Increasing violence in American Politics

When I came to this country in 2001 Feb, economy was doing good-and violence in politics, riots were almost unheard. I remember the guy who was giving me driving lesson in NJ, an unemployed law grad-even he didn't know the name of NJ Governor. It was a time, when political polarization was almost absent.

What happened then since? China joined WTO and started dumping all of their products in USA. By 2005-6, no product made-in-USA can be found in Wallmart. During the same period, thousands of Call Center and customer service jobs have been outsourced to India. Also, thanks to automation, many Americans were losing jobs. And benefit of automation, which is increasing IT jobs didn't to go to American middleclass. Again, it has been outsourced to IT majors in India.

Results of all of these have been devastating on small American towns which relied heavily on manufacturing jobs.  I can bring example of Allentown, a small model town in Pennsylvania which used to be home for many manufacturing units. I used to visit this city for my job in 2001. It was a bustling town then. When I last visited them in 2015, the city has lost much of its manufacturing jobs.  

And when people are deprived of their basic means of living, there will be political consequence. Trump is fallout of that consequence.  We, Indians are unfortunate victim of the situation now.

Obviously American politics is no more about civilized mainstream politicians of yesteryear. It is becoming violent and polarized. Since I have grown up in India, specially in WB, violent politics is nothing new to me. But unfortunately, I never ever imagined, I had to see the same in my adopted country.

Inauguration Speech by Donald Trump

If his inauguration speech is anything to believe, it is quite clear, Trump is focused on delivering his promise-practice of protectionism to create and save American jobs. Curb on illegal immigration. Eradicate Islamic radicalism which is another cancer of the civilization.

Right now, we have Putin in Russia, Modi in India and Trump in United States. Give and take, they all follow a similar pattern. A mixed brand of politics of nationalism, protectionism, manufacturing focused economy, tough stance against Islamic radicals and dilution of liberal values prevailing in the name of political correctness.

Now, first thing to consider, why liberal America is such a bad loser in all of this. Think what happened when Bernie lost hands down against Hillary by huge popular vote. They came up with all sorts of conspiracy theories by DNC etc. Left liberals conveniently ignored and forgot, Democratic party is a coalition of vested interest groups of labors, teachers, minorities etc. and among those groups, Hillary had far better support. In Maryland Primary Hillary won by 68-28 margin. In most of the states, where there exists a proper closed primary by Democratic card holders, Bernie lost badly. Yes, left liberals refused to unite under Hillary.

Next, I will reflect on Hillary campaign. To begin with she outsourced to wrong campaign manager, John Podesta. By all fair means he is incapable. Anyone like me who travels in the rural belts of Pennsylvania, knew well that Trump will carry the Rust Belt. Almost every house in this Belt was turning a proud Trump supporter by placing "Make America Great Again Placard" in their yard . Sign was quite ominous. We were also frustrated with Obamacare which almost tripled my insurance pay while cutting the benefit by half. It may have worked for 30M poor Americans but that was at the expense of raising insurance premiums for other 270M. Anger against Obamacare was so visible. How could you not take it seriously? Instead she went on political hyperbole of feminism. What was the point? Will a single feminist ever vote for Trump? They would vote for her anyway. So strategy for Hillary would have been to focus with American working class who were disappointed with Clinton because he initiated China into GATT. Her campaign was a totally misled strategy and out of touch with common Americans. Trump did far better in getting connected to common Americans.

Even then when Trump was elected, left liberals defied all the democratic decorum to claim he is not a legitimate president! By defying a sound democratic process by which Hillary won nomination or Trump won presidency, you only prove yourself a lunatic and not an activist. Moreover, you distance yourself further from the common people who voted for Trump because beyond any reasonable doubt he exposed political corruption of DC.

So what would be political discourse for the next? We have to wait and see what Trump delivers for the American people. If he fails to deliver, American people will throw him out. But you do not throw him out before he is given a chance when such is the desire of the democracy.

Trump Cabinet is oligarchy of Billionairs. There is a good and bad side of it. On better sides, they come with executive experience of running business and people. Execution is expected to be better. This was the worst problem of Obama administration-it was extremely poor on execution because mostly ideologues run it. On bitter side-they are out of touch with middle-class hard working Americans-will they think of them? We don't know answer yet. But if Trump can force them to deliver for common and poor people, they can do it better coming from their experience.

And then there is too much of ado of Islamic radicalism that Trump is speaking about. I don't see how Trump would be able to do things differently. Dollar is a reserve currency of the world, because Saudis would give oil only in dollar -in return they earned the protection for their monarchy. How will Trump reign Saudi dollar which is breeding Wahabi Islam when dollar needs house of Sauds ?