The big political takeaway from the US presidential election is not who won it. That the deserving candidate is well on his way to winning is a fact. But, going ahead, what matters in terms of the impact on the future politics of America and other democracies around the world, including India, is that Donald Trump received almost half of all popular votes. Now, how the hell could that happen?
More questions follow. Why have nearly 70 million (seven crore) Americans voted for a man seen as a buffoon; a manic, greedy, power-hungry, corrupt tax-dodger and serial sexual predator; and somebody who arguably weakened the country globally and nearly ceded its pre-eminence as the global superpower in a unipolar world to China?
This is also what almost every think-tank worth its logo told us for years. Every pollster, psephologist, chastened by having been shown up by Trump in 2016, pre-scripted an easy win for Joe Biden. They also promised us a blue wave sweeping Trump and the detritus of his “reprehensible” politics away into the gutter of American political history.
Did anybody imagine he would make the race this tight, that so many voters would come out on his call in spite of the pandemic, that he will still wrest Florida, North Carolina and take Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada to the wire? Donald Trump? The proven lunatic?
Just what’s wrong with Americans? That’s a question we would hear often. It is also a political point that will endure even more than this result. Imagine this result as if the coronavirus pandemic had not hit the world and been handled so badly by Trump in America. Wouldn’t he then have swept this election in a giant red wave that would redefine not just America’s but the world’s politics?
That is the scenario Narendra Modi and his counsels had conjured up when he walked around holding Trump’s hand at ‘Howdy, Modi!’ in Texas. Nobody then knew there was the virus in the works in Wuhan. Except, on the outside of the realm of possibility, Xi Jinping.
America’s handling of the pandemic has been the worst in the world. Trump’s America ‘wins’ on sheer data. Never mind that his country has the most extensive and modern health infrastructure in the free world. He trivialised the challenge, plugged unproven prescription drugs at his press conferences, politicised the mask, and was caught by the virus. There will be only one description for his performance: Shambolic. It deserves to be put in all capital letters, but the reason we are shy of doing that is we do not want anything in ‘National Interest’ looking like a Trump tweet.
And yet, in town after town away from the metros, in village after village, especially in ‘red’ heartland America, very comparable in its policy affiliations to India’s Hindi heartland, people in the worst-affected places, states and counties have come out in greater numbers than ever before, and voted for Trump, their confirmed tormentor.
Also read: Why counting of votes in US presidential election has been a long-drawn & complicated affair
The reason we call this the most important takeaway from this election is that it underlines a growing, and whether we like it or not, maturing phenomenon in democracies.
That is, if a demagogue has the skill and the cheek to build a dominant majority’s latent insecurities into a victim complex, he can build an impregnable base. See, for example, the incurable minority complex of Hindus in India. Especially in the Hindi region and two key states of the western region, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Trump, like Narendra Modi in India, waded in to take over a conservative party of the Right and completely rewrote its philosophy, ideology and agenda around the most marketable aspects of his own personality.
Both have challenged — and mocked — political correctness and elitism, though in their own different ways. Both have succeeded in prising the working classes, even the so-called underclass, away from their ossified, old Left-Socialist fortresses.
The standout Trump statement in one of his many angry statements in the counting days was his call to the working classes of America. Very similar is that to the new politics Modi has built at least for the past 6 years, always seeming to be doing something for the poor, delivering it efficiently, and vacuum-cleaning the upper crust with ever higher taxes.
Trump has taken the Republican Party by the neck and dumped everything it stood for: Free trade, liberal immigration, globalisation, low tariffs, worldwide power projection and policing — everything except low taxes. Modi is course-correcting now, woken up by an economy in free fall, but his first six years weren’t any different. The BJP used to be a party, we thought, of free enterprise, privatisation, low taxes, wealth creation and so on. All that was put in the freeze, until now.
We talk about Modi and his politics often enough. So, let’s keep the focus on Trump and what his political success teaches. America has now seen the rise of a new ideology: Trumpism. Given the way he is, even if defeated, he won’t fade away like America’s traditional former presidents. Because nothing about him is traditional. As a political phenomenon, he is sui generis. You’ve got to live with his legacy. And not just in America. Because politicians across the democratic world will learn from him. His shadow will not easily leave the Republicans. Nor would his family.
Also read: How Biden is sustaining a lead in US elections, Trump’s ‘shy voters’ & why polls can be wrong
The finest minds in the American and Western media, with all their political experience and scholarship, failed to adequately appreciate Trumpism’s impact, just as so many of us in India can’t fathom, or accept, Moditva’s.
Could that be because we still carry an overload of the notion that the only way to keep winning is to make people better off? Didn’t Bill Clinton tell us, “It’s the economy, stupid”? If so, how could Modi get an even bigger majority in 2019 in an already struggling economy, or Trump so many votes exactly on the day his country was counting its second-highest number of coronavirus cases?
Let’s flip that question. Alright, you can’t make your people better off. But can you make them feel better? That is where the more touchy-feely, emotional aspect of culture, religion and identity comes in. At this point in democratic politics across borders, that is winning. That is why even a Centrist like Emmanuel Macron is talking the way he is. Rising wokeness is the fuel driving this populist demagogy.
Mark the words the famous CNN anchor Anderson Cooper used for Trump: “We see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realising his time is over.” How do you think Trump’s base sees it? Of course, as evidence that all Trump says about elitism is right. It is the same when English-speakers here laugh at Modi for not being able to spell ‘STRENGTH’ correctly. It makes his base, built on cultural identity and abhorrence of elitism, even more loyal. Trump, if anything, has been made fun of a million times more than Modi. And in public, not whispers. Now you know why nearly half of America, a lot of it working class, still turns up to vote for him.
Also read: Biden as president will be good for India, perhaps not that good for Modi
Every one knows that modi and trump are totally different personalities. Putting them together in one basket just to carry on your prejudices is not right.
You rightly point out the ways in which right-wing racism/ethnicism acts as a lightning conductor up and down the social scale to coalesce the discontents of the nation around a convenient set of scapegoats, but one thing you didn’t mention is how bad the official opposition in all countries afflicted by racist-nationalist populism has been.
The US Democrats, a monumentally corrupt set of Ancien Regime figures and organizations concerned solely with keeping control of the money-making machine, have been far more active in trying to fight progressives in their own ranks than they ever were with fighting Trump – so-called ‘blue dog’ Democrats have continued to vote for the worst Trump policies throughout his reign. In India, Congress is nothing more than a rump medieval fiefdom worshipping at the feet of the Gandhis, bereft of ideas and energy.
In the UK, the ‘Labour antisemitism’ fraud was wheeled out to keep the Labour party subservient to the Usual Suspects, and had Bernie had the misfortune to win over Biden he would have been subjected to the same howling storm of faux-antisemitism generated by the right-wing political establishment in the Democrats as well as the GOP… the lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden, the insider’s insider, was caused by a mass of US voters choosing the thief rather than the fascist, as the French did in 2002.
‘you didn’t mention is how bad the official opposition in all countries afflicted by racist-nationalist populism has been.’
Actually, that was also the case when Hitler got elected. Paul von Hindenburg the President of the Weimar Republic became ineffectual in his later years and made the ground for the public to select strongman Hitler – which then paved the ground for Germany’s self destruction.
Likewise the public have laid the corrosive decline of their countries by offering a platform to Trump and Modi .
What racism? Donald Trump being racist is a lie perpetrated by the very left-leaning media.
The only President who in the last few decades did not start an overseas war and actually wanted to reduce overseas military involvement of American forces now voted out. The only President who wished to normalise relations with Russia and did not start a shooting war with N. Korea now out of office. Now guess it’s going to be back to the good old days, playing nasty overseas, demonising Russia and Iran, sucking up to dictatorships and generally making a mess.
That is the paradox. Trump was so vile in his confrontational approach, that any good points got lost.
This article came close, but just missed the mark. In fact, it missed the mark buy one word! That word is religion.
Trump, Modi, and their ilk win due to religious populism. Politics is the last refuge of scoundrels.. and religion, the last refugee of politicians!!
Even Trumpism may go the way Trump is set to go. For now the game is over for him. The whole country is celebrating Biden’s victory over him. Soon after he leaves office, and loses his immunity, he would be facing about a dozen lawsuits, civil as well as criminal. If convicted for wilful tax evasion, and frauds, he could be led away from the court in handcuffs. If this happens, Trumpism would be gone too. As one opinion columnist writes in New York Times (NYT), “He will be cast out of the White House, disgraced, to meet his creditors and New York criminal investigators.” Another NYT columnist has written, “Donald Trump himself may fume, but hated and alone. The opportunists who make up his administration will abandon him. Republicans will pretend they never heard his name. Republican politicians are not going to hang around a guy they privately hate and who publicly destroyed their majority.”
Trumpism will not go the way of Trump. The underlying cause for the rise of Trumpism is the shrinkage of the white population with reduction of Anglo Saxon control. Their population is 74% if you include the Hispanics as whites; it is 60% if you only have Caucasians defined as whites. The whites fear they will become a minority – and that will happen in the next 30 years. Patrick Buchanan , a former Republican candidate for Presidency had predicted this in his book ‘The Death of the West’. In his view, a country must have a core civilisation – and for the US, he saw that as white, Christian civilisation. However, the fertility of the whites is < 2.1 per couple, the minimum required for replenishment. Hence, the white population is shrinking; they are a victim of their own success. As the population is shrinking, they bring immigrants. Trump wanted immigrants from Norway, but Norway's population is also shrinking. If you bring in non-white immigrants, there is balkanisation of the country. It is this white angst that fueled Trump, and it is not going to go away. Trump was undone by corona and his inept handling. Thus, Biden may rule, but the white nationalist resentment will bubble under. It is a bleak future for the US, as it is a country where people can get arms, and the white nationalists will fight. They think there is great white replacement programme organised by the Jews. The only other solution is that the people evolve and accept that skin colour and differences in culture can be overcome and you can have a common minimum programme. But I do not see that happening.
History will judge who the buffoons are? Trump on one hand or the media personalities like Shekar Gupta, editors of the NYT/WP and their likes on the other hand. Left wing news outlets in US are made up of patented crooks. They effectively suppressed the bribery charges against Sr and Jr Biden. $50000 a month for directorship to someone who doesn’t know ABC of oil business. Jr Biden looks like a copy cat of Karthhick Chidambaram of Strategic Advantage consulting fame.
Humm..it is not as simple as that – Both in India and the US, polity is almost hijacked by the deep state – essentially a duplicate leftist narrative.
Both are rebels – and rank outsiders – and people feel that. People are not that idiot that you assume they are. Another leftist assumption.
So things did not go according to your fascist wishes, so there must be a leftist plot.
SG’s article is surprisingly good.
The response from the Hindus here is surprising and yet not surprising. They are trying to explain Trumpism and his white racism by claiming he is the aam aadmi’s answer to ‘woke liberals’ – although the white racism will target them eventually. The term ‘woke liberal’ is used in the same derisive sense against liberals and the left, as ‘pseudo secular’ in India (a term coined by the Hindu fascist Advani).
I tell all these right wing apologists for white fascism and Hindu fascism that fascism has nothing but hate, intimidation and violence. It has not succeeded anywhere, and it will be the same in US or India, or Germany. You have nothing to offer other than resentment, hate, intimidation and violence.
From the mid 1990s, the Democrats were pursuing a policy of pampering the upper middle class, instead of the bulk, working class. They were helping enrich the top 1% that owns 90%. Trumpism came to tap into the resentment of the failing low-end whites. Ironically, the party of multi billionaires like Trump arose to fill in the vacated space – he came to rail against the elites. But how ? By feeding and whipping up white racism against Mexicans, blacks and all non-white. The slogan MAGA is nothing other than making America white again.
The key factor which drove Trumpism, that SG did not note, is the fear amongst whites that the white population is shrinking. This is an unalterable demographic fact, and it is feeding militant ‘white nationalism’. The white population is shrinking because they do not want children. The whites feel they are going to be taken over. Demographic changes is the actual reason Trumpism will stay and will come back with more virulence after Biden’s term. Trump has made racism respectable, as racists have been told it is just standing up to ‘woke liberalism’.
The American Hindus here who are speaking the language of white nationalists and railing against ‘woke liberalism’ and elites, don’t seen to realise that the white nationalists will not exclude them from their hate and violence. Only the liberals will defend you.
The same with Moditva. It came to champion the interests of the majority Hindus which was being supposedly waylaid by minorities, and liberals. with their pseudo secularism But the solution on offer is not ‘real secularism’, it is only incitement to hate and lynch mobs. There is no development even for Hindus. The majority of Hindus will remain slum dogs. Only Amabani and Adani will get richer. But dumb bhakts will continue thinking Hindu pride is standing up to Muslims and liberals who support them.
Issue is not with Trump or with America, Issue is with syndicate which feels they are the torch bearers of TRUTH, After vicious campaign against Trump and projected his defeat, he actually showed what AMERICA required. Either be it AMERICA or INDIA a set of people feel they are elite intellectually, educated, liberal and superior to others. Its basic problem in society. Its sad that people who cant understand or accept the TRUTH today are running Journalism through out the world.
Trump himself was from an elite – he was a corrupt, self centred money bag, that is all. How did he fight the elite and help the non-elite ? By promoting white racism, and white exceptionalism. That can get people hooked – they become blind bhakths, always in a rage against liberals so that they can feel comfortable in their minds that their racism is correct.
Hence, cut out your fake sense of injury against a liberal elite. Your rage against liberals is used as a cover for right wing wickedness. The liberals are the torch bearers of truth, they are the educated thinkers. You can raise yourself to their level, and not dumb down.
Trumps and Modis can only raise mobs for violence and intimidation. There is no other performance. A successful,society is built and guided by its intellectuals, and not by its street mobs. Street mobs will never be alternatives to liberals and intellectuals.
Many Americans are voting Trumps even knowing his bad character and reckless disastrous policies, simply out of frustration for corrupted duopoly Dems-Rep that are only working for richest1% against bottom 90%. They loved to see how unorthodox Trumps smash and tear up the hypocrite PC swamps.
Whereas, most Indians are just illiterate and easily fooled by snake oil selling politicians to trust corrupted RSS BJP Hindutva will bring a better future for them. They are easily contented with a superpowder dream painted by Godi, using Russia space rockets to dump a trash on moon, fire some Russia hypersonic missiles, fly a few France Rafael,…threaten a 2.5 fronts war, a faked surgical strike on Pak and bloody nose for China,…
There are still a different in aveIQ98 Americans and aveIQ82 Indians.
Well written analysis. Both Trumps & Godi won on popularism and nationalism, surrounded by bunch of clowns implementing disastrous policies.
Trumps run on platform of MAGA & anti migrants. Godi twisted on Hindutism & anti-muslism. Both are great talkers with Teflon capability to repel all their disastrous policies responsibility to others.
Both are laughing stocks entertaining the world, grooming violence supporters, and have never shy away to do whatever their predecessors never dare to.
Trumps had exited many international bodies, reneged on many deals and treaties like TTP, Iran JCPOA, STARTS, INF, WTO, WHO, Paris Climate, etc. He moved US Embassy to Jerusalem in great controversy, that all past US Prez promised as election promise but none dare to realize. He made lot of brinkmanship on trade & hot war with China, Russia, Iran, NK, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, ….
Godi also exited RECEP, sabotaged SCO, BRICS, BRI, abolishing of Article 370 to illegally annexed J&K against UNSC ruling, legistrate land sales of Kashmir, anti-Muslim CAA (a dream of Israel to annex Palestine it never dare to fulfill). Godi also love brinkmanship on wars with Pak & China, and regime change of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh.
The only different is Trumps is fighting against deep states and establishment that control all MSM and social media. His only communication tool is Twitter, yet it always censored a Prez twit. Dems Jewish cabal like George Soros even staged antifa, BLM, COVID protest, riots…to damage Trumps election chance. Their controlled alphabet agencies also spied and sabotaged against Trumps administration, rigging vote against Trumps.
Whereas Godi is lucky to have great control to entire India media, back by a huge brigade of internet trolls to make him a saint, backed by a Israel Mossad election campaign team that also rigged Electronic Voting Machine. Hence twice landslide wins for Godi RSS BJP.
Excellent analysis SG. I am often critical about your ambivalent articles. But this is clear. And you have pointed out the similarity between Trumpism and Moditva. The common feature is an enraged bhakth base. In the US, the white nationalist, in India the Hindu nationalist. None of them have a solution, none of them is better off, but their rage is sufficient.
This is completely jerk off kind of article. Don’t disagree with this at all.
Immigration of cheap labour+Outsourcing of manufacturing to China+MAGA+onshoring of jobs+H1B
these are real challenges America faces today. If they continue with outsourcing to China, they are hollowing out their super power status with dangerous impact on their national security.
One day they will remain only superpower in wall Street finance, with bunch of billionaires, and strong university research. But without jobs they are facing unprecedented demographic disaster.
Trump was correcting this.
If Biden continues China trade then he will be the foolish president of the century.
Trump actually performed well on concerns of Americans.
Now let’s see how it I painted ideologically-
Racist white men+ Conservatives-this is left portrayal of Trump supporters. Direct attack to delegitimise them.
What liberals are doing-Outsource+Cheap labour+Identity politics but limited jobs for elites like in media with unemployment stuff. They do this under lofty ideals of liberalism.
WAKE UP.
REALITY IS- TRUMPISM is distraction used by media to hide real ISSUES. Label it racist and discredit it.
This is bad for India too. While h1b may sound good but it is only narrow interest. Focus on broad interests of India.
How stup id to hint that Biden is better performer than Trump. If the author didnot have time to read about Biden’ s performance over last 50 years then at least he should have seen Biden speaking in Rallies over last 6 months on You tube.
As far as coronavirus and its handling by Trump, however bad it was, 48% of his voters approved of his handling of the virus! his voters thought he did a good job of handling it! Here is a quote from a column in New York Times, ” ……. Despite the coronavirus pandemic and the related economic toll, 41 percent of voters said they were doing better than when he took office, compared with only 20 percent who described themselves as worse off. Adopting his priorities, 35 percent of voters named the economy as the most important issue, twice as many who cited the pandemic. Fully 49 percent said the economy was good or excellent, and 48 percent approved of his government’s handling of the virus.” This is like Modi’s demonetisation idea. No matter how bad it was, and how much damage it did to the economy, the voters thought it was good for country and for them., and gave him votes!
But still, close to 50% (70 million) voters voting for this mad man tells a lot about Johnny the voter. One can understand their frustration with the liberal elite and its policies, but still Trump was not the right man to vote for. There were ways and means they could have communicated with the elite. As you rightly say Trump ” …… weakened the country globally and nearly ceded its pre-eminence as the global superpower in a unipolar world to China”, then his wacko voters were his enablers, and share responsibility for the damage Trump did to the country. The founders of the county didn’t trust their wisdom, and gave the country electoral college, which has its own drawbacks.
Hello Shekhar,
The elites which may include you and me should realize that the world is not exactly as we view and depict. We should not treat common man as a brainless fool, full of emotions; the main reason why communism failed all over the world.
I am no fan of Mr. Trump and the obvious thought after the results started coming out was to think of it as a white vote. And now you learn that Mr. Trump received lot more votes (vis-à-vis 2016) from Latinos and Black men. It seems that the unprecedented level of employment created by Mr. Trump favorably impacted lives of millions including Latinos and Black irrespective of Mr. Trump’s character as you described.
For Mr. Modi, all you have to do is read your own articles about his 2019 victory as they appeared then, where you analyzed and told us that the main reason was the unprecedented deliverance of welfare schemes to the poorest Indians irrespective of caste and religion. Mr. Modi seems to have truly changed the quality of life of bottom 1/3 to ½ of Indians like never before and that’s probably the reason why India Today Poll lists him as the best prime minister ever!
We the elites, at our level probably cannot see or feel the ground level impact but would be fooling ourselves if we think that a leader can make voters feel good without delivery on an ongoing basis. In order to stay connected with the masses and reality, in my humble opinion, we need to review and make at least two changes in our thinking:
What really is politically correct and whether the ‘correctness’ should be a dynamic or a static factor?; and
Start analyzing and thinking from the bottom upwards rather than our preconceived ideas from the top.
I have been reading your articles since the eighties mainly because by and large, you adhered to #2 above, but since lately you increasingly seem to deviate, and I really look forward to reading more of your articles.
We Indians should be least surprised at the developments in the USA. At the end of the day in a democracy, most people vote from the heart and not the head. I have to mention that the proliferation of all types of media, mostly with vested interests and parochial, does not attempt to correct the phenomenon – pardon, I have to mention the media who are very integral in Nation building.
For instance in the recently concluded Bihar elections it was mostly Yadav, Yadav and Yadav and Paswan etc..and very little on matters of administration – if at all mentioned was “reported” in small print.
Take it from me, a common man, when you say “Modi Government” the focus stops at Modi and the the contents of the “reports” become inconsequential to the reader. If the heading is on the issue and ”Modi”, “Rahul”, “Captain” or “Mamata” are in small print the real message will get across better.
Your writing is dense. What are you talking about ?
‘At the end of the day in a democracy, most people vote from the heart and not the head. ‘
Do you want to say that people who voted for Biden did not use their mind ?
you have used the term “to build dominant majority’s latent insecurities into a victim complex”. you also have used another phrase – ” incurable minority complex of hindhus in india”. guptaji, who give you th right to be so judgemental and derisive about others especially we hindhus in india.
see for yourself what happens to european countries. they allowed muslim refugees into their countries in good faith. now what happens? the same muslim refugees now want to convert the contry into a islamic state. we indians have learned it the hard ways after centuries of muslim invasion. we are also seeing how the minorities are treated in Islamic countries. For most muslims, it seems like religion is more important than nation. so probably the insecurities of hindhus may be normal given how muslims are politically exploited by so called secular parties. it is surprising that even the educated muslims like for example zainab sikaenders of india cannot realise that they is something definitely wrong in theiir practice of islam.
in the same vein the americans may have their own reasons for insecurities.
what is more important is to find the reasons for the insecurities and take actions to reomove.
In deos not behove intellectuals like you sitting in a palatial farm house with all the power, influence and wealth in the world to be so judgemental and resentful.
it is not possible that you will have the democracy the way you want. if it is so it is not democracy.
please understand mr.gupta, democracy is th will of the people and be graceful about it.
You are trying to explain away the Hindu minority complex that SG called out – how a majority acts like an insecure minority. That is Hindutva.
‘even the educated muslims like for example zainab sikaenders of india cannot realise that they is something definitely wrong in theiir practice of islam.’
Can you tell specifically what is wrong in Zainab’s practice of Islam ? As far as I see, she had not written about Islam, she writes about Indian politics here.
‘what is more important is to find the reasons for the insecurities and take actions to reomove.’
You explained Hindu insecurity is due to the hard ways after centuries of muslim invasion. What is the action you propose ? CAA-NRC, concentration camps. That it will lead to civil war and break up of India.
I can give you an alternative reason : Hindus are not only riddled with their insecurities, they hide their incompetence in the present by citing past grievances. The competent never do that.
‘democracy is th will of the people and be graceful about it.’
Give that advice to Trump now and shut up.
I am seeing here that many well reasoned comments criticizing the articles are being removed. I don’t understand why you would you take such steps to the detriment of your own cause.
SG says – it’s more about populism, not performance. Obviously LIBRANDUS whether in US or India believe that Performance is their RAKHAIL.
America’s per capita income is $ 65,000, ours about $ 2,000. Our senior maid’s capacity to waste food in the kitchen – although all women are naturally frugal – is a lot less than my wife’s. President Trump is being feather bedded by the world’s largest, most innovative economy, which also pays for the mightiest military machine. He can afford to make mistakes, perhaps even kill someone on Fifth Avenue. Our choices are cut to the bone. Wrong decisions mean millions of people going to bed hungry, children dropping out of school. A decent, laid back President like Ronald Reagan is great for America and the world. The CM of Bihar does not have that luxury. So one would value performance, not populism. Perhaps everyone in a still largely poor country should.
Yogi has given performance – for the cow population. Plus he has beaten up some Muslims.
Hindus see those as performance.
Plz note…..Democrats didn’t even attack trump on his performance…….it was just Anti Trumpism…..scare mongering can’t win elections ( think Gujarat).
Wokeness is not the problem…..selective wokeness is.🤫🤫🤫
Selective wokeness irritates you, so you will back any fascist demagogue who incites resentment – even if they do not have any solution or positive agenda. This is the new alternative. For the whites, rail against Mexicans, and knee blacks to death; for Hindus, engage in lynch mobs and rape. There is no employment, but your anger against selective woke liberals is satisfied. Cut your nose to spite your face.
The appaling arrogance of the so called ‘intellectual elites’, left leaning globalists and psedo-Secular bunch, whether in U.S. or India is a undeniable fact.
Therefore, their analysis suffers from a ‘group think’ syndrom based on their flawed world view and flawed assumptions. Yet, proven wrong again and again they will never introspect but build the next hypothesis as the discovery of ultimate ‘ TRUTH’ ( How clever we are !) .
Well, as long as you make good living, have the freedom to abuse those who you don’t like and feel good and superior to the vast majority of your rather ‘provincial’ countrymen, what does it matter if the universe does not always unfold as it should !
Indeed ‘what does it matter if the universe does not always unfold as it should !’
Yes, why does it matter if murderous Hitlers, Modis and Trumps take over. I could never figure out why the world did not accept Hitler.
The innermost conversations to justify failures of their hypothesis rests with the concrete impact on their good livelihood and their personal freedoms, The reference is to self certified ‘ intellectual Elite’ cabal and their superiority complex.
It was a mirror for persons like you to see your true face
‘The reference is to self certified ‘ intellectual Elite’ cabal and their superiority complex.
It was a mirror for persons like you to see your true face.’
You would prefer not the intellectual, you would prefer the reign of the cow vigilante, the RSS paramilitary storm trooper, and mass communicators of hate like Modi, Shah and Arnob.
How come the best countries like Switzerland, Sweden, Britain etc. are not run by mobs but are run by educated intellectuals ?
How come the US’s standing plummetted when it was overtaken by demagogues like Trump and Bannon ?
It is not the intellectual elite has a superiority complex, it is that you have an inferiority complex, because you cannot write a single programme or devise a cogent argument that does not revolve round hate as a cover for failure.
Have travelled to every continent to meet my clients, my employees and native residents. (Canadian resident, IIT – M.Tech (60’s), MASc Canada and 50+ years in Software Engineering including starting and running successful enterprises.)
These ideas are formed not based on some bookish knowledge but on solid personal experiences.
You have no idea what leftists and communists have done to their own honest and hardworking citizens !
Acute verbal dirreah on display by many abusive, lefty globalists and so-called ‘Intellectal Elites’ indicates utter and complete ignorance !
Well, Mr rasgolla, sure not a Bengali, Mr Biden is a certified mass murderer and a war criminal. He is the key man behind the Iraq war. As far as Mr Trump is concerned, he is a rare President, who did not wage any war – a fodder for thought. As far as Mr Hitler is concerned – Mr Stalin. Mr Mao, Mr Pol Pot had killed more people in the history of humanity – that too in the name of “good”
You are not a real Bengali, you are a Brahmin, Mahasabha type.
I did not write praise of Biden. I agreed with SG that while Trump is gone, Trumpism will not go. I have also given an analysis of what drives Trumpism – it is better than SG’s analysis. That may cause you to feel I am an intellectual elite, it will make you burn, and decide to endorse Trump and Modi even more strongly.
Stalin industrialised the Soviet Union in 10 years, and only because of that, the Soviet Union withstood the fascist assault and crushed Nazi Germany, and its theory of racial supremacy. Stalin did not succumb, he inspired the Soviets to stand up in Moscow, and withstand the siege of Leningrad. The siege of Stalingrad was even more dogged, and the surrender of the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad was the start of the Nazi end. Then came the Soviet victory in the tank battle at Kursk, and then the Operation Bagration led by the Byleorusssian and Baltic fronts of the Red Army. It destroyed the famed German Army Group Centre in just two weeks, and opened the road to storm Berlin. Stalin was the legendary man of steel. He was equally tough and uncompromising with Churchill and Truman at the Potsdam conference. At Potsdam, Truman announced the atomic weapon. Stalin went back and asked his scientists to make the atomic bomb in 5 years – they made it in 4. The same with Mao – he laid the foundations for China to become a superpower. Those people were patriotic and built their countries, and fed and clothed their people. Compare that with Modi – the Chinese take Indian land, and the coward is quiet as a mouse. Modi’s only achievement is internal strife.
The reason you feel disoriented is because Trump was an endorser of your Nazi Modi. Or at least Trump did not make an issue about Modi’s Nazism, as long as Modi bought US weapons. Now, you feel Biden may not be the same and maybe human rights issues might be raked up.
Readers, after going through this garbage post, would be better off by a real and thoughtful analysis on how the US voted, by Pawan K Verma in today’s ToI paper.
A poor dishonest analysis. The reason why half of America voted Trump despite the pandemic is because he echoed their concerns — and what you have deliberately hidden — is the aam aadmi felt their condition was better after 4 years of Trump.
The NYT, CNN, Washington Post, the so-called pillars of the mainstream media and all their acolytes from coast to coast, nonstop tried to manipulate the voter by incessantly beating their loud drum that Biden was so ahead in their concocted opinion polls, that it was going to be the biggest landslide America has seen.
Alas, for Shekhar Gupta and his Lutyens brethren the 50% “deplorables” — as how the crooked leftist liberals see the other half — ensured that it would not be that easy a victory.
And that is a victory for the downtrodden and the marginalised, whose voice all these years was strangulated by tye Leftist establishment.
Shekhar Gupta, take note.
A section of the aam admi, the low end whites, were made to feel he stands for them. He is a corrupt billionaire, but he talked the tough talk about white greatness. Racism sells, as does communalism in India.
It would have carried him to victory, but coroma waylaid him.
Well said !
Trump won not just because of his victim complex.
He also won because many voters were not concerned about his lack of morals or lack of honesty or lack of respect for other races. They were only concerned as to what he could do for their conservative base and what he could do for them personally in terms of taxes etc.
The larger issues about unity of the nation, tolerance, respect for others were issues that mostly concern people who are nowadays called liberals. This is true of India too.
I beg to differ on some counts, Mr. SG. Firstly, I must point out what I agree with. It is right to separate Trumpism from Donald Trump, the person. Donald Trump as a person has been considered by any political standards as an unreliable, utterly dishonest and a serial liar by many political analysts. With the impending defeat, Trump the politician may fade out into oblivion. But what is Trumpism? This has not been properly defined in the article.Why did many African Americans, Hispanics and Cuban immigrants vote for him, more particularly in the state of of Florida? I am of the view that the issues raised by him were valid and truly represented what Trumpism is all about. The simple point is that USA may be one of the wealthiest countries in the world having maximum number of billionaires and obviously the global superpower. Of what use is this wealth and power if it doesn’t percolate to the millions of underprivileged citizens of USA? Economic disparities in USA have widened, the middle states are envious of the rising wealth and social status of wealthy states like California, Washington and New York. America First as a political slogan appealed to this class of population in the USA. Biden will undoubtedly be the next president of USA. But he should not ignore the valid apprehensions of a large sections of the American society. True democracy must go beyond winning an election. Extremism of any kind has to be avoided. If the Senate has a Republican majority, Biden will have to deal with the situation. Even if the Republicans lose majority in the Congress they cannot be ignored. Respecting the opposition is an integral part of democracy. The moment you win elections , if you start harassing the opposition with CBI, ED and Income Tax cases or as in the states of Maharashtra, U.P. and West Bengal arrest and intimidate and cartoonists, this is no democracy. Politics of persuasion, consensus and synthesis of political thoughts is essential for democracy. So forget Trump but don’t forget Trumpism, because it represents aspirations of millions of Americans.
The Dhritrastra of journalism miss no opportunity curse Modi, even if he is not related with any case. I do like your foreign policy assessment but your political acumen is deeply rusted and its beyond repair. Modi and Trump is completely different. You should imagination glass to see the truth. People of India should see this. We will appreciate if you put both side of the truth not having selective amensia. Anyways you are old enough to change your thinking. In Bihar we says ” Buda suga posh nahin manta hai”.
I don’t know much but out of all the PMs of India, I have mostly heard about Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. I think popularism entered India way before Trump entered presidency.
Absolutely correct!!
Dear SG,
In spite of hype created by liberals not only in US but also around the world Trump fight well. If there was no hype, may be it was Trump win.
Come back to India, our growth story started from 2002/03 and continue up to 2011/12. in years of MMS he did not do any reforms it was international force and reckless loan given without proper scrutiny keep our growth engine moving up to 2008, afterwards it was heavy government spending carry on growth engine.
Come to Modi, he is one of the smart politician who took advantage of reduce oil prices in increasing govt. revenue ( he did not use this extra revenue in reducing NPA) and use it for popular govt. schemes without any leakages. Though current economic situation will make it difficult for him to win states election in next 1 to 2 years he will bounce back again by using excess oil revenue in some more govt. schemes without leakages.
Let’s flip that question. Alright, you can’t make your people better off. But can you make them feel better?
If they don’t have bread why don’t they eat cake? asked Marie Antoinette. People took off her head for that! You can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people sometime but you can’t fool all of the people all the time. Trump’s time for fooling is up. One day it will be the turn of “our own Trump!”
His response to Corona os what gave him the second wind. The people who vote for him like that kind of bravado, plus Americans hate having their freedom curbed in any kind of way. His refusal to wear masks and bunker down resonated with the many who felt that way. The point being that there was always going to be the blue wave, didn’t they vote in record numbers? Nobody accounted for the red wave….if it wasn’t for corona , most of the Trump supporters would have just stayed at home. At any rate this is a huge win for democracy that so many showed up at the ballots.
It’s wrong to compare Trump with Modi
Yes, Really wrong. I think SG is trying create a wrong Narrative here.
It is the other way round. It is surprising that more than 50 percent Americans did not fall prey to his populist, racist, xenophobic appeal and voted against him. That is a redeeming feature. They seem even prepared to forego the unending entertainment that he provided.
Vintage analysis by SG.
Trumpism and Moditva. So similar appeals to their core voter base. And they have expanded a lot more than their core voter base. No mud sticks to them.
But that is where the similarity ends.
In USA there is genuine free speech in their media and other institutions. Their democracy will recover. There is no silencing of voices that speak against the ruler. Not so here in India. Our democracy is flawed and fragile.
Why India is worse than the US and will not recover from Modi is because here you have a fascist group called the RSS. They are an organised body and they have infiltrated into every institution and destroyed them. Congress and other governments did not dismantle the RSS in time
dont agree with this analysis. the buck stops at journalism… most of the channels are left oriented. when democrats are in govt. they ask questions to “power ” as if they are asking their romantic partner. but when republicans are in power the same channels HOUND them. Due to this there is a growing population who feel un represented. and these people are growing in numbers( esp as newer technologies are making people obselete) and they found an opportunistic Trump who represents them even though they know him to be crooked and disgusting . now this set of people are so big in number that it was a close call in this election. vijay gokhale sir, gave an apt label for them as “Trump Americans”.
so long as spectrum of media channels is skewed to one side (left or right) , it s going to polarise the society as their nemesis social media exposes their hypocrisy.
the unfortunate spin off of this situation , are the sub standard leaders it throws out as presidents … (if you think biden is doodh of dulha, you need a coffeee)….
Bang on. A very perceptive comment. Kudos.
The rising wokeness is the reason many people are leaving the Left. It is perhaps the most useless thing in politics and not to mention the gravest threat to free speech. If you censure free speech because some namby pamby individual’s feelings are hurt, imagine if that gets extended to the politicians of massive ego.
Coming to trump, i think he has been the most damaging thing to happen to the American Right wing. And also world over….bolsanaro too. Compared to them, Japan’s Abe, India’s modi are sensible right wingers. Republicans went from Lincoln to Trump and dumped everything the centre right stood for.
Liberal left every where has failed to read the mood of the public, Social media has provided an alternate platofrm for the right to exchange informatin which leftist media fails to provides or hides. India is nothing new. Hoepfully media will course corrct and provide space for righti’s views also, otherwise traditional media wil become irrelevant.
‘Liberal left every where has failed to read the mood of the public, Social media has provided an alternate platofrm for the right to exchange informatin which leftist media fails to provides or hides. India is nothing new. Hoepfully media will course corrct and provide space for righti’s views also, otherwise traditional media wil become irrelevant.’
The right wing dominates the media, certainly in India. But they have no solution to India’s problems : collapsing economy, unemployable youth, social and national fragmentation, inability to handle Covid, and Chinese encroachment. They encourage social fragmentation as nationalism.
The right wing’s solution is hate, violence and intimidation, That was the case with Hitler, and Modi and Trump are diluted versions of the same. That is the only offering the right can give. And you want more space ?
Let the right perform and show what it can do do – other than hate, violence and intimidation, Wickedness runs for some time, but finally Hitler had to commit suicide.
did u see recent tweet of Nandan Nilekani ? ? about reforms to putback economy…
did u read about jobless growth during UPA ??
did u see recent SG’s cut the clutter talking about ashley tellis views on ladakh ??
although lockdown was excecuted inefficiently (migrant crisis) ,still modi chose lives over livelihoods to the extent the economy could take it .
rest of the argument ” LABEL with catchy words and DISMISS”…..
And we will not rage like those in USA when clinton lost or hysterical like pramila jayapal ….. we know one day Modi Too has to go…..
”about reforms to putback economy…”
What is the point of destroying the economy with demonetisation and promising reforms in the future ? Robbery followed by a promise of a better future.
‘jobless growth during UPA ??’. Don’t lie. MMS created a prosperous middle class of 300 million. Rural India had disposable income.
People did not elect chai wallah to talk about UPA, we want to know how many runs Modi scored, not what the previous batsman scored. He promised that he will give 60 years of Congress development in 60 months. Now, he says Act of God undermined him.
China has taken Indian land, and all I saw from Modi was silence. That is, the usual Hindu cowardice. You can beat up minorities, but you cannot open your mouth about China.
In short, Modi and Hindu fascism have nothing to show, apart from divisiveness, you also know it, but you want to put on a brave face.
It’s ‘Sanghatva’ and not Moditva in India! Those who know RSS well, understand this properly. Let’s not be under wrong impression that Modi-Shah duo run the country, in fact it’s RSS that runs the show.