Reflections on Trump's Victory: Lessons for Liberals
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The shocking victory of Donald Trump was a day of gloom for me. The best-qualified candidate of all time lost to the least-qualified candidate of all time. America, like India, is a complex democracy. Misogyny and racist backlash, coupled with fear of immigrants, led to Trump’s victory. However, we, the self-proclaimed liberals, must also share the blame and acknowledge our arrogance and the self-righteous disconnect from the pulse of the people. Brexit and other global swings, including ours, towards ultra-nationalism and anger towards minorities should have warned us. But we were set in our beliefs, so sure that a candidate so racist, misogynistic and xenophobic would never find enough takers. We became complacent, to the extent that magazine covers all over the world were being designed and readied for Madam President.
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Nobody saw this coming; least of all liberals. We kept sinking deeper into our carefully curated social media news bubbles, content in our echo chambers. We laughed at Trump, viewing him as a caricature ( lewd, pompous and foolish, while his silent supporters marched ahead. Some, of course, were closeted misogynists and racists, while others simply perceived him as their saviour from economic decline. Now the genie is out of the bottle. Thanks to Trump, today hate has hope. Bigotry and sexism have been legitimised. It is no surprise that the day after the presidential election, hate crimes spiked. Nazi symbols appeared on walls with graffiti like “Make America White Again”. Muslim women are already being commanded to remove their hijabs and get out of a country they have been a part of for generations.
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Ironically, a surprisingly large number of Indians support Trump, both here and in America. The argument is that, “Trump might well be good for us”. If he is not good for America and the world, how can he be good for India? Aren’t we all intimately interconnected? In fact, I feel a deeper sense of purpose. I want to align myself with every person who is suffering and who has taken it upon himself to make the world a better place. Hillary Clinton summed it up in her concession speech, “Never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.” We all have to ensure that Trump doesn’t keep all his insane promises that are against women, Jews, Muslims, Mexicans and more. Now is the time we roll up our sleeves and get to work. Toni Morrison, the Nobel laureate and my co-juror in Cannes, wrote, “There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write. That is how civilizations heal.” Hillary’s loss has many hidden lessons for us. It’s up to us to heed them.
