This is unprecedented, and very unexpected. What has happened in USA as Americans turned out in large numbers to select their 45th President.
The numbers itself should have made Hillary pause and start worrying. It is an accepted theory in a democracy that when voters turn out like that with unexpected enthusiasm, they are voting for change.
Why Democratics must be really pushing the panic button is that apart from the conservative states that were supposed to go the Republican way, traditional Democratic states like Michigan, New Hampshire, Virginia have deserted Hillary too.
The example of Michigan shows that it is not conservatives but blue collar workers who have lost their jobs, their livelihoods and often their homes and way of life have come out in large numbers to vote for a man who has promised to bring America’s lost glory back.
In a campaign speech in Detroit, that many decades ago used to be the hub of car manufacturing, Trump said ” there was a time when cars were made in Detroit and the water in Mexico was said to be unsafe to drink – now Mexico makes more cars and you cannot drink water in Detroit.”
(This writer has seen the bad state Detroit has sunk to when she visited there in 2005. Downtown Detroit was said to be unsafe to venture out into even at 12 noon! Unemployed black people hanging around, often high on alcohol or drugs… deserted houses…ghost localities that were once thriving neighborhoods, homes where people still live without running water for years since water supply was cut off for non payment of bills – it was a scary scene. This city was once where American automobile companies like American Motors, Ford etc. made cars that Americans bought and drove. Now most are driving cars made in Japan, Germany… even Korea forcing these giant companies to shut down their factories).
Over the last 50 – 60 years, America has lost its ‘manufacturing’ in not just automobiles but many other things. Apparel, shoes,electronics, even medicine!
Even during Obama’s 8 years of rule unemployment actually climbed to over 50% +. There were more Americans living on social security pay outs than earning salaries.
While jobs dwindled, American army was getting involved in more and more conflicts across the world apart from Iraq and Afghanistan, adding to tax payers burden. On the other hand, immigrants from these same disturbed areas were coming in and taking away more jobs.
Trump is the man who saw all this and has promised a course correction if people showed trust in him. A man who has no experience in governance at all. An industrialist/ businessman who others of his ilk on Wall street have rejected. In a way Trump was the worst example himself of the” rotten system” he wants to overthrow. Earning in mega dollars, he has never paid tax. Never even filled in tax returns.
“I exploited the loop holes politicians / rulers like Hillary and her husband gave me” he said being brutally frank.
He challenged Americans to throw out lock stock and barrel the conventional politicians altogether and give an outsider a chance to clean up the system. How? He has not laid out any clear game plan, just made lot of promises.
But he seems to have understood the people’s mood when he spoke against immigrants, against Muslims and against outsourcing jobs.
His imminent victory will show that all has not been right in the world’s largest democracy though they still enjoy a position of world leadership. People have been dissatisfied and disgruntled – they want to try out something revolutionary and different.
If Trump does indeed triumph over Hillary, will he be able to deliver?
Will America usher in a new world order? We should be ready for many shocks and upheavals.
