Letters & Opinion, Politics

The Political Art of Creative Destruction

Clement Wulf-Soulage
By Clement Wulf-Soulage

THREATS to jail one’s political opponents, race-to-the-bottom accusations and counter-accusations of sexual assaults and crooked politics, despicable political stunts and unabashed exhortations to foreign adversaries to hack the election campaign of one’s opponents – all political machinations associated with the electoral politics of banana republics.

But wait, this is all now happening in America – the global bastion of democracy – whose libertarian values and progressive vision not too long ago, was the kind of stuff political dreams and freedoms are made of. As the presidential election enters into insane and irrational overdrive, the American dream which used to excite our hopes and sustain our confidence for a better world has now turned into an unfathomable nightmare.

While historians like to describe Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign in 1962 as racist and bigoted, Donald Trump’s tower of babble and political art of creative destruction can best be labelled: decadent and immoral, even criminal. But how did America, with its world- acclaimed academics, intellectuals, political thinkers and trail-blazing institutions allow the incorrigible Donald Trump to plunge its democratic and political rationality into a deep intellectual recession?

The answer, indubitably, lies in the destructive and obstructionist politics of the Republican Party, aided by a hapless mainstream media. The unsavoury state of affairs in the so-called Grand Old Party (GOP), has given rise to Donald Trump and his repugnant pull-up-the-drawbridge truculence – a Frankenstein’s monster that they now can’t get rid of. But one thing is certain: Trump’s ghost will haunt the Republican Party for years to come, if not decades.

At its core, politics is an effort to make human connections, but Trump seems incapable of that. Enthralled by cultural illusions and political superstitions, Mr. Trump has demonstrated, with pathological fervour, his unsuitability for the presidency on the basis of his mercurial temperament, intolerance and cultishness (reminiscent of Idi Amin’s capriciousness), the false equivalences and his gut-wrenching recalcitrance and disrespect for just about any and every one including his own daughter Ivanka.

To be sure, the 2016 presidential race has been an embarrassment of substance, not just personality. The candidacy of Donald Trump has exposed the hollowness of the hitherto respected intellectuals who have continued relentlessly to present the most preposterous arguments to support and justify the fallacies and rhetorical buffoonery of the iconoclastic and out-of-control ignoramus.

When Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, I thought for a moment that America had decided (albeit grudgingly) to finally face up to its racial demons and move to embrace the diversity and multiculturalism that has made it into an exceptional nation, unlike any other on the planet. Now I realize this was only wishful thinking on my part – specious reasoning at worst. The ominous entry of Donald Trump into the 2016 presidential race has done irreparable damage not only to race relations in the U.S., but also to the world’s perception of America as the enduring global symbol of hope and the allegorical democratic frontier.

Donald Trump and his Republican enablers represent all what we abhor about America’s racial and political past. His frequent dog whistles (including ‘Make America Great Again’) and tweeter hate have mainstreamed racial animosity in the country, and facilitated the white-nationalist right’s efforts (including the Ku Klux Klan) to overtly supplant the leadership and condemn the legacy of America’s first black president. All of a sudden, the most incorrigible white racists in America now feel free and emboldened to spew racial vitriol wherever and whenever they feel.

How does a man who continuously boasts of being “incredibly smart” spew out the following to a racial minority who is already suspicious of his motives and whom he desperately needs to win the presidency: “You live in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs. What the hell do you have to lose?” Surely, this sounds more like the rhetoric of a plantation overseer than of a caring and unifying leader.

Much in sync with the views of just about every major newspaper in America and around the world, David Rothkopf of Foreign Policy magazine has pointed out: “Trump has repeatedly insulted and attacked the U.S. military and intelligence community, its leadership, and performance – while showing such utter contempt for the electorate that he has made no visible effort to come to understand America’s situation in the world or how foreign policy works. What is more, he has demonstrated his derision for the First Amendment to the Constitution and regularly sought to block, quash, and intimidate the press. If there were a more textbook example of the narcissistic, brutal personality type from which authoritarian thugs are made, it is hard to imagine. Trump is not just an American Berlusconi, he is our Putin- or Mugabe-in-waiting.”

The thought of a Trump presidency and its impact on the world economy seem to be so scary that Foreign Policy magazine for the first time in its history has endorsed a candidate (Hillary Clinton). The magazine justifies its decision on the grounds that “A Trump presidency is among the greatest threats facing America, and the Republican standard-bearer is the worst major-party candidate for the job in U.S. history.”

But for all the gloom and doom (of course most of it, if not all, justified), I strongly believe that on Tuesday November 8th, the American people will redeem themselves and vote for a candidate who is intellectually and politically competent, and who represents the “altruistic” hope and progress America has mostly stood for. As we count down the days to this important election, consider a famous quote by Winston Churchill: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.” Hopefully in the weeks and months following the election, Mr. Trump’s post-truth revolution would have gone gurgling down into the maelstrom of history.

For comments, write to [email protected] – Clement Wulf-Soulage is a Management Economist, Published Author and Former University Lecturer.

10 Comments

  1. This is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for writing within its category.
    Every major type of media outlet in the free world ought to reprint this article verbatim.
    Even Moses atop MtSinai would smIle with approval.
    Thanks for expressing what needs to be said so succinctly with much intellectual eloquence.

  2. /

    Wolfe:

    Your article demonstrates the brainwashing of the people of African Ancestry here at home and in the world at large, who were indoctrinated to perceive the Evil Caucasian Christian as some benevolent creature, who are so overflowing with the so-called “CHRISTIAN VALUES” that they share an equal position of Rule and Authority with the Owner of the Creation Allah/God himself where the Caucasians are worshipped by you Negroes as the begotten Son of God.

    Look you pathetic well trained creature, Einstein calls you a well trained dog; millions, and millions, and millions of these white supremacists Caucasian Christians love and sees Donald Trump as the answer to their prayers, and if you imagine for a moment, that the revelations of the morbid character of “THE DONALD” will cause these evil Caucasian Christians to withdraw from their pact with Lucifer you are high on “Mollies” or Synthetic Marijuana”

    To clearly demonstrate your ignorance, stupidity, and self-hatred you cite our Great African Prince Mugabe, who had the vision and insight to expel these very same Trump-like Caucasian Christians you are condemning, and who were nothing but Pirates even as you cite The Most Honorable Robert Mugabe as the embodiment of evil.

    Were you not as miseducated as you are, incapable of being reasonable, you would have at the very least, considered why the white Supremacist Donald Trump promised at every opportunity to attack Zimbabwe militarily to murder Our African Prince Mugabe and murder the African people of Zimbabwe.

    Next time you want to give an example of Evil try this Caucasian Christian to start:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z60cYPgujDA&feature=youtu.be

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  3. ?

    Wolfe:

    Notice, I frequently use the word “TRAINED” when referring to the Negro writers Black Pete Josie and the Male Stripper, John Wayne, because of what Albert Einstein said about such Negroes:

    “ It is essential that the student acquires an understanding of, and the lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and the morally good. Otherwise he – with his specialized knowledge – more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person.” – Albert Einstein

  4. /

    Again, you brainwashed idiot, claiming, “It is hard to imagine a better textbook example of a narcissist and lowlife thug than Donald Trump”??? is you really that dense? forget the grammar, sounds better. Take another look at the Pinhead named Allen Chastanet who sees the African Lucians as Nigger Savages, and like Trump is now engaged in the importation of Casino Gambling – Gwen Deux – Roll & Tumble – Heroine dope – Prostitution – Gambino Costa Nostra – Horse Racing – Blackjack – One Arm Bandit – Sodomy and all this being done with the blessings of the Catholic Pedophiles in the homeless Shelter on Peynier Street who spend their lives watching porn, raping nuns, and masturbation, aided by the wife of Lucifer Sarah Flood.

    Negroes like Blackface Peter Josie, Rick John Wayne with his white woman, Mary Isaac, and other trained dogs of white supremacy continue to feed Africans these irrational information because as grown men you shameless Negroes continue to practice this Slave Religion of the Chastanet Crime Family and Donald Trump of WHITEMAN WORSHIP given to you on the sugarcane plantations by the white supremacist Caucasian Christian Slave Masters.

    Are you really so ill informed as to believe that there is a difference between the criminals Tony Blair, David Cameron owned slaves in Jamaica, Elizabeth – 1 & 2 queen of Pirates, Freak Harry, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton, and the other racist Winston Churchill whose words you adopt as scripture??

    What is really more frightening than Trump are negroes like yourself and John Wayne Honorary whiteman, who were miseducated and thinks the world is 6,000 years old, believing the Criminal Columbus “Discovered” anywhere, even with evidence of the African presence all across the Americas thousands of years before Caucasians knew the World was round, telling us that Africans have no history before the Santa Maria, Nina, Pinta set the first Military Fort Navidad on Hispaniola.

    https://www.facebook.com/ashleytheophane/videos/1179453448751905/

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  5. Clement (or should I call you Campeche),

    Having braved the paroxysms of laughter which your screed of deceitful propaganda elicited, and still alive afterwards, I cite a very simple response I came across in the internet, regarding the Clinton-Trump farce you highlght:

    “What was the purpose of this whole thing (the war on Iraq)? Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who’ve been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing. (Emphasis, JW)
    — Donald Trump on Iraq War, August, 2004, reiterated verbatim, August, 2016.

    Obviously I have thought about that a lot in the months since (her October 2002 vote in favor of the Iraq war resolution). No, I don’t regret giving the President authority.
    — Hillary Clinton on Iraq War, April, 2004.”

    Here is the link when the above was seen: http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/10/donald-trumps-unique-human-decency-on-iraq/

    Someone else phrased it very simply:
    “Trump’s fingerprints are on crotches [of bimbos around the world, real and imagined]. Clinton’s are on Haiti, Honduras, Libya, Syria, Iraq, anywhere U.S. Empire” has sown death and destruction!

    Hopefully the censors at the Voice of St. Lucia will, for once, let the truth be told, instead of being an incubator of propagandistic lies!

  6. Clement (aka Campeche),

    The worst your masters would want you and the US sheeple to consider the well-promoted carnival of US presidential elections to be likened to, is a World Wide Wrestling Federation match – mere entertainment to distract you from the daily drudgery of modern slavery; crabs in a barrel stored till their next grand party requires crabmeat!

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