Explaining the Donald Trump Phenomenon

A few short months ago, we would have argued that the temperature and volume of anger amongst the American populace was infinitesimal. After all, we mused rationally, the American economy was, once again, the envy of both the Western and modern world. Yes – there were a whole host of unemployed people – but Barack Obama had pulled the entire world back from the global economic crisis precipice upon which it had been teetering. Added to that, the United States was, finally, able to join the ranks of other first world economies by offering affordable healthcare to its citizens.

The one thing we did not fully factor into this equation was the sheer amount of misinformation that ordinary Americans were being fed on a daily basis. They were told that the American government was growing too rapidly and gaining too much influence. It was not. That Obama was coming for their guns. That free health care was not really free, and was, in fact, ruining the country. At the heart of this misinformation was a whole host of conservative media outlets – led, in part, by Fox News and talk radio exemplars like Rush Limbaugh. So powerful were these that their respective audiences did not see that the economy was doing better. In this ensconced world, Hillary Clinton had actually gotten her own staff killed in Benghazi; that Obama had hidden the reality of that 2012 attack just so he could win the election. To this day, they feel like Mitt Romney would have won his second debate with Barack Obama if only that Candy Crowley had not caught the former in a lie.

This misinformation campaign started about the time Obama commenced his presidency. It has now been confirmed that some Republicans sat down and decided that Obama was going to be a one-term president, and so, they resolved to be a strident loyal opposition; one that built up memes around their first African – American president like they did around Bill Clinton in the early 1990s – and so powerful were these trends that a certain Donald J. Trump bought into it.

No one could have thought that Mr. Trump would hold his head up high after insisting that Barack Obama was not really a U.S. citizen. His birther campaign against an illegitimate president would have laughable if it were not seen as supererogation by a good number of Americans. Many of these same people saw Obama as a usurper. He was too apologetic and he was a Muslim; the perfect Manchurian candidate. To this, Donald Trump may have loosened the spigot of latent white people hate not because he was the perfect communicator, but because he seemed like the antithesis of Obama; a white boy who built ‘yuuge’ things.

Perhaps, Donald Trump understands the full implications of what he is doing. Besides, he surely must have seen the numbers: Republicans – especially those who speak out as virulently as he does against Mexicans, Muslims and African Africans – will never become President of the United States simply because neither the Electoral College nor the Popular Vote can support such a candidacy. In fact, very few Republicans have a chance of winning the White House for the next 10 years or so simply because states like California and New York or Pennsylvania have more immigrants than Wyoming or South Dakota. It is this racial disparity that makes America strong.

But for the moment, it seems as though Trump’s real opponent is not really Hillary Clinton [or after the 2016 Iowa Caucuses, Bernie Sanders]; it is Barack Obama himself. You see; from Trump’s perspective, Obama is what brings out the worst in the conservatives. They loathe and despise Obama. They’ll tell you that he’s a socialist; that he doesn’t have executive experience, and that he does not have America at heart. It matters less that Malia and Sasha are All American Girls, and more that he’s dangerous and not to be trusted because he is somewhat different from his 43 predecessors.

The Habari Network Editorial
February 1, 2016