Today is an eventful day. Donald Trump becomes the new President of the United States the same day the globally abhorred Berlin Wall fell in the year 1989. We draw a parallel between the two phenomenon and examine how 27 years from the historic incident, we have got our new wall maybe.
Twenty seven years ago, one of the most pronounced symbol of inter-community segregation was demolished. The Berlin Wall, which had been separating western Berlin from Eastern Berlin and the rest of the nation right since 13th August, 1961 fell today in 1989.Unfortunately for the global community, with popular consensus, a new wall has been erected.
Taking the world, media and market by storm, America has a new POTUS in Donald Trump. He is the billionaire who has been calling all through his campaign black Americans as the miscreants, the uneducated and unemployable section who stop America from being great, Mexican Immigrants as criminals, Muslims as terrorists and boasts about grabbing women “by the pussy”. But America does not care. America does not mind if half of the national population is either thinking about leaving the nation or else is prepared to live the next few years in a constant threat. America does not care if it becomes the next Germany after it has found its new Hitler.
The Berlin Wall was erected to outcast a certain section of society who posed threat to the German Democratic Republic(GDR). It restricted the immigration of a population hit by the WWII. At that time, America stood against the GDR, making clear statements against any such divider. Today, the world watches in delirium as USA is constructing its own ulta-conservative and fascism, xenophobia, hatred made wall. The very American version of “The wall of Shame”. As Paul Waldmen writes, ” Eventually, his voters will figure out that it was all a scam. But by the time they do, the damage will be done”.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the original America, which is neither blue collared, white collared nor is brown or black. It is a sick white America.
Donald J. Trump is going to be the United States of America’s 45th President. We’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.
Amidst all chaos and an unexpected turn of events, the former (really, former?) business tycoon managed to sail the Republican boat to the shore of victory. And while this was certainly the least expected beginning to 9th November for most Americans, they and the rest of the world are relying on their best bets as coping mechanisms on Twitter.
Here’s a peek into how the social media exploded in the last twelve hours celebrating anxiety and confusion.
Let’s begin on a light note-
Can Obama not just turn the telly up really loud and pretend he didn’t hear the doorbell? #ElectionNight
Six seasons of screaming NNNNOOOOO at your TV during Game of Thrones were intended to prepare you for this day, America — Rohan (@mojorojo) November 9, 2016
everytime a state goes to trump they should fire a cannon just like they do in the hunger games so i know which state is dead to me — don’t mattie (@seulgom) November 9, 2016
There are some we know are voicing our worst fears-
I’m taking tonight to grieve for minorities, women, immigrants, muslims & the LGBTQ community but tomorrow I’m waking up ready to fight. — Jesse Tyler Ferguson (@jessetyler) November 9, 2016
Biggest loser tonight is the human race. Cause climate change is gone as an issue in Trump America.
I’m going to kiss my sleeping son and go to bed. Tomorrow I’ll keep trying to raise him right in a world that just got a whole lot scarier. — Josh Charles (@MrJoshCharles) November 9, 2016
What I’ve learned so far tonight: America is WAAAAAAAAY more sexist than it is racist. And it’s pretty fucking racist. #ElectionNight — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) November 9, 2016
Better get my kids birth certificates laminated so the can wear them around their necks every day…
We, here at DU Beat, have had our share of apprehension as we believe no nation shall be left unaffected with this huge turn in power. Here’s a glimpse of what the team had to say-
How did you deal with the ground-breaking news today? Let us know in the comments section!
The 2016 US Presidential elections have grabbed enough eyeballs already, thanks mostly to Donald Trump’s candidacy, but also to Bernie Sanders’s being a Democrat hopeful and suggesting some off-beat policies which struck a chord with most millenials, and lastly because of the possibility of Hillary Clinton becoming the first female president of the global superpower that is the United States of America. With Sanders knocked out of the race in the primaries, it’s now between former Secretary of State and First Lady, Hillary Clinton, and business mogul Donald Trump as the Democrat and Republican nominees respectively.
Despite Trump’s entire campaign featuring outrageously baseless remarks about all communities, from women to immigrants, and some entirely questionable policy suggestions (building a wall? I mean, come on), it was expected that the first Presidential debate would see productive, and frankly, grown-up, debating on crucial issues such as economic policy, international relations, racial tensions, and the like. While those issues were certainly brought up and became points of discussion, another major observation from the night was that despite the positions of power Hillary Clinton has already held and the position she’s vying for, there are certain experiences which aren’t all that different for her than they are for me, my friends, or any other woman around the world, really.
A tweet that accurately captured the entire issue.
Trump has never enjoyed favourable opinions from women with what his constant sexist, misogynistic comments (far too many for me to even try to exemplify – try googling ‘Trump misogyny’). His attitude came out in full glory against Hillary Clinton as he interrupted her 51 times during the debate (she interrupted him 17 times), in fact, 22 times in the first 26 minutes, and a considerable number of those interruptions came when the Democrat nominee was on the clock, that is, speaking in the time given dedicatedly to her by the moderator to answer a particular question. Those interruptions ranged from blatant backtracking on stances he’s taken on issues before (global warming, supporting Putin) to just screaming ‘No’, and ‘Wrong’ into the microphone, which was more reminiscent of a petulant toddler than a Presidential hopeful. Clinton was often forced to stop mid-answer and smile as her opponent flouted etiquettes of debating and, really, being a decent human being. What’s more important to note is that she couldn’t have possibly reacted in any other way because of the double standards in terms of expectations the public holds Trump and Hillary, and generally, men and women to. Had Clinton lashed out at Trump even for a completely justified reason, as Trump would have probably done if he had been on the receiving end of his own #manterrupting, it would have possibly been the death of her campaign. Had Clinton called out Trump for being ‘not nice’ for all the comments he made about her, as he called her out for videos her campaign has been posting to show his harmful attitude towards women, she’d have been branded ‘too emotional’ and not tough enough to be a President. As Stephen Colbert of The Late Show summarised it, “… For Hillary to win, she had to be confident but not smug, knowledgeable without being a know-it-all, charming but not affected, commanding but not shrill. Also likeable, warm, authoritative, and not coughing. Meanwhile Donald Trump had to not commit murder – on camera.”
Hillary Clinton’s experience during the debate, and in her entire campaign, is nothing women all over the world don’t experience every day – men trying to explain basic concepts to specialists in their fields (#mansplaining), being interrupted and talked over in classrooms and workspaces, and the pressure to be better and more qualified than their male counterparts for the exact same position or role, almost like compensating for their being a woman and like it’s an implicit disadvantage. It’s something that nearly 100 million people saw during the live telecast of the debate, it was something that Hillary Clinton – a person who’s held various positions of power in her life – went through, and is also something I, a 20 year old Indian woman studying economics, discussed with my 18 year old American study-partner pursuing International Affairs at George Washington University. This experience transcends geography, cultures, age and circumstances, although it varies in degrees.
Clinton had to stand on the stage and keep her cool while talking intelligently about policies she’d support and introduce in her tenure if elected even as a man with no political experience (as opposed to nearly 30 years she’s spent in politics) lost his cool, spoke incoherently, and had the gall to say that he had better judgement than Clinton, a former Secretary of State, in terms of international policy that he had better temperament than her.
Clear double standards in the media
I have my fair share of issues with Hillary Clinton and her policies but I admire how she navigated everything thrown at her during the debate – from hypocritical standards to an unworthy, unprepared opponent. I also found myself relating to her when she spoke to Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York . She said, “Women are seen through a different lens… there will be men speaking before me, and they’ll be pounding the message, and screaming about how we need to win the election… But I’ve learned that I can’t be quite so passionate in my presentation. I love to wave my arms, but apparently that’s a little bit scary to people. And I can’t yell too much. It comes across as ‘too loud’ or ‘too shrill’ or ‘too this’ or ‘too that.’”
While the world is waiting to see who wins the Presidential race, it’s also important to realise what a tight, uncomfortable, and unfair spot we put the women of our world in where being ‘too much’ of anything can sound the death knell of their ambitions and where they learn to walk the tightrope between the too little and too much as second nature even before they learn to be comfortable with themselves.
Note: This article was written before the release of the tapes in which Donald Trump talks trivially about sexually harassing women, and hence doesn’t reference the issue which would have otherwise found space here.
The country that everybody’s watching with hawk eyes goes to poll on 8th November, 2016. We give you a low down on what’s in store for you over the next year, so that you can make better sense of that international column in the papers.
The US Election System
The President of the United States is elected indirectly by the people of the country, and holds office for a period of four years.The citizens vote for an electoral college, which in turn elects the President. Each state is allowed to elect a fixed number of representatives to the Electoral College. This number is equal to the number of its representatives in the Congress, the American Legislature.
The political parties (primarily the Republicans and the Democrats), put forth their nominations for the electoral college candidates before the public. These nominations are usually done over the summer. The party also nominates a candidate who will run for President, after the candidates who wish to stand have made their ‘Presidential Convention Speech’ before the members of the party.
The citizens then vote for their candidates to the electoral college. Once the electoral college has been constituted, the people are assured a more or less clear idea of who is to be the next President for, the members of the electoral college, prior to being elected, have promised their vote to a particular party’s Presidential candidate. Depending on whether the Electoral College is predominantly Republican or Democrat, the President is almost unoffically decided even before the electoral college votes in November.
The election day, since 1845, has always been the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November and the term of the new President will begin on the following January 20th, after the elections.
Presidential Candidates, 2016
According to the Constitution of the United States, an individual can hold the office of the President of the United States for only two consecutive terms, which debars Democrat, President Barack Obama from standing for a third term. A number of Republicans and Democrats have already stated whether or not they are running for their party’s 2016 Presidential nomination. Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, is the first Indian-American to declare his candidacy for the Republican nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former Secretary of State, has announced that she is running for President on a prospective Democratic Party candidature. Business tycoon and reality television actor, Donald Trump, has also, rather controversially, declared that he will be running for the Republican nomination for President. According to public opinion polls, Trump has garnered high levels of support, with his promise to “make America great again.”
For those of us watching from the outside, the election procedure that is to unfold over the next year looks like it’s going to be an interesting spectacle.
