Awakening courage in the era of Trumpism

The article you are about to hear has been authored by Nozomi Hayase and carries the title of “Awakening Courage in the Era of Trumpism”.

American democracy is in deep crisis. As with every election cycle, electoral politics this year failed to provide true therapy for the pathology of the corporate state. There is no diagnosis of unfettered profit-driven capitalism or treatment for the heart failure of the ruling class, which has no ability to feel for the poor and working people. Whether it is Trump or Clinton, candidates are presented as symbols, as a prescribed choice of red or blue, manufactured to keep all addicted to the elite’s power grab contest and blind to the real cause of the illness of the American society.

The symbol of Trump was effective in its tactics of divide and conquer. On one hand, with a crafted image of an outsider, it offered his supporters a possibility to challenge the establishment, while on the other, with his blunt racist and misogynistic remarks, it embodied hatred, making liberals paralyzed in their collective hysteria when he won. This Trump victory meant a triumph of this symbol of hate that continues to grip the American psyche, which captures feelings and seizes actions. A true therapeutic process begins with feeling; to get in touch with our authentic emotions without being provoked or repelled. Demonizing and blindly fighting against this symbol will only give it more power. It is this hatred mixed with fear and terror of what has become ‘Trumpism’.

The Trump victory sent shock waves around the world. After the election, students walked out of classrooms and people all over the country took to the streets to protest against the president-elect. This awakening brought many closer to the roots of the American people’s real suffering. The potential degradation of society that many are terrified about with the ascent of Trump is something that has actually been taking place for quite some time. In fact America from its beginnings has always had inherent contradictions within itself, manifested in the shadows of slavery, patriarchy, genocide and illegal wars. The dark side of its history is rarely acknowledged and wounds of the nation have not been healed.

This deep pain was only covered up with more lies, denial and the posture of progress. The further traumatization of the country has been carried out with both Republicans and Democrats in their unifying ideology of neoliberalism. It continues with fracking, injecting chemicals into the ground and building pipelines to contaminate water and destroy the land, along with climate genocide. The chains that once enslaved African descendants might have been broken, yet this bondage has morphed into a new Jim Crow, in the form of profit-driven mass incarceration and prison labor. Racism still prevails with police shootings along with stop and frisk programs, harassing fellow citizens as if they are all criminals. This has been institutionalized in a two-tiered judicial system that is deaf to the resounding truth that ‘Black Lives Matter’.

Despite Obama’s efforts to whitewash his legacy that has contributed to this oppression, the erosion of civil liberties has escalated under his administration. Many are anesthetized by the image of him as a progressive, so they don’t feel the real terror of the situation. Actions like drone bombings of weddings, torture and extrajudicial killings were often seen as horrifying and radical when they were done by Republicans, but they are glossed over or ignored when done by a Democratic president. With Trump’s blunt bigotry and white supremacy, the anesthesia that masked all symptoms is now wearing off.

It is also important to note that not all who voted for Trump are haters, as is often portrayed by the corporate media. Not all supporters are racist, filled with derision toward immigrants or people of color. What fueled many of them was anger at a system that is already corrupt to the core. Back in 2008, many swallowed the empty ‘hope and change’ slogan of Obama’s campaign. Now, a disfranchised sector of America saw in Trump a promise to mend this broken America.

Americans all across the political landscape are righteously angry. They feel trapped in a system that is merciless, mechanical and tyrannical. They are furious about the loss of jobs and manufacturing base that was a direct result of trade deals like the WTO, which was signed under President Bill Clinton. Clinton also destroyed the Glass-Steagall Act which opened the door to the insanity of Wall Street takeover of the economy.  The Democratic Party’s failure to listen to and validate this anger allowed this raw emotion to be exploited by teams of billionaires who are driven by rabid ambition. This anger translated into the language of hatred is being directed through the symbol of Trump toward Mexicans. Immigrants are scapegoated as stealing jobs, when in reality they are also victims of corporate trade agreements like NAFTA that destroyed their economy, bringing misery and poverty and forcing them to take up slave-level farming work in the U.S.

Manufactured fear by U.S. government sponsored terrorism in the post 9-11 world was repackaged again. Cheney and Bush kick started this program of fear and terror, yet the leaked Podesta emails have also shown Clinton Foundation’s deep ties to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who have funded Daesh. It was Hillary Clinton who aided the murder of Muammar Gaddafi and the destruction of the Libyan State, coupled with the U.S. government’s aggression in Syria that led to instability, massive European refugee crises and a backlash against Muslims in the U.S. In this rat maze of engineered corporatocracy, one is surrounded by corporate media echo-chambers that give life to empty symbols that defend illusion over reality.

AJ/SS