It's been an interesting election and post-election period, not just for America but for the rest of the world as well.
So there we have it, Donald Trump has been chosen by the American people to be the President-elect, the man who will be sworn in on the 20th of January 2017 to be the 45th President of the United States.
This entire election campaign has given us much to think about. For many (initially myself included), it painted the picture of a country who was willing to identify with a man who disrespected members in the community who have always had a weaker voice, a country who was willing to identify with the ideals of racial supremacy and blatant division and a country who was now open to the idea of shutting people out after centuries of promoting the American dream to outsiders, outsiders like me.
For many, it painted the picture of a great country that was stuck in a crossroad that led to two hopeless destinations, it painted the picture of a country that had let go of the potential to endorse a movement that could have changed it all and it painted the picture of a country that was enslaved to cater those in power, administrative secrets and politically favoured agendas - everything that the land of the free did not stand for.
But democracy had spoken. The elections were transparent, and despite the debate currently ongoing between the popular vote and the Electoral College votes – the bottom line lies in the fact that Trump won the same way any other president of the United States had won. Trump won the same way Obama did, who won the same way Bush did.
Now let me explain myself before some of you insensitively comment on why I’m getting so riled up about an election that’s not even happening in my own home ground. (Do note that I’m leaving for America in about 2 months to pursue journalism, which is why I’m a little bit more invested – this is pretty much a journalist goldmine)
I’ll start with the usual technical explanation on why I think it matters.
Clearly, America is the biggest superpower country in the world. A clear definition of a superpower is a state that has a dominant position in international relations by exerting influence of power globally. According to TIME, as of 2016, only the United States appears to fulfill the criteria, and it has been this way since the end of the Cold War in 1991. If that doesn’t give you a rough idea of how the world’s economy, foreign aid and major security decisions lies in the hands of the big US of A then I don’t know what will. If they fall, you bet that our little troubled Malaysia is going to fall deeper into the economic quicksand pool that we’re in now. And if you’re a Malaysian that is aware of how our currency has been acting up and HASN’T noticed how important capable leadership is to the betterment of a nation? Then like the wise Kylie Jenner once said, this year is all about realizing.
That aside, I think an important point that has commonly been overlooked is that at the end of the day, we’re all in a global network of nations that are linked to each other. We’re global citizens – we should care about what happens in other countries, we should care about the implications that affect other human beings regardless of where they are. Geographic boundaries should motivate you to expand your awareness not drop a barricade on it. There’s a fine line between looking out for the betterment of your life and choosing to practice ignorance.
As the votes were being tallied and it became evidently clear that the country was being wiped over with bright red, I was definitely frustrated. The only thing at that point of time that was running through my mind was, How could America make such a decision? Do they not care? Does a conservative mindset reign wherever I go?
And I suppose that’s when I realized that me not understanding these results meant that I was not looking at whole picture. As I scanned through demographics (race aside, because there’s not much question there on the tactics used to play that card) of age, education and income – I had to admit that the claims of many of Trump’s voters being “the older generation” and “not being educated” were said from a rather biased perspective. The percentage differences between the younger and older age groups were not significantly large, neither was the percentage difference between those who had received a higher education and who didn’t.
There were young, highly educated people who voted for Trump and at the same time did not identify with his sexist, racist and fascist claims. But not many on our feeds and timelines were giving them the time of day. Instead of being asked “Why”, they were drilled with “Why you shouldn’t”.
The media had a large part to play in the whole election game. Mainstream American media have always been under the scrutiny of being too liberal biased, however the whole credibility of being CNN, The New York Times or The Washington Post always seemed to outshine, hasn’t it? Throughout the whole election process, we’ve clearly seen the media endorse one side almost furiously – a big flaw in the vision of what media is supposed to be. Is it still called freedom of speech if opposing opinions are gunned down with labels of being “stupid”?
I suppose being called mainstream media doesn’t mean catering to a majority of a media-consuming nation but rather catering to the majority that gives the media the most money. And the results have clearly shown that those outside the bubble of ‘front-liners’ have had enough – and they don’t give a damn about what the media says. The relevance and their credibility of the media have clearly been undermined here. But how feasible is it for such an industry to NOT go where the money is and provide an objective neutral ground?
Or more so, how feasible is it to even get trusted sources of middle ground opinions?
You can’t exactly blame consumers for that now can you? People look to the media as quick way to keep up to date, not everybody will take the time to look at a news piece and research the many facets of it in order to make sure it’s an unbiased piece of information.
Put it this way – if your timeline shows only short little videos of Trump’s many blunders and shows nothing of Hillary’s, then you’re not really getting two sides of the story now aren’t you? You’ve just become another pawn in the game, a victim of skewered media projection.
The media is largely responsible for promoting the whole PC culture and simply creating an environment where nobody is really open for discussion anymore. It has depicted a scenario where if you don’t side with the media, you are clearly uninformed. America has proven that no matter how ‘free’ of a country you are, your media is somehow always going to be leaning towards the reigning system, the elite – who are the ones that make it seem like they are more socially aware.
This entire election has been an overthrow to the reigning system, which has led the urban tech savvy majority to believe that liberalism is the road to progressiveness. It’s an uprising from everyone who has been led to believe that his or her arguments are not rational and not relevant. It’s a clap back from the silent majority who were afraid to voice out who they stood with in fears of being mocked and ridiculed. It’s a message from those that the media called uneducated.
While everybody was so fixated on these media-blown click baits, very little attention was given towards the actual policies underlying each candidate. Very little attention was given to why these people needed those policies. When I look at the policies of both candidates, I can say that Trump’s doesn’t look too bad (Him actually carrying them out is a different story, but I can say the same about Hillary). I’m guilty of letting the media get to me in terms of what Trump has said and done. Upon realizing this and weighing the two, I found myself still opting for Hillary because she had the experience – which is something that all institutions in our system have pushed us to believe is the better choice.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (who is literally my idol) told CNN, when asked about her endorsement of Bernie Sanders as opposed to Clinton, that the American people need to “make a distinction between experience & judgement”
The only reason that I still find myself not fully convinced of Trump’s presidency is because of his character history that leaves me doubtful if he is capable of the right political judgement. However, I’m now more than open to witness the differences between candidate Trump and president Trump over the coming years. America has proven that their democracy is indeed working and that they are brave to challenge systems and change (although we have yet to see how anti-establishment he’s actually going to turn out to be). If he fucks up, I trust that America has the capability to vote him out in 2020.
To me, it looks like we’re just going to be thrown into a cycle that repeats itself over and over again. You start off conservative and you get angry about how it isn’t working, then you proceed to a more liberal point of view. Then you realize that it’s not working either and then you switch back to being conservative.
The problem behind having such a divided views where “Liberal is good, not liberal is bad” is that nobody is arguing about ways to find something that brings both sides together. Everybody is pushing for change but not changing the root of the problem, which is how the system fundamentally works, and it’s reached a point where our mindsets are so engraved into the system that shifting it seems almost impossible. At the end of the day, you see America ending each presidential term with a “Nothing much has been done during his administration” just as well.
Whatever said and done, this year’s election should be something that gives us Malaysians a little something to learn from. If Americans can be this fearless in seeking change, if Americans can be this brave to question the system and make the most of their democracy – what’s stopping us from doing the same?
