The Trump victory

When I was first asked to write a comment on the election of Donald Trump to be President of the USA I thought “no” because everybody and his dog would be commenting.

However, on thinking about it I thought, why not. Really, everybody knows as much as I do and I might as well say what I think.

My first reaction is to say this is a victory for bastardry. I do not think it is right to denigrate people because of the colour of their skin or their sexual orientation or the physical ability. I do not think it is right to denigrate women and get away with it.

I find it very sad that in a country as great and as powerful as the United States, it can only throw up a brash business tycoon and a sullied politician as candidates for a position that holds the keys for a nuclear Armageddon.

We are living in tumultuous times. The world is on the move, literally. Millions of displaced people are looking for a new home because they have been driven out of theirs. Instead of finding welcoming hospitality they are finding walls, barricades and outright hostility. Economically times are changing. Governments in the face of multinational corporate wealth and influence find themselves powerless to enforce standards. Also, because today money makes money faster than work does, we find money can freely cross borders where people can’t and workers can work as hard as they can for diminishing returns. We find across the board the rich are getting richer and the poor are either staying where they are or getting poorer. Politically we find our elected representatives so neutralised by external forces all they can do is attack one another and behave as if these attacks are really important.

All this increasing nationalism we see around the world, makes me fear the threat of war is even more real now. Combine this with an increasing scepticism around the United Nations and we seem to be seeing a world plunging into real chaos.

I don’t know how much Islamic terrorism has contributed to all this. It has probably just increased the high levels of anxiety many people feel today about their living situations.

All I have written about highlights the need for calm, rational, stable, statesmen-like leaders. Not hot heads or populists. My fear is they have elected just the person we don’t need at this time.

I suppose only time will tell. “Group-think” is a funny thing. It is what drives lemmings over a cliff and makes political parties do stupid things when everyone looking on knows it’s stupid.

My earnest prayer is that Donald Trump is the opposite of what I believe him to be because to my way of thinking God help us all if he isn’t.