Guyanese have nothing to lose under Trump

Nov 10, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Guyanese are ‘worked-up’ about the outcome of the elections. It is as almost as if the outcome of the elections mattered to them. Whatever happens in the United States is not going to affect much what happens locally in Guyana. The United States is not a major contributor to the development of Guyana. They give us less money than most other countries of the world. The US is more interested in what they can get from Guyana than what they give.
Guyanese have always been pro-Democratic Party. They have tended to support the Democratic Party (DP) and their candidates in elections. They expect immigrant communities to do better under a Democratic leadership. They expect the Caribbean to get more help under a liberal rather than a conservative government.
They are wrong on all these scores. The DP has done little for Guyanese in the USA. They have disappointed the Caribbean. No Democratic leader has been more disappointing to the Caribbean than Obama. He has done nothing, absolutely nothing, in his eight years as President for the Caribbean. It is time for the Caribbean to pin its hopes in a conservative President.
Guyanese will never admit that it was Obama, a historic president, whose poor performance as a president, has led to the loss of power by the Democratic Party. They will never concede that Trump was only able to win because of the disaffection amongst large sections of the working class with the failures of the Obama administration.
Guyanese, at home and in the USA, supported Hillary Clinton not because she is a woman or because they liked her policy. They supported her because they feared Trump.
Hillary Clinton is an unimpressive politician. She could not beat Obama; her party used dirty tactics against Bernie Sanders and she failed the ultimate test against Donald Trump who is not someone that it takes much to dislike.
Everybody loses at some time or the other. Hillary lost in the past. She has lost now. Trump lost in the past. He has won now. It is his time. The world should respect the fact that, according to the rules, he won the elections.
You cannot say you support democracy and be not accept the outcome of elections. And when it comes to not wanting to accept the results of elections, Guyanese stand in a league of their own.
If anything it is the Americans who seem to be adopting the Guyanese attitude to elections – refuse to accept the results if the party you support does not win.
Guyanese are the least people who should be criticizing the Americans for failing to elect its first woman President. Guyana did have a woman President. And look how she was treated. There was an opportunity for Guyana in 2015 to elect its first ever female Prime Minister. The treatment that was meted out to this woman was far worse than what Hilary got at the hands of the Republicans.
The shock that greeted Trump election was because Guyanese people were misled by the polls. It is not that the polls were wrong. Guyanese were looking at the wrong numbers. They were judging the outcome based on the popular vote which consistently had Hilary ahead. Trump won comfortably in the end despite narrowly losing the popular votes. The outcome of the elections was about who would win the 270 votes required in the electoral college, not about who would win the popular vote.
The result of the elections in the USA, on November 8, 2016, was closer that the Guyanese elections of 2015, judged solely in terms of the popular vote. But in terms of the Electoral College, Trump won by a fair margin but in almost all the swing states, the race was too close to call.
The Democrats have to accept that they lost the elections. They cannot be sour losers.
The results should not surprise anyone. The Republicans, it should be mentioned, also had a big night in the Congressional elections. The national elections more or less, therefore, mirrored the national mood.
The Democratic Party, under Clinton, sent home their supporters last night without conceding. They did not want to face them. This is a shocking respect. You send home your supporters who were there all day and all night standing by your side?
Guyanese, however, have an interest in the elections because of the large Guyanese population in the United States. The population is large relative to Guyana standards but in terms of minorities in the USA, the Guyanese community is small grouping with little or no socio- economic impact.
Guyanese, living in the United States, are not a problem group. They work hard, generally abide by the law, pay their taxes, save a lot of their money and send their children to school. They are not going to be affected by any anti-immigration policy. Guyanese are model immigrants. They are the kind of immigrants that even a Donald Trump would support for America.

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