The American polity, despite its professed maturity, is continuing to display traces of schizophrenia ever since the 1970s – or what one may call, at the very least, wild mood swings. Let us begin with Nixon’s resignation following the Watergate scandal. The Republican left a tarnished image so much so that when the time came to elect another President, the American electorate chose plain old Jimmy. Carter who? was the common refrain when his name gained prominence.
The Americans, though, wanted someone simple and honest, after Nixon’s evil machinations. Under Carter, though, America’s unquestioned power was itself seen as a cause for its impotence. Enter Ronald Reagan! Reagan promptly replaced peanuts in the White House with a prominent jar of colourful jelly beans on his desk. Tuxedos and black ties easily mingled with news of America using its might for what was thought just, even if it meant cutting corners. Reagan could never, however, erase people’s perception of him as being “very racist”. Enter Bill Clinton, (the “Good Bush” was elected on the tailwind of Reagan) referred to as the “first Black President”, favoured an overt espousal of African- American causes and strove to jettison ‘trickle-down’ policies.
Clinton’s ‘stains’ in the Oval Office and in the minds of American polity, though, were hard to erase. In response, the pendulum thus swung wildly once more, to the “Bad Bush”, a Reagan wannabe. ‘W’ was radical and unilateral, often shooting from the hip. With trillions spent on the Iraq and Afghan war he handed over the American economy on the edge of a precipice to .....an African-American President. A little American history may be apt here to prove that Obama found himself in the White House way before his time. The American Civil War ended in 1865 enshrining in its wake the 15th Amendment to the Constitution assuring Blacks of their emancipation and their right to vote.
However, it took 100 years more for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to finally allow Blacks to vote. One could excuse oneself, then, for thinking that it would take another 100 years from the time Blacks were allowed to vote before a Black President was elected. If we accept Obama, then, as an anomaly, a President about 50 years before his time, then the pendulum-swing to the next President had to be someone with the raunchiness of a Trump. The President- elect, is someone whose locker-room talk has parents running to cover their children’s ears. Donald Trump will be the 45th. It just had to be!
Email: jairamseshadri@hotmail.com