I combed the archives of history, entering the bowels of information banks in order to harness the necessary information to confirm my thoughts that the object of my investigation is not flawed, giving me ample ammunition to categorically say without fear of contradiction that no Caribbean constituency would elect a Donald Trump-like person to Parliament.
This would include Jamaican garrison constituencies of the 1970s and mid-1980s when the voting privilege of individuals living in those constituencies was no more common than making milk from piped water, and the affiliated party that controls that garrison is assured of victory.
I will further add if any of the region’s scores of billionaires (Jamaican currency) wish to seek elected office and be a replica of Donald Trump, they could spend the rest of their lifetime counting sand grains from a teacup than ever be elected to public office.
As is often believed, “trouble has no expiration date”. We must add to that list accountability by our politicians to the citizenry, and place in the dustbin of history our political differences, weave a spirit of harmony amongst ourselves to forge a bond to work for the good of our countries, all while knowing that the less than 120,000 square miles of land mass with under 10 million people can be transformed into utopia through concerted effort by all of us.
We must acknowledge how fortunate we are to have so many West Indians making positive impressions in various fields of endeavour worldwide, making our countries holiday destinations for millions all over the globe. Most of all, despite numerous missteps by our politicians we have set such a high standard for electing them that a candidate like Donald Trump, by virtue of his behaviour, could never walk the halls of our Parliament as a member, yet the same Trump is on the verge of being the presidential nominee for the US Republican Party.
Not because the American electorate’s standard is no less than ours, but some of their politicians have hijacked their principles, they have become victims of racism because some members of the party who believe a black person – President Barack Obama – should not be chief executive maximised efforts to sabotage his presidency. They have created a monster of their own making.
That could be just the right medicine for the Republicans to feel the error of their ways. America still has the best democracy in the world, and contrary to Trump’s criticism, he wants to make America great again, if he can tell the rest of us which country, as defined in greatness, is greater than America.
Who is Donald Trump? A very successful real estate magnate whose real net worth is said to be under US$5 billion; an entrepreneur bordering on the pinnacle of being very successful monetarily. This is the plus side of the man.
Trump the presumptive presidential nominee will prove difficult to derail as he is the medium to reset the Republican Party’s moral code of ethics. His job could be completed as the nominee.
Trump is a lion of discord. He has ignited the spark of racist, xenophobic feelings by a small portion of the electorate whose idea was already tainted, and who were awaiting the opportunity to unleash their pent-up anger against their representatives in Congress and the Senate. Their anger reached tipping point when President Obama gained a second term, amassing over 63 million votes. They created anti-Obama groups, their intentions veiled by the birth of the Tea Party and a Birther Movement created by Donald Trump. It was intended to create civil unrest with the intention to disqualify the president, saying he was not an American.
The Republican lawmakers in both Houses set out to oppose every single bill that had the president’s approval on it. The objective: He must be a one-term president. When that failed they still pursued their ambition. The president must fail because of his colour. Trump responded to the cry of some of the elected Republicans and voters, giving birth to his destructive path to the presidential nomination, at which point his moments of glory will be terminated by the electorate who, like the majority of the world’s population, would not want to spend four years of fearful uncertainty during a Trump presidency.
In keeping with an old adage, ’The voice of the people is the voice of God’, the Republican Party’s self-destruct mode could be a blessing in disguise, as it would give the party the opportunity to reconfigure its tattered image and ideology that are alien to the interest of the people. Trump as nominee will guarantee the Democrats a safe passage to the presidential triple, which eluded the Democrats for nearly 80 years. The Republicans have contrived their own destruction through obstructionism, non-commitment to the people’s interest and their display of racism against the first black president in the country’s history.
Let us focus on a Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. I will pose these questions. Within the dictates of your own conscience, ask yourself if any political aspirant could get your vote if they made these utterances, not to mention his abusive remarks when he loses a race, his overuse of pronouns, his stinginess with the truth. Were your candidate very wealthy and behaved like a Donald Trump, would you vote for him?
Trump, speaking about a debate on
Fox News, in reference to moderator Megan Kelly who asked him some tough questions, said: “You could see blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.’’
He also said: “Mexico is sending lots of people that have lots of problems, they are bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, they are rapists.”
He called for the deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants, showed disrespect to a disabled news reporter and mocked him. He also mocked the accent of Asians. He is also reported as telling a friend that you have to treat women like “s..t”.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, can you seriously see this man as your president? I hope the answer is a loud, resounding ‘No’.
Mr Trump also wants to ban Muslims from entering the United States, except the very rich ones. At a mass rally he declared he wants to bomb (expletives) out of ISIS, and took his vulgarity up a notch by calling Ted Cruz a “p…y’’. If that was not enough, during a debate he said he would guarantee that there was no problem with the size of his member in response to Marco Rubio’s mention of his small hands.
He also would expect the military to follow orders to torture detainees suspected of terrorism, including family members of terrorists.
When a protestor was escorted from his rally, Trump said he recalled the good old days when he would be carried out on a stretcher, and declared that he would like to punch him in the face.
Would you be comfortable with the aforementioned comments from your member of parliament or prime minister?
— Tony Miles is an author and freelance writer.
SOURCE: Jamaica Observer
