The White race and failed capitalism failed Hilary Clinton

Nov 10, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I do not live in the US so I have to rely on analyses I have seen from people whose erudition I respect. But never mind that; we live in a global village and we can monitor happenings from far away and arrive at original conclusions. The rest of this commentary is my opinion on why Mrs. Clinton failed. In offering my viewpoint, I relied on some graphical statistical outlays that are incontrovertible.
First, the electorate in the US in this election was 70 percent White. Obama took a majority of that. His percentage of that section of the electorate decreased when he ran the second time (against Mitt Romney but again he took the majority). In this election, Trump took the majority. There is widespread assessment among political observers all over the world that there was a white backlash in the election results. As I type this article, I am seeing that very point being made from commentators at CNN, columnists from the British Guardian newspaper, Yahoo News etc.
Secondly, the Trump victory reminds me so vividly of my studies as a history freshman at the University of Guyana when I concentrated on doing research on Germany under Hitler. Germany was devastated after the First World War, Poverty and hopelessness were ubiquitous. Hitler came on the scene and promised to make Germany great again. Every child and his/her parents wanted Hitler to do that. He won the 1933 elections.
By the time the 2016 election came, capitalism had failed a substantial percentage of American citizens. For reasons that cannot be explained here, the excitement about Obama was that he would help reduce the inequalities that set America apart from all other rich, developed states. In the US today, there are far greater equalities among classes than any other post-industrial society. Statistics show that over the last 50 years in the US, the income gap has relentlessly widened between lower and richer classes. In many ways Obama did curtail this expanding culture of inequality but the expectations of the poor, the working people, blue collar employees and the middle classes were so large that they felt Obama did not do enough.
The past one hundred and fifty years, Americans have been fed a diet of American exceptionalism and the American dream of getting rich that it became a fixed part of their psychology. The average American believed that America was so rich, powerful and great that there is a place for economic advancement for every citizen.
This myth exploded from the sixties onwards and was driven by the counter-culture revolution known as the age of the hippies. From the eighties onwards, Wall Street took over the US and President Reagan became its chief servant.
By the time Obama promised the return to the Promised Land, the, working people and the lower and middle classes were yearning for the results of American exceptionalism and the American dream. The entire country saw Barack Obama as its saviour. It wasn’t to be. The trouble with American exceptionalism was, it was no longer exceptional, the dream faded and the money was no longer there. The American low income and middle classes were looking for another saviour; this time, someone who had absolutely nothing in common with the great Barack Obama.
His name was Donald Trump. He told the suffering classes that he can bring back the exceptionalism, the dream and make them get a part of the pie that they were entitled to. He reminded the historian so vividly of the 1930s and the demagoguery of Adolph Hitler.
Mrs. Clinton failed because the nature and style of American capitalism has failed the US. Voters saw her as a symbol of elite capitalism. The poor classes see the US as one big, rich Wall Street Company where the elites are in the driving seat. When Bernie Sanders descended upon the scene and took a position more leftist than Obama, he was a lightening rod. He almost took away the nomination of the Democratic Party from Mrs. Clinton.
Here now is where the election campaign was an unimaginable irony. Trump and Sanders had absolutely nothing in common but they were appealing to the same disgruntled classes. The more embrace Sanders got from the American people, the more emboldened Trump became. How ironic – both men were courting the same dissatisfied constituencies.
Trump reasoned that if Sanders was so successful, then, the small American wants changes desperately so he tapped into their psychology the same way Hitler did to the German people. The loss of Sanders and Clinton is a tragedy. But equally tragic is Trump’s victory.

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One thought on “The White race and failed capitalism failed Hilary Clinton”

Coconut Man November 10, 2016 at 3:16 pm

Freddy, how come the the same white people you now condemn and want to paint as racist voted for Obama, a black man, twice in the past, but yet now that these very white people voted for a white man instead of a white woman, you are pissed with them?? Could it be that Hilary is seen as being way too corrupt?? Could it be that her husband created the NAFTA deal that sent their factory jobs over to Mexico?? You have to stop this hatred of white people, ease up with your racist views.

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