Trump candidature is cause for reflection - US don

Nov 08, 2016

“There is need to shake up the system as Trump says but destroying the nation is another thing."

The prospect of Donald Trump becoming America's 45th president  has not only made a mockery of   America stepping  into a post racial state in the wake of the election of its first black president but has also exposed dastardly skeletons in its cupboard.

To Dr. Christina Greer, an associate professor at Fordham University, the fact that Trump can attract support of a section of Americans "despite the misogyny, anti-Semitism, bigotry and fiery racial message is a cause for reflection."

"There is need to shake up the system as Trump says but destroying the nation is another thing. There is an angry section of his supporters, raising confederate flags and threatening violence.

"They have endured eight years under a black president and they feel they cannot stomach a woman president. He is awakening demons of the Ku Klux Klan," Greer said during an interaction with foreign press in New York on Monday.

Greer was making a submission on what to expect on Election Day and how America's intricate Electoral College system works.

 The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), or simply "the Klan", is the name of three distinct past and present movements in the United States that have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism and anti-immigration.

All three movements have called for the "purification" of American society, and all are considered right wing extremist organizations.

Before the abolition of slavery, KKK members, especially in the south, were the bane of African-Americans, routinely meting out unspeakable violence on them.

In May, KKK leader, the Grand Wizard endorsed Trump after the businessman- turned politician called for a tentative ban on Muslims entering America.

"Trump has tapped into raw racism that many liberal Americans thought had been consigned to history with Barack Obama's presidency," Greer added.

Throughout the campaigns, Trump has courted controversy with a strident anti-immigration message and fiery rhetoric that has at times rattled the top echelon of the Republican Party.

Trump has promised to of build a wall along the US/Mexican border to stem the influx of Latinos into the US - a move that many political pundits think might hurt him at the ballot.

The Hispanic community is one of the fastest growing in the US and the Republican Party would be keen not to allow Trump's ‘anti-Hispanic' sentiment to be associated with it.

For Jefrey Pollock, founder of Global Strategy Group (a think tank), the "base nature of the discourse during these campaigns has been truly damaging."

"These campaigns have flouted many known tenets of our democracy. But it's a one off,"  Pollock said as he expounded on the state of the race for the White House on Monday.

For the first time, candidates locking horns for the highest office in America declined to shake hands before and after a joint debate. Besides, Trump had initially vowed not to accept the election results if defeated.

Conceding defeat after presidential polls in the US is a long term tradition and even in the closest of contests like the one that pitted George Bush against Al Gore in 2000, this hallowed ritual has not been breached.


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