The night after the day of US Elections I was fast asleep. In the wee hours my phone kept on ringing. Drowsy after a long day I hesitantly picked up the phone. At the other end I could hear the sad voice of a boy from our village - "BHAINA, KANA TRAWMPAW KU HAREI DELA - Hey Brother, you defeated Trump ?". "But why do you care ?" - I asked in an intriguing tone. He retorted back - "BICHARAA HAARI GALA. NA HELE PAKISTAN UPARE BOMA PAKEI THANTA - The poor guy lost. Otherwise, he could have dropped a bomb on Pakistan". I replied dismissively - "Oh, Trump told you so ? That's good to know".
In meantime, there was a Presidential election that was held in Tanzania on October 28, less than a week before the US Elections. Outside their country, nobody cares, nobody bothers about their elections. Poor Tanzania !!!
Come American Presidential elections every other 4 years, it gets its fair coverage in India. But this year, the extent of its following, especially on social media surprised me. What surprised me more was the widespread passion of the Trump supporers back home rooting for his victory. If Trump would run in India, he need not do any campaigning - he will win hands down.
But who am I to sermonize? I was also one of those tens of millions who passionately followed the elections, bidding for the Democrats, including Joe Biden, now the President Elect. But in my view following are the reasons which generated an extra interest in this election back home.
First, the flamboyancy of Trump's character. His unconventional, bullying and tweeting tactics made him a great salesman - his sales pitch bought instantly by his fans which shrugged off their jaded nerves, giving them the instant kick of multiple cups instant coffee. Secondly, the misplaced belief of our foreign policy experts on social media that Trump was on the verge of declaring Pakistan a terrorist state because their Supreme God Sri Sri Modi danced in "Howdy Modi" event in Houston holding Trump's hands.
In spite of all these histrionics at Houston, 72% of Indian Americans including me voted for Joe Biden. What a vision in foreign policy by Modi to take sides in am election in a foreign country and openly declare standing next to someone up for reelection - "AB KI BAAR, TRUMP SARKAR - Next time, it's Trump Government" ! Can't find any thing more appropriate to describe this than a myopic, tunnel vision in foreign policy.
I have been following Elections in USA since 1976. Every time a Republican comes, he screws up the governance. Then a Democratic President comes and goes on to rescue it. The Right wingers across the globe are big on rhetorics, failures at governance. I can write an essay about it, but here is a brief summary.
1. George Bush Senior - He screwed up the economy and lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. When Clinton left in 2000 the economy was booming.
2. In 2008 George Bush Junior went for ill fated Iraq war and economy was on a freefall. Obama rescued the economy and left with an economy in good shape in 2016.
3. Now under Trump both economy is bad and COVID-19 is worse.
I can go on and on, on this. In meantime Trump is behaving like a petulant child whose candy has been snatched away from his hand. The Nostradamuses and Alhabadi Astrologers on social media who predicted a Trump victory have gone underground.
Yet Democrats need to do some soul searching to do. Though better than the Republicans, they are no lily whites either. Gone are the days they used to be the party of the blue collar, middle class working American. Many of them have become elitists and because of that they have lost a chunk of votes in the Rust belt. They need to get back to the basics and be the champions of the middle class.
First the person called you in your wee hours, which is evening in India. People forget the time difference.
ReplyDeleteAs to histrionics over Trump, it was not that village youngster who believed that Trump can go to the extent of bombarding Pakistan, help India in liberating Baloichistan, most qualified people were believing in the same line!!