Hillary Clinton is the
political mask of the corporate face of America, but Donald Trump is the real
deal.
“Clinton has a proven record
of murderous warmongering, on par with any Republican warmonger. Donald Trump
only promises to do and be more of the same that she has done...”
http://www.aljazeera.com//indepth/opinion/2016/03/salesman-politicians-donald-trump-hillary-clinton
A spectre is hovering high
over the United States - the spectre of a Trump presidency. All the elders of
the Republican Party have now entered into a frightful alliance to disown and
exorcise this spectre. But the goblin listens to no one, as millions of
xenophobic, angry, "poorly educated" (as Trump proudly calls his own
supporters), mostly white men and women storm around him, raising their right hands "Sieg Heil" style and
pledging allegiance.
"In an extraordinary
display of Republican chaos," CNN reports, "the party's most recent presidential
nominees, Mitt Romney and John McCain, lambasted current frontrunner Donald
Trump on Thursday, calling him unfit for office and a danger for the nation and
the GOP [Grand Old Party]."
The cause for fear is
self-evident: "GOP hawks declare war on Trump," according to reports, "Prominent Republican hawks are
debating whether to hold their noses and vote for Clinton instead."
Corporate skin, political
masks
What is the difference between
Trump and Clinton? This is the critical question the US voters face this year,
but not the world at large, for which Trump promises to do more of what Clinton
and all Democrat and Republican presidents before her have already done and
continue to do to the world.
The difference between Trump
and Clinton is the difference between commodity and branding. Trump is the real
face of corporate America, Clinton its mask. In choosing Donald Trump,
Americans are choosing corporate America instead of its representative Hillary
Clinton. Donald Trump is the real deal, Hillary Clinton is the camouflage.
Why buy the stooge of
corporate America, Donald Trump supporters are effectively asking, when the
real deal, their preferred candidate, is on sale?
Why buy the stooge of
corporate America, Donald Trump supporters are effectively asking, when the
real deal ... is on sale?
|
This is a decisive moment
because the fake facade of US politics is finally falling down and the naked
truth of corporate reality running this show reveals its naked fascistic face
for the whole world to see.
A demagogue salesman is
appealing to the basest instinct of US consumers, to the very logic of US
capitalism run amuck.
His supporters have been
trained Pavlovian dog-style for Trump from birth and now instinctively each
time they push a cart down the supermarket isle hunt for the cheapest product
on sale. Trump is the cheapest product on sale.
Naked fascism
The naked fascism that Trump
flaunts today has always been there but hidden behind the mask of
politics-as-usual; hidden behind smiling faces, false promises, gaudy
oratorical speeches, the kissing of frightened babies, the shaking of insincere
hands, while hiding the terror of global warfare, drone attacks, special forces,
secret kill lists, CIA torture chambers.
A consensus is now building in
the US that the Trump presidency is so dangerous Democrats and Republicans
should unite to prevent it by electing Hillary Clinton. But what exactly is the
difference between a Clinton and a Trump presidency for the world at large?
The prospect of a Trump
presidency is only frightful if you think Hillary Clinton's record of
warmongering around the world - from Iraq to Libya to her threatening Iran with annihilation - is a stellar
record of high-minded and competent diplomacy.
Americans have every reason to
fear a Trump presidency, but the world at large has not an iota of reason to
believe Clinton would be any better. Trump is promising to deliver to Americans
a dose of what Clinton, her husband, the current US president, and all the
Republicans and Democrat presidents before him have administered to the world
at large.
Now suddenly these Republicans
are scared of fascism. They did not worry about fascism when they produced
George W Bush, who wreaked havoc on Afghanistan and Iraq and set in motion a
criminal catastrophe that has now resulted in murderous mayhem raging from Iraq
to Syria.
But now that Trump appears to
threaten their entire party apparatus suddenly they worry about fascism.
Fascism arrived and wreaked havoc from one end of the globe to another by these
very Republican cons and neocons a very long time ago.
Xenophobia is on sale
Clinton has a proven record of
murderous warmongering on a par with any Republican warmonger. Donald Trump
only promises to do more of what she has done. He has no record of any such
atrocities as yet.
He, in fact, has occasionally
condemned both the Afghan and Iraq invasions, and on Israeli murderous records
he has declared himself agnostic and neutral, even daring to suggest that
Israel is not sincere in its claim to be peaceful. And, contrary to Clinton, he
is not in any billionaire Zionist's deep pocket and has not written and signed
a pledge of allegiance to those hell-bent on stealing the entirety of Palestine
no matter what the cost to Palestinian lives and Liberty.
Yes, indeed, the horrors of
Trump's xenophobic racism and misogyny against Mexicans, Muslims, women etc is
abominable, but we know all this because he is not a seasoned politician and
has not learned how to conceal and camouflage his racism.
When Clinton's guard was down
and she did not realise the cameras were rolling, she too called young African Americans "super-predators"
who had to be "brought to heel".
She is the same person - only
now she has learned how to camouflage her racism. Trump has not mastered that
art. Trump has a different product to sell - himself - and has targeted a
different market - white supremacists basking in their racism. The salesman is
naked in his fascism, the politician is properly dressed in socially acceptable
verbiage.
In choosing Trump over
Clinton, Americans are opting to buy the real product instead of a badly
packaged camouflage representation of that product.
Clinton is the political mask
of the corporate face of America, and this time around Americans wish to see
the real face of their government, the rule of corporate America, and not some
corrupt politician being funded by them to represent that face with a mask of
fair play and warm wishes.
The views expressed in this
article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's
editorial policy.
Source: Al Jazeera
About the Author
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop
Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia
University.
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