An Irish perspective on Trump’s victory
by Gerard Bell
As I went to sleep at 6.ooam Irish time on November 9th, I was so tired I could barely process what I had just bore witness to. A man with a litany of debacles around him and whose campaign was unprecedentedly light on policy specifics will became the 45th president of the United States of America. This couldn’t have happened. Surely my exhaustion in staying up until a horrendously early time had made me delirious. It couldn’t have really happened, could it? Indeed, it could, and it did.
As I awoke at a similarly bizarre time of 2.00pm, I was instantly hit with a feeling of emptiness; Donald Trump had won and I and so many of my peers had been suckered into the same false sense of security that the legacy media had in the States insofar as we put too much heed into the polls. Indeed, a man that is the butt of all the jokes, a man with little policies other than to do ‘great’ things, a man who has managed to insult women and most all minorities has become one of the most powerful individuals in the world – it really was, and of course still is, hard to process.
Now before I continue, I feel I need to make this clear; I hold no liking for Hilary Clinton, far from it. In fact, Bernie would have been my choice – but that’s for another day. I have, however, noticed, during this election that one cannot hold dissenting opinions about one of the two primary candidates without being accused of ‘ignoring the other candidate’s flaws’. This piece is about Trump, at no point should you simply assume that I think Clinton’s ‘great’.
However, that being said, I would have picked Clinton 100 times without a second thought when the alternative is so hopelessly devoid of substance, spouts populist rhetoric at an alarming rate, has a never-ending loose relationship with truths whilst being in a love-fest with blatant falsehoods and of course, there is the issue of his misogyny, racism, xenophobia and homophobia. But having said all that, he’s the man now – that’s the reality for us all, well for Americans anyway.
There’s little point in rehashing already recycled talking points pertaining to dissecting why exactly this result came to fruition. We know Trump managed to receive less votes than the previous two Republican nominees who themselves lost relatively handsomely to out-going president Barack Obama. We know this, so he didn’t ‘mobilize’ people to any great degree at all, far from it – she just failed miserably in that regard, if only she wasn’t the nominee… All ifs and buts, but we will never know if a candidate such as Sanders would have ultimately beaten a brutally-effective showman such as Trump.
A week has passed since that most unfortunate of days, and over the recently passed weekend, I attended the 16th Cleraun Media Conference held in Dublin. This conference is scheduled to take place every two years with the agenda being that it acts as a forum where media practitioners can address and discuss ethical and professional issues which arise in the course of their work in a positive and constructive way. Sounds boring, perhaps? Well as an aspiring journalist, yes, even I would say a bit, yeah – however one speaker caught the attention of my journalistic eyes. Carol Leonnig – the American Pulitzer Prize-Winning journalist working with the Washington Post. She was scheduled to give two talks over the three day conference. I just knew she’d have valuable insight on the elections and Trump in particular, so I went – and she didn’t disappoint.
She spoke with an assured confidence whilst her face was constantly delighting at the notion that she was in a room full of like-minded people that had nothing but respect for all her accomplishments and endeavors. This is the same woman that won the Pulitzer Prize for revealing that President Obama’s security had been compromised by the misconduct and failures of the Secret Service. She also works for a publication that was banned for much of Trump’s campaign trail. Carol went on to say that, given how Trump broke with tradition last Thursday by heading to Washington DC. Without a ‘protected pool’ of journalists, she believes Trump spells bad news for the media.
I tend to agree.
You have to remember, this is the same man who blatantly lies and refuses to accept said lies even when mounting evidence is put forth that shows him doing just that – so for him to suggest that he’s treating the ‘lying media’ this way for all their supposed lies, would be, sensationally hypocritical. Most of the time – not all, of course – the media has portrayed him the way he’s acted. Whether you believe the media has been light on Hillary comparatively speaking is a fair question and one that is due consideration – however, most of what the media have said about Trump is irrefutably correct.
The real question is why do people support someone who unashamedly lies and has mocked a shockingly high number of people who also has little idea what he’s talking about? These are just facts. Those pesky facts are always getting in the way. Is the only reason that these people simple believe Clinton was worse? That she’s an ‘establishment’ candidate? That her emails are simply ‘disgraceful’ whereas his past misdemeanours are so often excused as ‘it was a long time ago’ or ‘because eh Hillary is the devil’. Again, I’m not a Clinton fan, but I do find it strangely hilarious when certain people love to ridicule her for all her apparent failings but are less so inclined to do so with his – I wonder why that is?
So, as I mingle with my friends and discuss world matters, there is still a feeling of shock resonating with us – for two reasons. Firstly, we were very surprised that Trump won and secondly, we are simply flabbergasted that such an openly offensive candidate who is devoid of any meaningful plans and who compulsively lies could take office. Indeed, we truly are living in a post-factual world.
What now, though?
Trump has recently made interesting remarks about Obama-care and Gay marriage to name but two. Could it be that all this talk of wholesale changes was pure bluff in order to pander to the extremes of the US? Surely not, surely….Anyway, I sincerely hope President Elect Trump isn’t impeached as the man who would succeed him, would be even worse.
Gerard Ball is a 23 year old journalism student from Ireland.