The prospect of a President Donald Trump has panicked a major subset of the United States population. The vast majority of US elites, the politically correct, white liberals, a majority of the US media, the billionaire class, blacks and Hispanics all appear horrified at the thought that Mr. Trump could soon be living in the White House.
Now “Trump fever” is real: Some say there has been a significant increase in mental and psychological issues since his rise. In a Sept. 23 Slate magazine article titled, “Fear, anxiety and depression in the age of Trump,” Michelle Goldberg wrote that therapists and their patients are struggling to cope amid the national nervous breakdown that is the 2016 US election.
The symptoms of “Trump fever,” she wrote, include, “anxiety, nightmares, digestive problems and headaches.” San Francisco psychotherapist Fiachra O’Sullivan, who specialises in relationships, has stated that since Mr. Trump’s arrival on the political scene, people are distressed and that this distress is affecting their relationships. A photographer in Minneapolis began to notice headaches, jitteriness, and difficulty breathing. She went to see her doctor, who diagnosed her with anxiety.
Trump fever includes whole communities feeling anxiety. Blacks worry about the physical safety of their communities under a President Trump. Mr. Trump has stated that under a Trump presidency the police would be much tougher, with new stop-and-frisk powers.
Many women feel that under a Trump presidency romance will suffer from a new rise in male chauvinism. There is a belief that the rise of Mr. Trump will validate behaviours in men such as self-aggrandisement, self-importance, non-cooperation and non-collaboration with their wives and partners. Many women further feel that under President Trump women would become defined solely by their physical features. Smart and assertive women would be frowned upon by a new Philistine American culture driven by Mr. Trump, where male dominance would once more become the norm.
Depressed anti-Trump voters believe that there is possible calamity on the horizon.
‘Enormous momentum’
Now, there is no doubt that Mr. Trump has enormous momentum presently. The big question among the political pundit class is whether this momentum will carry him into the White House. Mr. Trump was caught flat-footed by Hillary Clinton in the presidential debate of Sept. 26. However, that debate does not appear to have stopped his momentum. Why? Because Trump is all emotion while Ms. Clinton is all head.
America’s white working class and a significant subset of America’s white middle class are pissed off with elites in politics, business, media, foreign policy and academics. Ms. Clinton with her plastic smile and condescending manner probably pissed them off further during the recent debate. She represents all that these voters are against.
She is the consummate insider, having been at the center of US power for the past three decades. The 2016 election is becoming an election of change. It is about the American worker giving the proverbial middle finger to the elites. It is all emotion. Voters will be walking into the voting booth in November and voting with their gut, not their heads.
To understand the Trump phenomenon, one must visit a Trump rally. In a Sept. 26 Politico article, Michael Grunwald described Trump’s rambling; his fear mongering; and his name calling. A Trump rally, he posited, is a “revival meeting of the Donald J. Trump Church of Cultural Resentment.”
A Clinton political meeting, on the other hand, is the polar opposite. Crowds are carefully selected to avoid protest and surprises. Speeches are standard campaign fare. Ms. Clinton talks policy. She sticks to a prepared text, and she cannot match the electricity at a Trump rally. Mr. Trump’s crowds wait with giddy anticipation for their hero. They go mad with anger when he shames enemies. They explode when he calls out the dishonest media. They go even crazier when he attacks the “job-stealing Chinese,” illegal immigrants and Islamic terrorists.
Mr. Trump is a comedian and a demagogue rolled into one. His supporters at his monster-truck rallies love his flagrant abuse of facts — and his defiance. They believe that no one controls him. They state that Mr. Trump will call a spade a spade, that he is fighting the forces of political correctness. “Trump is saying what we are all thinking,” they scream. Mr. Trump fuels ugly stereotypes about blacks, Muslims and Latinos, and his supporters love him for it. Many of his supporters believe that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim.
Nevertheless, a President Trump is far from a “done deal.” Enthusiasm alone will not get him into the White House. There is also much enthusiasm against the Trump phenomenon. There is cause and effect. The US has never been more polarised.
Blacks are angry at Mr. Trump’s crusade to deny that Barack Obama, the first black president, is a US citizen. They are angry at his description of black families as desperate charity cases. Hispanics are angered by his call for mass deportations and his insinuations against Mexicans.
Election 2016 has been described as Ms. Clinton mud wrestling with a pig. Both have got dirty. The bigger problem for Ms. Clinton is that Mr. Trump’s political brand is all about breaking rules. He is the “candidate of change.” If Americans place change at the head of their list of political priorities, then Ms. Clinton is in deep trouble.
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