On Wednesday November 09, 2016, the United States of America
and the world woke up to a new dawn. In what was supposed to be a walk in the
park for Hillary Clinton, who on the eve of the election was reportedly
measuring drapes for the White House, a billionaire business man who had never
held political office defeated a 30 year professional politician for the
Presidency of the U.S. How did everybody get it so wrong?
For the first time since the 1920’s the Republican Party
will control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. However the country is still much divided.
Donald .J. Trump was able to defeat 16 opponents to become the GOP nominee, and
yet the party did not coalescence around his campaign. He was able to connect with at least half of
a nation that recognized that for the past eight years they had been sold a
bill of goods. An imperious President Obama divided the country along party,
racial and ideological lines. The real problem was that he received the
blessing of the liberal elite and a totally biased media. He started his
presidency with a hollow Nobel Peace Prize for having achieved nothing. For
eight years the Democrats and the media supported his progressive socialist
policies and his attempt to reduce the U.S. influence on the world arena. He
continuously preached for multilateralism and the increased power of the United
Nations on world matters.
President elect Trump did not win this election with huge
amount of money, but rather with speeches which sometimes verge on the divisive
and less politically correct. But what he did was to connect with the people
who are hurting economically and seen the American dream disappear in front of
their eyes. They saw an increase in regulations that hurt business and reduce
the capitalism for which the U.S is known for. a citizenry that saw that
foreigners, and illegal immigrants were given more privileges than themselves,
that their security in the face of terrorism was being minimized at the altar
of political correctness.
The bigger question is why was a Trump election so discarded
and not seen coming? The biggest reason is that for the third time in a row
pollsters got everything wrong. It seems that they did not learn anything from
Brexit and the Columbian Peace Agreement. They also misjudged the reaction of
the electorate. They underestimated Trump and his supporters. Their polling
which used more democrats in their sampling fooled them. Hillary Clinton did not realize that the
electorate did not want a continuation of a failed Obama legacy. With the
undivided support of the media and Hollywood stars she did not offer anything
new, whereas Trump offered a completely different platform, even sometimes
going against the grain of the GOP.
As a Canadian I cannot vote in the U.S elections, but what
is astonishing is the Canadian media’s continued misunderstanding of the
American psyche. Most Canadian Liberal pollsters showed that 78% of Canadians
would have preferred a Clinton presidency. To me these numbers are not surprising
given how U.S political issues are reported in this country. Most, if not all,
Canadian media take their lead from the same feeds : All Broadcast for Clinton
(ABC), National Broadcast for Clinton (NBC), Clinton Broadcasting Service
(CBS), and of course the Clinton News
Network (CNN); each one of them with a progressive
liberal and socialist bias. No wonder
that Canadians have no idea that there are different views in the U.S. This is
done to further a progressive agenda in Canada. Reality will soon strike when
Trump starts reversing many of Obama’s policies especially those concerning,
climate change, pipelines and health care. As a disciple of David Ricardo’s
economic theories, I support trade and I believe that Trumps’ threat to
renegotiate NAFTA is going to be less harmful for Canada than expected. As for
TPP certain aspects need to be clarified and I trust a Trump administration to
be able to do this as a business rather than a political negotiation.
Trump’s views on military and security issues may frighten
some people. President Reagan came in and was portrayed as a man with a finger
on the nuclear button. But history showed us that negotiation from a position
of strength worked not only for the U.S but for the world. In today’s world we
live under a cloud of a terrorist attack, and we need a different approach,
Trump may bring a more pragmatic rather than an appeasing strategy in dealing
with a resurgent Russia and a growing and decentralized terrorism threat. Trump
should be prepared for a terrorist attack in the early days of his presidency
and complacency must be the last thing on his agenda.
The 2016 presidential elections showed us that the
electorate knows best. Trump was elected despite the media bias. America wanted
true change, not a rhetorical one based on ideology. America decided that hope
and change resided in less regulations, executive orders and government
interference. Americans chose a new President, Canadians who are arrogant
enough to think that they know what the U.S needs are, should be very careful
in not misjudging our neighbours and focus more on what the homeland electorate
may decide in the coming years, because the Trudeau government may be going
down the same path as the Obama failed legacy.
Vulgarity is not acceptable, but corruption and fraud are
criminal acts and for those who lament that a woman was not elected, we must
acknowledge that it was not a rejection of the candidate’s gender but rather a
rejection of the person. The U.S may be ready for a woman president, but not
for ‘that woman’.
Good luck to President Donald J.Trump who promises true
change and economic hope with it.
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