Discussions about Trump's Ascending
There are still many arguments even in Japan about why Donald Trump was elected as US president.
Some critic wrote that it was not poor whites but rich or educated whites and white women that truly contributed to Trump's victory. Another critic specialized in diplomacy wrote that it was anti-Washington and anti-elite whites, mostly white workers, that helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
But there seems to be less arguments made from the racial point of view in Japan. The racial issue is one of the themes in which Japanese intellectuals do not have much interest and insight. However, I think the 2016 US Presidential Election should be reviewed from this point of view.
Obama has occupied the White House for eight years as the first African American president. He has been the highest-ranked representative of the American people though still about 70% of the Americans are white or the like. It must have invite some strong reaction from white Americans who don't regard themselves as the same kind of human beings as African Americans.
From the beginning, there were very special and rare conditions when Barack Obama was elected as president. His predecessor W. Bush made many and various mistakes. He made up false evidence that Saddam Hussein had been linked with Al Qaeda. He could not successfully chase and take on Osama bin Laden while his father, the former President W.H. Bush, had a business tile with the bin Laden family. Bush's linkage with the Enron top management was also revealed. And, further, President Bush could not prevent the subprime loan scandal and the subsequent 2008 Financial Crisis triggered by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. What is worse, the US economy eventually plummeted down as symbolized by the bankruptcy of GM, resulting in about 10% unemployment rate. So, most of American white workers who faced a threat of unemployment came to opt for a clever African-American president to a precarious white president from an elite family. Disappointment and disillusion with white elites among white workers pushed Obama to US presidency.
However, as time went by, the memory of Bush's presidency has become a history. It is as if Obama's mission were completed with the execution of Osama and recovery of the US economy. The very rare emergency period was now gone. White workers don't need a clever African American president any more. Now they have come to think that the one who represents them as US president must be one of them, white people.
This trend has been also driven by antagonism toward intellectual elites one of whom is Obama. Obama had to be one of intellectual elites to become US president despite his racial identity. Antagonism to Obama is intensified by that fact that he is also one of intellectual elites that include Bill and Hilary Clinton.
So, Trump who is white and looks like anti-intellectual elites has become their choice.
And, it is also why the American mainstream media failed to correctly predict the outcome of the Presidential Election. Elite whites working in elite media companies could not grasp the moods, feelings, and antagonism white workers had deep in their minds and hearts.
Indeed, an African American who is an intellectual elite can be US president, but it is only during a very exceptional period. But the period of the dark aftermath of the 9/11 Terror and the War on Terror and the gravest US economic crisis since the Great Depression in 1930s has gone. Now, white American workers don't need a black president and an intellectually elite or progressive president.
That is why American white workers and racially proud whites, including rich whites, educated whites, and white women, have overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump over Barack Obama and the Clintons.
However, in a sense, history repeats itself. The US might face another 9/11 Terror and another financial crisis under Trump's presidency. And, anther disenchantment with white presidents might pave the way for another very unique American, in terns of race and probably religion, ascending to US presidency.
Only God knows.
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Luk 1:5 THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.