THE CARIBBEAN MIGHT need a Donald Trump.
Not a politician whose attitude to women is cave-manish. We have those. Not a politician accused of shady business dealings. We have those. Not a politician who often speaks in a tactless and disrespectful manner. We have those too. And we already have politicians who when they speak, you wonder if their noses would grow, as if they were made of wood. Caribbean society is ahead of the United States in accepting politicians with questionable attitudes and behaviour.
What we do not have, the benefit that Trump brings to the table, is a politician, independently wealthy enough, egotistical enough, charismatic enough and crazy enough to enter the political arena and catspraddle the place like a swarm of centipedes in parliament. American politics scrambles to contain the can of stinging worms that Donald Trump has opened. Maybe we need a politician who would shake things up around here.
To those of us who are already real or are in the process of getting real, Trump is a gift. The success of Trump’s presidential campaign has, in one shot, exposed the biased nature of the political system, the hypocrisy of the Christian right wing, the problematic personality behind much of the world’s entrepreneurial spirit and the irrationality and gullibility of a large segment of the population. Other more mainstream candidates have been better at covering up those things.
Exposed may be a strong word to use. We knew these things already even if we wouldn’t say them out loud. We always knew the emperor had no clothes. The Trump candidacy is like the emperor starting to skin out to bashment soca in the streets. This is a gift because we still like to pretend that we don’t see the naked truth.
We already know that politics is a dirty, partisan game. The aim of the game is to gain power. What we do not know is if it can be otherwise. That’s just real. Unfortunately, this is often at the cost of integrity and at the expense of the people. You would remember the controversy surrounding the election of George W. Bush. Trump must feel like a gift to his supporters. Even if he is a big hot mess, he is their big hot mess, the one they chose and not the one forced on them by the power brokers.
If you’ve been paying attention, you would already have known that there is a strong element in the Christian evangelical movement that is still seeking to win the American Civil War for the Confederate side. Trump must feel like a gift to many conservative Christians. The prominent Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr is reportedly still going to vote for Trump even after the latest “locker room talk” scandal.
Falwell’s father, Jerry Falwell Sr was a powerful evangelical leader, who once called for President Bill Clinton to step down because of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Falwell Sr began his career as a celebrity pastor during the civil rights era. He campaigned against Martin Luther King Jr and the desegregation of schools. He started a religious school, which was initially for white students only, and is now headed by his son.
If you’ve been paying attention, the celebration of American-style entrepreneurship and the private sector as potentially saving the economy would have been causing you discomfort for a while. You would remember that the global recession was caused by unchecked greed in the private sector. You would be aware of the insufficiency of checks and balances in the corporate world and an imbalance in race and gender. Trump is a gift. The unfiltered businessman, though he may be an extreme caricature, gives us insight into the private minds behind the private sector: Trump’s circle.
Billionaire Donald Sterling is the former owner of an American professional basketball team. He received a lifetime ban from the NBA after the public release of a recording of him chastising his mistress for taking pictures with black celebrities. Sterling said he didn’t even mind if his mistress slept with black people as long as she was not seen in public with them. He told her that she should present herself as a white woman (she is half black and Hispanic) and not associate publicly with blacks. Sterling implied that he was concerned about the opinion of people in his wealthy circle who were disturbed by her associations. The Sterling scandal would have caused those paying attention to wonder about the racial and gender attitudes among the wealthy business class: Sterling’s circle.
Both Sterling and Trump have been sued in the past for refusing to allow blacks to rent apartments in buildings they owned. However, Trump’s own problematic attitudes when it comes to race have only recently been given much attention because of his entry into politics. It’s easier to hide problematic attitudes in the privacy of the private sector.
As it should be. Don’t we have a right to think what we want to think and feel how we want to feel? I support any politician’s right to be as uncouth as they want to be. I prefer to know. Trump has the decency to show it freely.
We may need the emergence of a political figure whose behaviour and speech is so audacious and shocking it arrests the attention and imagination of an apathetic public. This may force some of us out of our customary voluntary position of “bottom in the air and face buried in the sand” to confront the shadow of Caribbean society. We may start to pay more attention, but the downside is, we may find it more challenging to rein in that person than America does with Trump.
Adrian Green is a creative communications specialist. Email: [email protected]
