Donald Trump interviewed in his office at Trump Tower, May 10, 2016, New York. Mary Altaffer \/ Press Association. All rights reserved.It has become commonplace to think that Donald Trump cannot
\nbecome president of the United States. The vulgarity of his style, the obvious
\nignorance of some of his ideas, the lies scattered without retraction and the unrealistic
\nproposals lead us to this conclusion. His megalomania is seen as madness. <\/i><\/p>\n
But Trump's discourse is coherent. It is based on
\nsaying things that a large part of American society thinks, and in proposing
\nsimple solutions to complex problems. This dual technique allows him to gain
\nfollowers among those who feel economically and ideologically marginalized and
\nto offer a decompression valve for social frustrations. Although it is
\nimpossible to implement his proposals, they generate a social outburst against
\npolitical elites that materializes in votes. His campaign is well calculated.<\/p>\n
Trump is the product of a number of trends. The first
\nis the chasm between citizens and politics in America. Many sectors of society
\nperceive that the so-called political class, with few exceptions, is
\nincreasingly distant from their interests. Representatives in Congress and the
\nSenate are seen as people with very high salaries linked to and supported by
\neconomic elites who work to serve their own particular goals.<\/p>\n
These objectives include tax or environmental laws
\nthat benefit them, complex regulations that allow them to evade taxes,
\nderegulated employment rules to facilitate dismissal and hiring of labour with
\nminimal or no social protection. Dissatisfaction also arises from the accurate
\nperception that governments and representatives have plunged the United States
\nover the past four decades into so-called \u2018globalization\u2019, promoting the
\nrelocation of production and total openness to trade.<\/p>\n
This has led to a crisis of the productive system.
\nChicago factories where wages are higher and unions stronger are closed down,
\nand reinstalled in China or Mexico, where they pay less and the rights of
\nworkers are repressed or nonexistent. At the same time, the US market has been
\nflooded with products manufactured in China and other Southern countries that
\npush prices down. The result has been rising unemployment and increasingly menial,
\ndead-end jobs, temporary contracts, underpaid and with a lack of social
\nprotection. Between 1979 and 2013 the average salary of white men without
\nhigher education fell by 21% (up 3% for women in the same sector). Yesterday\u00b4s
\nindustrial worker is today unemployed or a worker in precarious and lowpaid jobs.\n<\/p>\n
An analysis of the influential think-tank Chatham
\nHouse (London), indicates that Trump and the Democratic candidate Bernie
\nSanders have at the same time aroused different reactions among people who feel
\n"that they have been abandoned and excluded from the system." Xenia
\nWickett argues,
\n\u201cAmerica is unlikely to choose, and Republicans wouldn\u2019t permit, a
\nScandinavian-style social safety net, and the effects of technology and
\nglobalization are likely to increase the disparities between winners and losers
\nover time.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Dissatisfaction with the relocation of production has The second trend is ideological. Not all who are Within conservatism is a huge variety of Even more serious is the proliferation of armed groups These groups and many other organizations that make The Tea Party has been instrumental in creating the Trump and his team know all about the resentment Once he had achieved the first objective, he took on The third trend is inequality. The United States is at In parallel, the middle class is weakened and at the Trump plays very strongly in the symbolic field, Within this symbolism Trump exaggerates his gestures, Since the 1960s, American women have gradually gained By openly criticizing professional women (symbolically Shortly after launching his candidacy in June 2015, Taking advantage of the rise of the Islamic State and America was built on different migration flows and the By attacking the Latino community, Trump assumes he Even more than incarnating within himself the Trump's candidacy is also the Although Trump has great potential, it will not be But even if Trump does not reach the White House, his A previous Donald Trump interviewed in his office at Trump Tower, May 10, 2016, New York. Mary Altaffer \/ Press Association. All rights reserved.It has become commonplace to think that Donald Trump cannot become president of the United States. The vulgarity of his style, the obvious ignorance of some of his ideas, the lies scattered without retraction…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nalso produced a split among both industrialists and agricultural business\u00b4
\nsectors. Those who have had the ability to shut down production in the US and
\nreopen it in another country have made large profits. But many companies small
\nor medium size have not been able to find a space in global competition. This
\nhas led to deep resentment against \u2018politicians\u2019 in Washington, Congressmen and
\nofficials, who have promoted a model of global integration contrary to national
\ninterests, such as the Transpacific Economic Cooperation Agreement. A recent
\nreport in the New York Times<\/em> entitled
\n"How the Republicans lost voters in favor of Donald Trump" has a long
\nlist of complaints of entrepreneurs against the Republican Party, accusing
\nthem of becoming an accomplice of the elite. <\/p>\nThe
\nconservative rise <\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nembittered against the elites are marginalized workers or employers.
\nConservatism has strong religious, racial and class roots in the United States.
\nIn the last five decades the tension between liberal (which in Europe is called
\nprogressive) and conservative has intensified. While the former have become
\nmore moderate, embracing neoliberalism, the second
\nhave been, paradoxically, radicalized.<\/p>\n
\nnon-governmental organizations, foundations, universities, research centers,
\nopinion, individuals with different agendas and projects that target others.
\nSome business
\nsectors and individuals support
\nthese groups, including those who oppose all regulation on the right to bear arms,
\nthe right to abortion, in favor of banning the teaching of evolutionary
\ntheories in the educational system, and against the obligation to educate their
\nchildren in public or private school.<\/p>\n
\nagainst the entry of immigrants on the border with Mexico, and right-wing
\ngroups of Nazi ideology in favor of a return to the purity of the white race.
\nThese have proposed total closure to all immigration and mass expulsion. These
\nseemingly extravagant voices have increased
\ntheir influence since the 80s thanks to their access
\nto the media, creating their own radio and television, broadcasting and
\ninternet use of social networks. <\/p>\n
\nseemingly extravagant claims present themselves as marginalized and outcasts.
\nIn an
\narticle in The New
\nYorker<\/em> about the social base of Donald Trump, the leader of a group in
\nfavor of the purity of the white race explains their struggle to ensure that their
\nchildren in the future are not a "marginalized minority" in a multicultural
\ncountry "where Latinos and blacks are the majority\u201d. The fact that over
\nthe last decade the US President has been black and a democrat, and accused of
\nbeing "socialist" with \u201cradical Islamic ideas\u201d has only confirmed
\ntheir perceptions. Trump, of course, took an active part in the campaign
\nquestioning Obama\u2019s American credentials. <\/p>\nRevolt within
\nthe party<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nsocial base for Trump. This movement, born during the first presidency of Barak
\nObama, was critical in matching a
\nstrongly individualistic ideology to an extremely conservative anti-state
\nposition. The Tea Party is linked to many of those far-right movements in US
\nsociety. Although it has lost momentum in recent years, it continues to be a
\npowerful force among right-wing grass-roots. Trump, the
\nbusinessman-turned-politician has managed to articulate their demands in a
\npresidential candidacy and increasingly gained their pledges to vote. "Trump
\nhas never asked me for a dime and being self-funded he's the only one that can
\nblow up the Republican Party establishment," said
\nRalph King, a Trump
\ndelegate and member of the Cleveland Tea Party, to the Reuters agency: "If the primaries result
\nin a contested convention, I'm in his corner all the way." <\/p>\n
\nagainst political parties and have instrumentalized the Republican Party as a
\nplatform for two battles. The first, to stand as an entrepreneur, a manager, an
\noutsider within his own party. To show his heterodoxy he ventured to attack
\nGeorge W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, and the neocon ideologues for their attempts
\nto change regimes in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\nhis second battle: defeating Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic Party
\ncandidate. Although now she has an advantage of 10 points over Trump, if the
\nelections were held today the Democrat would have the problem of being seen as
\nthe quintessence of the elite which rejects Trump\u00b4s social base.<\/p>\n
\nthe top of the list of the most unequal societies in the world. That is, a minority
\n(the so-called 1%) accumulates more and more wealth, resources, markets, global
\ncapacity and control technologies (artificial intelligence, robotics) that are
\nrapidly replacing labor in many sectors. Some studies indicate that by
\nmid-century half of human labor in the US will be replaced by machines (and the
\ntrend is global). At the same time, 1% is becoming an idle sector that consumes
\nluxury goods without working.\u00a0 A study by
\nthe Boston Consulting Group indicates that
\nmachines, which now account for 10 percent of all manufacturing tasks, are
\nlikely to perform about 25 percent of them by 2025. <\/p>\n
\nbase of the social pyramid there is poverty and lack of access to deteriorating
\npublic services (education, health, transport). A series of recent studies, referred
\nto in The New York Review of Books<\/em>
\nunder the title, 'A bankrupt country', show the serious state which US
\ninfrastructure such as highways, railways, ports, public water and other public
\nservices are now in. But Republicans, who have a majority in Congress, have consistently
\nboycotted the attempts by President Barak Obama to access more
\nfunds to modernize these systems. <\/p>\nSymbology and
\nsexism<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\noperating on a series of different sectors\u2019 frustrations. In an increasingly
\nunequal society he introduces himself as a savior of the losers. His attacks
\nseem indiscriminate, but actually are designed to build an image of himself as
\na "businessman," a "man who has made himself" the son of
\nwhite immigrants, who is forced to become political and "speak out",
\nbroaching issues that politicians, accomplices, refuse to mention.<\/p>\n
\nwords and iconography. He has no hesitation in insulting other candidates for
\ntheir physical appearance (especially women), reminding them that in the past they
\nwooed him for his money (something that did happen, the Clinton
\nfamily included). He uses vulgar and popular language, show his closeness
\nto "people" and his distance from the so-called elite of Washington
\nand all liberal political correctness. At this point, his messages about women
\nare particularly significant.<\/p>\n
\nrights and access to economic, labor and political space. Today they have more
\nsay over their lives and their families. There is even a sector of professional
\nwomen who claim not to wish to marry and form families. However, several
\ngenerations of men believe that women have stolen their personal power in the family,
\nin social life, in the political realm and in the world of labor. But it is
\npolitically incorrect to suggest any such thing.<\/p>\n
\nfocusing his attention on a journalist of the right-wing Fox News<\/em> whom he has derided by associating her with menstruation).
\nTrump represents the male sector that has lost power, and a narrow-minded
\nmachismo. His image is carefully constructed. A traditional powerful man. So,
\nhe winks at men who resent the progress of women, and proposes a traditional
\nrole for women workers using his own family as iconography.<\/p>\nTargeting the
\nimmigrants<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nTrump introduced the idea of building a wall between Mexico and the United
\nStates (and forcing Mexico to pay for it). His argument in favor was that there
\nare criminals to be kept out, smugglers, rapists and "people with many
\nproblems." The figures show that crime is lower among first-generation
\nLatino immigrants than non-Latinos born in the United States, but this has not
\nprevented him from taking aim at Mexico. He has deliberately
\nused cases of white people who have had things stolen
\nor been attacked by illegal immigrants to whip up voter emotion. <\/p>\n
\nthe series of attacks in Europe and in San Bernardino (California), the
\ncandidate made a second proposal on immigration: that the entry of Muslims to
\nthe United States should be temporarily closed down, effectively rejecting out
\nof hand a broad spectrum of the population, from President Obama to Republican
\nspokesmen.<\/p>\n
\nnear elimination of the local indigenous population. The confrontation between
\nimmigrant communities has existed at various times since its foundation. Those
\nwho consider themselves founders of the state (mainly descendants of the British)
\nthink of themselves as \u201cmore American\u201d than the descendants of other cultures.
\nSlavery, the Civil War and the struggles for civil rights in the decade of
\n1950-1960, on the other hand left deep divides and unresolved problems.<\/p>\n
\nwill lose many of their votes (usually Latinos vote for the Democratic Party). But
\nhe hopes to win the support of those who believe that immigrants steal their
\njobs and the racists who fear that the Latin and Muslim (and black) presence will
\nswitch "American identity" leaving them "a minority in their own
\ncountry". Trump descends from a German family who went to America in the
\nlate nineteenth century. These attacks on Latinos try to make a fundamental
\ndistinction between the\u00a0 immigrant
\nfounders of the nation and the (new) upstarts. The first have created the
\nnation through their efforts; the latter have only come to rape and steal.<\/p>\n
\nsuccessful-founder-of-the-nation-descendent immigrant, Trump has had the
\ncapacity to evolve into a popular millionaire that like King Midas transforms
\ninto gold everything he touches. As Elisabeth Drew perceptively
\nconcludes, \u201cTrump is the first brand to run for
\npresident\u201d. <\/p>\nPolitics as
\nspectacle <\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nresult of mixing show-business, politics and sports (in
\nthe sense of turning every situation into a competition). This cultural trend
\nstarted in the US and is now globally widespread. Politics as spectacle has
\nmany expressions: angry shouting matches between so-called experts, real specialists
\nreplaced by commentators who can talk about everything. Reducing the time for
\nanalysis, media pressure to synthesize political explanations on twitter have
\nled to a devaluation of policy, and a rise of ideas that simplify complex
\nproblems. The real world is full of dilemmas; Donald Trump\u00b4s worldview is
\nlinear. The United States will be a leader if you put China in its place, if immigration
\nis limited, if the country is managed like a private company with a strong
\nhand, and if white men return to their proper role.<\/p>\n
\neasy to get to the White House. His victory in Indiana has shown that many of
\nthe senators, representatives and leaders of Republicans (such as former
\nPresidents George Bush and George W Bush) do not support him and are even opposed
\nto his nomination as a candidate. Clinton, meanwhile, is challenged because of her
\nbig links with the elite. <\/p>\n
\nrise is proof of the multiple and deep fractures suffered throughout the United
\nStates. Paradoxically, neither he nor Clinton seem able to solve those.<\/p>\n
\nversion of this
\narticle was published in Spanish by Radio France International. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"