DONALD TRUMP: A THIRLD WORLD VIEW

So I have this habit of sometimes waking up early and watching telebrand commercials. Now, don’t get me wrong: I don’t watch them to buy the product that they are selling, I just watch to catch a few early morning laughs. The products they sell can be hilarious.

One winter day I was all snuggled up in my favourite blanket and was flipping through the channels to find some new (or the same) people to judge when my eyes stopped at CNN. And that’s when I found an entirely new, potent source of entertainment (and pass judgments on): Donald Trump. That was also when I began following the US presidential election closely.

Now, I am from India and trust me we elect insane people to public offices on a regular basis. An embarrassing number of our politicians hold a criminal record and an equally embarrassing yet significant section of our electorate still votes on its caste. So when I say I was shocked to see Donald Trump insult and “bigot” his way to the Republican nomination I was not “I can’t believe you gave me latte instead of vanilla latte” shocked I was “Holy F*** have all Americans lost their minds “ shocked. And when an Indian expresses such shock on your choice of presidential election it is serious.

Being a third world country, India has a lot of problems. And us Indians are fond of displaying our patriotism in an extremely passive aggressive way. We find solace when another country does a more stupid thing than ours. It’s as if it gives us the license to continue being stupid about it. As a result we constantly talk about countries that are doing worse than us in some form or another. It was out of this inherited need to find flaws in other countries’ systems that I became so addicted to the US presidential election. And of course, Donald Trump.

A lot of people initially thought that Donald Trump running for president was a joke and that he would not survive after the first few primaries. I guess those people are applying for Canadian visas now. But enough with hysteria. Let’s get some perspective:

So this guy called a total ban on Muslims entering the USA going as far as to say “they are not coming if I become the president”, proposed a wall on the Mexican border to stop Mexicans immigrating to America while calling Mexican immigrants rapists and thugs, indirectly referred to the size of his penis on a (inter)national debate, hinted that a national TV anchor was on her period when she interviewed him, tweeted an ugly (photoshopped) image of an opponent’s wife, called a female opponent’s face unworthy of a vote, said he would date his daughter if she weren’t his daughter, called an influential journalist ugly “both inside and out”, encouraged torturing terrorists’ family members, attacked an army veteran’s mother, took three days to deny endorsement from a KKK member, called president of the United States founder of ISIS, told his supporters he would pay their legal fees if they beat up the protestors at his rallies, denied the existence of global warming, mocked a TV reporter with disability on international television and still managed to defeat 15 qualified opponents to win the Republican nomination and has a possible way to becoming the next president of the most powerful country of the world?

Well congratulations America! You have made us feel less foolish for our choice of political leaders in the past nine months. It is downright shocking to see someone spit hate after hate on international television and get over 10 million votes in the nomination process. It is shaking to see insensitive, unthoughtful racial and sexist remarks find resonance among so many citizens of the country that claims to be the world leader in almost everything. It is fear inducing to witness racial and sexist bias find such large audience and support in the “champion nation” of democracy. But in some sense it is relieving. Because when a third world citizen like myself sees one of the most developed country in the world condone such divisive politics it makes me feel less bad about the political scenario of my own country.