain behind the electoral campaign of the Ukranian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and having traversed a checkered journey across the political fortunes of candidates such as former US Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and others, which even involved the changing of party denominations.
The question that some of the alternate news portals such as Mother Jones have raised, is that pertinent poser is that, is Manafort on the payroll of the Ukrainian politiciansIJ A New York Times report detailed in a Mother Jones piece said, “As the Times detailed, Manafort — who has a lengthy history of helping dictators and strongmen rehab their reputations — once represented Yanukovych, a pro-Russian politician with ties to Vladimir Putin who fled Ukraine in 2014 as demonstrations and uprisings raged in the country. But Manafort’s work in Ukraine didn’t end with Yanukovych’s ouster.”
Thus, observers have raised myriad eyebrows over the moral and political lineages of Manafort. The trolling Trumpisms truncating the experiences of immigrants, Muslims and the idiom of the great new Texan wall, are some of the other popular profligacy’s which the presumptive Republican candidate, Trump has committed.
The expose that candidate Clinton utilised the web server of Secretary of State for personal purposes, might not cut much ice now. The fact that Russian Premier Vladimir Putin and the Russian agencies, were, involved with the hacking of the Democratic National Party server in collusion with candidate Trump to ruffle Clinton, might become a tough ask for the ‘Reinventing-the-American-Dream-Project’ of the iconoclast par excellence, Trump.
The American Dream and the foundational myth were merrily shaken by the idiom of unbridled corporatism. This trend was found to be very reflective of the societal decay in the decade of the 1990s, as, reflected by Samuel P Huntington in his seminal work, ‘Who We areIJ’ It is, since, then that the fraternal fulminations about an eminent American decline with the unmitigated safaris of corporatism and the efflorescence of multi-polarity amongst the comity of the nation states, began to make the American mandarins irate. Not that it was a worry embroiled in a capitalism vs socialism debate, but the true agrarian and entrepreneurial estates of the American Union with its individualist strain had taken a beating somewhere.
Thus, the idiom of ‘manifest destiny’ and national exceptionalism, became a regular and recurring theme in the American narrative. It is to this new oeuvre that Trump’s campaign byte, will, respond to and eventually espouse it, as a fervent clarion call to the true blue American kernel, in order to pip candidate Clinton to the post. The visage of Clinton as an establishment candidate might put a semblance of spanner in the works of her trail to victory. Despite being a real estate and an industrial baron, Trump has a mass appeal for the Christian soul of the nation which might end up imposing him on the radar screen of all 'faithfulls', in the electoral trail till November 2016.
Still, candidate Trump might, mellow down in his larger approach towards divisive issues as part of a larger strategy. It can be interestingly observed that on the theme of banning all Muslims to enter America, Trump has walked over to the shady canopy of obstructing only people from terror countries. Still, a few bottlenecks remain.
As an instance, Maria Comella, the communication Guru behind Governor Chris Christie, has openly bolted out of the Republican campaign. She largely attributed the “salacious rhetoric” and the antics of “drumming up popular fear and anxieties,” as being the cause of her disillusionment with the Trump’s candidature. It might not be akin to a “Simulacra” but it is definitely not make believe as the Trump’s following figures, do not reflect a passing fancy of a fearful and tendentious, American nation under race, terror and gun violence pressures.
Republican Presidential hopeful, Jeb Bush’s campaign advisor, Sally Bradshaw, too has gone on record to contend that she will vote the Clinton way if the race in Florida is a close call. The much-hyped news is all about Captain Humayun Khan’s father, Khizr Khan, who seemed to restore faith amongst the Americans, at the Democrat convention when he said, “like many immigrants, we came to this country empty handed. We believed in American democracy, that with hard work and the goodness of this country, we could share in and contribute to its blessings. We are blessed to raise our three sons in a nation, where, they are free to be themselves and follow their dreams.”
This shared collectivity can become a core concern for Trump. But apart from other ‘antics’ he might strategically boat his way out of the green ferns atop the lake Placid, till now, by kowtowing, a more moderate line, on these bytes, which appear contagious to the Democrat-opposition. Still, the allusions which people are making towards Trump, being the ‘fascist gum booter’ of the World War II era, might be too far-fetched a comparison as a consequence of the context. The reason being that, at least, ideationally, the US united behind a few local-clan leaders in the light of the looming threat of the great war, so, why can’t the land of milk and honey, coalesce under a drum-beating, but, popular Trump under the haze of a tardy and terror infested environmentIJ This factor might make the Trump’s presidency, a Tour De Force, in a parched environment.
(The writer teaches at Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi)