TRUMPS POPULARITY?
What do 'they' think of
America?
Donald Trump’s bewildering popularity in the
presidential race has been exceedingly hard to bear for many
Americans, particularly those who belong to one or more of the
communities that he openly disparages, like African-Americans and
Muslim Americans.
Yet if even some citizens wrestle to make sense of Trump’s rise
to power,
how do non-Americans view
the strange state of politics in the world’s most powerful nation?
While on a recent visit to Dubai, United Arab Emirates—where I
was born and raised and where my parents still live—Trump’s name
cropped up as a topic of conversation within the first few minutes of
nearly every interaction I had, so I decided to gather a group of my
friends together to answer that question.
Dubai is home to myriad immigrant communities, and while the city
of more than 2.4 million struggles with its own unique social
problems, the United States remains hugely influential there when it
comes to both pop culture and politics.
Carlo, an Italian friend, told
me that he finds Trump’s popularity troubling. “It doesn’t look
good,” he said, shaking his head as he uttered the vague words,
perhaps worried that he might insult the American in me if he said
more.
To my Dubai friends, the Trump phenomenon is tremendously
fascinating, but they are not surprised by his meteoric ascension to
the status of a viable presidential candidate.
After
all, the White House was occupied in recent memory by another
bumbling, bigoted fool who loved to pander to religious extremists
and wax bombastic. His name was George W. Bush, and he gave us
the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and birthed the Department of Homeland
Security while also becoming an unending source of macabre hilarity.
Trump promises all of the above and much more.
Bush was sandwiched between two presidents of a far more civilized
ilk—Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. But even under both of them,
state violence—both domestic and international—have continued to
thrive. Big banks have benefited at the expense of ordinary
Americans; immigrants have faced a massive deportation campaign;
African-Americans have seen lip service but no justice; and so on.
The list is long.
However, Carlo said he liked
Obama immensely. The United States’ first African-American
president, he said, is relatable and even amid incessant attacks from
right-wing opponents appears to rise above their petty politics.
I was surprised to learn that my international friends watch Fox
News and that they clearly understand its ability to foment ignorance
and hatred among Americans. But they also watch a wide variety of
other media, including the BBC, Sky News, Al-Jazeera and RT, and they
are well aware of how widespread racist discourse and violence
remain.
Fatima, an Indian Muslim friend, said she wants to visit the U.S.
but that her husband, Tarek, a Syrian, refuses. Why?
“Islamophobia,”
Tarek said simply. The single word said it all.
Middle-class liberal-minded immigrants in the UAE like my friends
are not the only non-Americans who are disgusted by Trump. The
Emirati billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor, who had initially supported
the American businessman, now says he regrets having done so.
Al
Habtoor has accused Trump of “creating a hatred between Muslims and
the United States of America.”
In addition, billboards featuring Trump’s image advertising a
golf-course development in Dubai were recently removed, leading some
to conclude that
“the Trump brand
has become toxic.”
Preeti, also an Indian, confessed that she and Carlo, her husband,
had planned a family vacation in the United States. The couple, who
have two lovely olive-skinned sons,
canceled
their vacation because they were worried about racism. “I feared
they would see her as ‘black’ and attack her,” Carlo said,
pointing to his wife.
The couple and their sons speak English with accents and have skin
tones of various shades, and they simply
did
not want to risk traveling to a nation that they now feel would not
welcome them. Preeti even quoted another
friend
in Dubai who refers to the U.S. as “the devil’s own country.”
Obviously racism in the United States is an age-old phenomenon,
but because there is increased awareness via social media,
non-Americans may be getting a more accurate picture of contemporary
U.S. society. And they don’t like what they see.
The group I gathered saw police brutality in the U.S. as equally
appalling. As The Guardian newspaper has pointed out,
“US
police kill more in days than other countries do in years.”
A 2015 list compiled by a private consulting firm ranked the U.S.
22nd among the world’s most reputable countries. Canada occupied
the top spot, and nations like Sweden, Australia, Finland and
Thailand all ranked higher than the U.S., which came in just ahead of
Poland and the Czech Republic.
In addition to the rampant racism,
the
widespread gun violence that plagues nearly every corner of the
nation confounds my non-American associates. “There’s simply no
gun control,” Preeti remarked. “It makes no sense!”
My friends spoke of the freedom with which Americans wield deadly
weapons. They see it as bizarre and are unable to fathom how it can
be acceptable in a modern society that is supposed to be civilized.
The remarks reminded me of an interaction that I had recently with
an old high school friend who now lives and works in Paris with her
family. She described feeling so shaken by the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks
in her city—which claimed 130 lives—that she remained unable to
visit her usual haunts.
I responded
by saying that living in the U.S. has inured me to random violence,
that gun violence is so rampant across the nation that we now have to
simply accept that there is a nonnegotiable risk of being shot every
time we step outside our homes.
Fatima’s oldest daughter started university in the United
Kingdom a few months ago. She told me that there was
absolutely
no way that she would have sent her daughter to the U.S. for higher
education.
Decades ago, several of us at the gathering—including me—first
entered the U.S. on student visas, eager to earn a degree from an
American educational institution. But today, Fatima said she would
send her daughter “anywhere but the U.S.”
There was a time when the United
States enjoyed a reputation (however undeserved) for being the keeper
of the world’s conscience, the standard-bearer of human rights and
democracy. But now, it appears that that veneer is fading fast and
that reality is seeping through to the outside world.
FROM CANADA
“You Americans have no
Idea.”
You
Americans Have No Idea Just How Good You Have It With Obama
Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections.
Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record
highs, the country's adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is
below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
countries. The dollar is at
its strongest levels in years, the stock
market is near record highs, gasoline prices are falling, there's no
inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil
imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, the
deficit is rapidly declining, and the wealthy are still making
astonishing amounts of money. America is leading the world once again
and respected internationally — in sharp contrast to the Bush
years. Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq and killed Osama bin
Laden. So, Americans vote for the party that got you into the mess
that Obama just dug you out of? This defies reason. When you are done
with Obama, could you send him our way? Richard Brunt Victoria,
British Columbia.
It's
like pouring salt into a wound. There is a bright side to Brunt's
letter. We, at least, know other countries are paying
attention to President Obama's accomplishments, even if
the majority of Americans don't feel they're worth defending at the
polls. It's a shame. The Conservative bullhorn was so loud, it drove
out the desire for many people to vote. And Democrats didn't help.
While pointing our fingers at the GOP (predominately our middle
fingers) we forgot to blow our own horns. We forgot to build up our
own President. We forgot to remind each other about what our own
country looked like before Obama. I have to believe the
public really didn't understand the GOP gerrymandering that took
place the last four years. They didn't see the many
important and beneficial bills shot down by Republicans, one
after another, out of spite. People wanted to see
results, and the results were there. But half of America was blinded
by the half-truths FOX 'News' and Conservative talking heads
fed them, because you know, if you tell just enough truth mixed in
with a bucket of lies, it causes confusion. And that can
lead to a bad case of the FuckIts. Netflix marathons are way more
fun. Blunt's letter reminds me of one of my favorite Robin Williams
quotes/memes:
