Trump. Right. Okay, the world's gone nuts
Trump. Right. Okay, the world’s gone nuts
Donald
Trump’s president [-elect] of America now. I wanted to talk to you now while
everyone is sort of still delirious and in shock about it. We’ve talked about
Donald Trump quite a lot on The Trews
because he’s a fascinating media operator. He said such outlandish and
offensive things, but he’s antithetical to our times where politicians seem so
groomed and slick, even though in some ways he’s both groomed and slick,
because he has a sort of earnestness and rawness.
Take
even the first moment of his victory speech where he says, “Sorry I’m late.
Complicated business.” He obviously knows that this is taking place in
incredible adversity.
What
I’m fascinated by, though, is the amount of fear and anger that’s generated by
the victory, and how obviously reminiscent it is to Brexit in this country.
This for me, Donald Trump’s victory and the decision of Britain to leave
Europe, point to a phenomenon that’s really well outlined in an article by a
man called Thomas Frank in The Guardian
where he points to the idea that liberalism as a political system is failing so
many people that they have lost interest and lost faith. My own personal
feelings about it is that people no longer trust the people that say, “Hey, we’ll
look after you. It’s OK. Stay in Europe. We’ll be alright. Vote for Hillary
Clinton. It’s going to be better,” because the people that you’re talking to
are already living in a kind of post-apocalyptic world, for want of a better phrase.
You can’t tell people that it would be terrible if we leave Europe if the world
they live in is already terrible. You can’t tell people it will be terrible to
have Donald Trump in power if the world they live in is already terrible. They’re
not susceptible to that kind of threat.
Of
course, I’m of aware of the mad things he said about women, and the mad things
he said about Muslims, and the mad things he said about building walls. And
what I think is fascinating is that someone can say that and it makes no
difference. People still vote for him. How disenchanted, how disillusioned, how
dis-empowered can you be that this seems like a sensible alternative? My
interpretation is the only thing they actually cared about was change. Hillary
Clinton, whatever she was offering, whatever she was saying, is a political
affiliate of Barack Obama, who was already in power—Barack Obama, by the way,
who now seems sort of like Christ, doesn’t he, compared to the people
contesting this election? But let’s look at the last eight years and the kind
of things that are happening. And that’s why people are disillusioned because
they’ve seen that when it’s someone that seems affable and capable like Barack
Obama in the White House: still terrible unrest, still drone killings, still
terrible poverty, still no consequences for the people that exploited huge
numbers of ordinary Americans through the financial crash. We can’t keep
responding to events like this with more fear and anger. It’s fear and anger
that are creating these conditions.
There
was this yogi, whose name I really should learn, who said to Bertrand Russell
when Bertrand Russell was campaigning for nuclear disarmament... he said to
him, “What’s the point in us getting rid of nuclear weapons if we still have
the mindset that created the nuclear weapons?” Bertrand Russel said, “I don’t
want to talk about that. Let’s just get rid of nuclear weapons. You can’t blow
up the planet with a mindset.” But now forty years later, 50 years later, we
haven’t achieved nuclear disarmament. There are more weapons, and the point
that he was making is that Donald Trump for president of the United States is
sort of not what’s important. What’s important is the conditions that have
occurred in which Donald Trump becomes president. There’s no point in reacting “What?
Donald Trump is president!?” Yesterday the conditions existed for it happen,
and so they did two days ago, a month ago, a year ago, for the last ten to
twenty years they’ve been building towards this moment. And what it is, and
what I’ve always believed, what I’ve said very publicly, is the political
system doesn’t connect with people. People want change. People want to have
genuine power, so if someone comes along and says things like “I’ll drain the
swamp of Washington of all its corrupt lobbyists and affiliates,” that’s
appealing. My hope is that this victory for this sort of absurd and ludicrous
character who said these outrageous and offensive things... my hope is that we
will recognize that we have to provide an alternative. People have to provide
an alternative. It’s not enough to say, “Look, here’s Hillary Clinton. Be
grateful. Shut up.” People have had enough.
If
the Democrats could have Bernie Sanders now, of course they would have him—a
person who’s talking about socialism, a person who’s talking about fairness and
justice.
So
what I’ve taken from it is that this is a time where we have to, instead of
saying after Brexit, “Those bloody racists Brexited us,” we have to say, “Right,
let’s try to reach out and try to understand why people feel like this, and be
loving and not be presumptuous. Those of us that are privileged enough not to
be in financial trouble, that aren’t feeling the weight and the pressure of the
world, and looking for someone to blame and feeling like that so that when
someone like Donald Trump comes along and in his own easy, accessible,
TV-friendly way says it’s because of Muslims, Mexicans… so that when someone
like that comes along it seems appealing and attractive, we have to create a
world where Donald Trump isn’t necessary, and if we don’t create that kind of
world, don’t be surprised when Donald Trump becomes president. For the last
twenty years we’ve been creating the conditions where this was, as we now know,
inevitable because it has happened. Now we have to find alternatives, and I don’t
think it’s going to take place on the superficial, administrative level of
Washington or Westminster politics. It’s going to take place philosophically
and deeply. We have to change the way we treat each other, change the way we
see ourselves, change the way we talk about the world—significant change
because the people that voted for Brexit, the people that voted for Donald
Trump… even if people do think that immigration is the issue, then those of us
who don’t think that’s the issue have got a duty, haven’t we, to communicate in
a way that is understandable and accessible, not condescending and not
patronizing, why we believe that this is the wrong path for the world. We’re
talking to people that don’t have an awful lot to lose, so if you do feel
afraid, and disappointed and angry about it, try not to be. Try to be
optimistic because this had to happen. In the end we have to reach some kind of
climax, some sort of crisis, some kind of nadir where it is no longer possible
to continue in the way we have been.
What
I think the election of Donald Trump means is it is no longer possible to
pretend that politics is all right because look at it. Now look at it. Now you
see it. As Biggy Smalls would say, “If you don’t know, now you know.” I can’t
use the next word, not being an African-American man or woman, but those are
the sentiments I feel. If Hillary Clinton had become president… she’s a person
that did have those affiliations with the banks, that does want to go to war in
the Middle East, and there is stuff I don’t know very much about, but what I
suspect is we would not have got real change. With Donald Trump it is no longer
possible to ignore that real change is required.
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