donaldThe important thing to learn from this time in human history is that appealing to people’s better judgement, their higher selves, their intelligence and sense of decency and right and wrong no longer works. If you appeal to their baser selves, their misogyny and irrationality, their hatred for the loathed ‘others’ (be they women, the minorities, advocates of social parity and gender equality), you can win elections and even the ticket to the White House. There is no bigger political currency than hate today. Or as powerful.

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The entire campaign  of the Clinton candidacy was about trying to speak up for those who were feeling threatened by a raging white supremacist even as attempts were made repeatedly to show his true colours to the voting public. Trump, the mimic of the physically disabled. The grabber of body parts with or without a woman’s permission. The racist who pointed at a man at a rally to say, “See..there is my Black American.” The paranoia monger who wanted to build a wall to keep out Mexicans and more than once insulted Muslim Americans and immigrants. The misogynist who wants women punished for abortion, who hinted that the upholders of the Second Amendment should take their guns and “do something” if Hillary wins. The man in whose rallies dissenters and protesters have been beaten up, where men and women have chanted “Lock her up..lock her up” with orgiastic loathing for his female rival.

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This is the man that every comic talent in America has mocked for his lack of intelligence, his ignorance of facts, his astonishing arrogance. But nothing worked. Why? Because those voting for him were not repelled by anything he did or said. For the simple reason that he is simply a mirror of who they are. He was maybe a figure of disdain for democrats and the mainstream media, a comic distraction for entertainers but what nobody saw coming was that he is truly the representative of a very large and very angry segment of Americans who have endured the sight of a black President in the White House for eight years, with clenched fists.

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They wanted their country back from what was mocked repeatedly by Trump as “political correctness.” They have craved the freedom to be seen and validated exactly as who they really are. White. Entitled. Hateful. Unapologetic about their pride in their skin colour, their guns, their ignorance. Resentful of “their” country being run by those who laughed at them, labelled them as unintelligent and crass racists. All the people who flooded the message threads with hate every time the Obamas featured in a news story as the worthy representatives of their country, called Michelle an ape and a tranny, abused her kids, called their President Muslim as an ultimate sign of disrespect, can now stand with pride, their heads held high in the clear light of the day when Trump takes his oath as the President of the United States. It is their time to shine. Their time to get back at eight years of secret shame and slow burning anger.

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Comedy talent Sarah Silverman was right when a few weeks back she said that what Trump has done is to reveal the faultlines, the dormant hate bubbling under the surface of America. A raging hate that justifies itself in the name of patriotism. What none of the political commentators got right was that Trump had not only revealed these faultlines but also empowered all those who were till now in hiding in the cracks. Well, this morning, they have empowered him right back to prove all calculations wrong.

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They have not voted him to make America great again. They have voted for him because only he gets them. Because only he can make them feel good about themselves again.  We in India should not be surprised by Trump’s rise. Not us. We have systematically made hate patriotic. Trump is only a mirror of what the world is becoming. Of what Britain became post Brexit. Of what we too have become. Isolationists. Exclusion experts. Selectively patriotic and sympathetic chest thumpers. Slogan mongers. Oblivious to those who are different from us. The ‘others.’ Be it the tribals and activists fighting for land rights in Bastar. Or lynched men suspected of beef eating. Or even the missing soldier post the much lauded surgical strikes. Or the soldier who killed himself recently. The student who disappeared. We do not question also the utter and complete protection enjoyed by land sharks and real estate lobbies. Or political opportunism because we did not vote for progress either.  That was just a fig leaf.
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We voted for the same reason that Americans have voted for Trump. To feel good about ourselves. So that our dormant selves can express themselves, be heard and be validated. The majoritarians in India who are celebrating Trump are welcome to a world of their dreams. The only issue is..they are always going to be in a minority there. Especially in Trumpland where the most oppressive shade of white has now claimed the White House despite eight years of stable governance by a black President. A woman never stood a chance. Nor did logic. Something shifted on its axis today. And it is time to accept that the most dangerous force in the world is ignorance fuelled by hate. And that evil can not be laughed out of existence or defeated with common sense. It must always be seen for what it is. Ugly. Unreasonable. And capable of achieving the most improbable upsets. George Carlin was right. Stupid people in large numbers must always be taken seriously. It is a lesson that America will relearn over the next four years.
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Reema Moudgil is the editor and co-founder of Unboxed Writers, the author of Perfect Eight, the editor of  Chicken Soup for the Soul-Indian Women, a  translator who recently interpreted  Dominican poet Josefina Baez’s book Comrade Bliss Ain’t Playing in Hindi, an  RJ  and an artist who has exhibited her work in India and the US and is now retailing some of her art at http://paintcollar.com/reema. She won an award for her writing/book from the Public Relations Council of India in association with Bangalore University, has written for a host of national and international magazines since 1994 on cinema, theatre, music, art, architecture and more. She hopes to travel more and to grow more dimensions as a person. And to be restful, and alive in equal measure.