En tu idioma / In your own language

Eduardo del Buey
Foto: Notimex
La Jornada Maya

Jueves 10 de noviembre, 2016

The voters in the United States have spoken, and we awaken to a brave new world.

Mexicans and Canadians will be asking what now, with Trump’s threat to abrogate NAFTA. The international community will be asking what now, as Trump sets his sights on the World Trade Organization. European neighbors will be asking what now, as Trump goes after NATO and cozies up to the Russians, who are expecting dividends in return for all the help they appear to have given Trump.

Women will be asking what now, since Trump will surely nominate Supreme Court justices who will abrogate a woman’s right to choose. Minorities will be asking what now, as a law and order candidate moves to take office, with all that that implies for African-Americans, Latinos, and other minorities. And Muslims will ask what now, as prejudice and hatred come into full bloom and are validated by the President-elect himself.

People around the world will ask how this result is possible. As will pollsters, whose calculations and prognostications fell woefully short of the mark.

To them, the United States is the liberal east and west coasts, with Harvard, Yale, Caltech, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and Broadway showcasing the country to the world.

But under the tip of the iceberg, the 50 por ciento plus of the United States that lies submerged from global eyes, that lives in the broad center of the country, and on the extreme right of the political spectrum -- a majority of conservative Americans, who feel ignored by popular culture and political classes, alienated from the academics that have made American learning great, and removed from the cultural and scientific icons the United States has given the world, have finally spoken.

Their decision will be met with derision by many, and their wisdom questioned globally.

Yet they don’t care. They have spoken, and someone has heard them. That is what will count for them, not global opinions or those of talking heads and pundits.

As Democratic party strategist David Axelrod said on CNN on election night, “This was a huge primal scream on the part of disenfranchised Americans.” Indeed, in the days to come, much will be analyzed about how many voters became Trump Democrats, how many millennials didn’t vote given their disdain for Clinton (who bested their populist candidate Bernie Sanders in the primaries), and how many union members from the rust belt whom Clinton seemed to take for granted heard Trump’s call.

Indeed, many had thought that Trump’s language of hatred would awaken a sleeping giant of Latino and African-American voters to oppose him. Instead, his anti-trade tirades and focus on jobs awakened the sleeping giant of the rustbelt inhabitants who have lost jobs and factories wholesale since free trade became the political mantra of Washington insiders.

We are in for a global roller coaster ride unknown since the early thirties, when fascists in Europe destroyed democratic institutions, turned the tables on the world and led to a disaster that cost tens of millions of lives and caused untold economic hardship.

It is usually unwise to compare world leaders to leaders then. However, Trump’s worldview seems to mimic theirs, and his rhetoric has taken many back to those dark days.

Capitalizing on fear over hope, hatred over unity, prejudice over understanding, and anger over love is not my way. I feel as though my world has changed forever, and what will replace it is both unknown and unwanted.

Billions around the world will be a little more scared come January 20th, 2017, a little more paranoid, and a lot more uncertain when President Trump takes office.

A man with little self-control will have his finger on the nuclear button. A man who cannot brook criticism will be in charge. A man who listens to no one will have a great impact on our individual and collective destinies.

I am angry. I am sad. I am disappointed in the choice the United States has made.

But most of all, I am scared that we will enter an era with no limits on negativity. And that should scare everyone.

Mérida, Yucatán

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