The US Presidential elections are underway. And an outsider, an anti-establishment crusader, is taking both the American public and the non-American junta by storm. Some believe he is a messiah, someone who can fix America and make it “great again”. The others love how he “says things like they are instead of being politically correct.” Although, analysts are confused. No sane, rational mind on the whole earth had taken Donald Trump seriously just a few months ago when he filed his nomination as a Republican Party candidate. Not a single politician was ready to accept that a businessman who has never held a public office and has no knowledge about basic policies could run such a successful campaign. But yet, here we are. On November 8th, USA would vote to decide on who takes the most important job in the world. And a xenophobic, anti-Islamic, ex-reality show star named Donald Trump is a more than serious contender for it. To start things of, let’s see one of his comments :
"'Unstable' Hillary, she lacks the judgment, temperament and moral character to lead this country. She is a totally unhinged person.”
Those are some kind words Trump chose against her Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton. ‘Crooked’ Hillary, like he calls her. And that’s just one tweet among thousands of such scathing remarks. How could such a man be taken seriously, you ask?
Well, we don’t have to look very far away to understand that.
"When Modi could not handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice. Modi is a coward and psychopath."
Yup. Our own dear Kejriwal. It maybe a post election comment by the Delhi CM, but still fit for comparison with Trump’s remarks on his opponent. Kejriwal may have started losing supporters now, but that’s another matter. The run-up to recent Delhi Vidhan Sabha elections were full of direct attacks by politicians on each other.
Both Trump and Kejriwal have been miraculously successful in making people believe in them. Is beginner’s luck at play? Are people around the world adventurous enough to entrust newcomers even when their policies don’t sound like erm..policies?
Talking about policies, they are another point of similarity between Trump and Kejriwal.
“Obamacare. We're going to repel it, we're going to replace it, get something great. Repeal it, replace it, get something great!”
I kid you not, they are Trump’s exact words. What’s the great plan? No one knows. Just like no one knew how Delhi was going to get free WiFi. There are other several statements like:
“We’ll strengthen the military so that it's so big and so strong and so great that nobody's going to mess with us."
Yeah, right. But how? Now of course our own Kejru couldn’t talk much about the military during his elections. But we all know the wonders he talks he could bring about if Delhi police was under his control.
Finally let’s talk about their pet projects. If you haven’t already heard, Trump wants to build a wall (solid, not fenced), along the US-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration. A plan which if put to work would cost their nation anywhere around $15-$20 billion dollars. And of course we know what’s going to happen if he wins. *cough*Jan Lokpal *cough*. If you are wondering, Jan Lokpal bill, the stuff for which people were willing to die a few years back, has still not been made into a law. Yep. That’s right.
Maybe, it’s not despite the policies that people support maniacal people to top jobs. Maybe, it’s because of them. The public is bored of the regular soft speak and cryptic diplomatic language which they hear from the mainstream politicians. It wants real action and change. It’s the resentment against the system which drives one to vote irrespective of 100 cons when they see the 1 pro they really care about.
What’s more, both Trump and Kejriwal have some sort of fixation with certificates. Donald Trump led a massive campaign during Obama’s election demanding to see his birth certificate. He wanted to be assured of his Americanness. Cut to India, where we saw the Modi certificate fiasco. Result? Both the certificates were later released and both Trump and Kejriwal ‘appeared’ to be unsatisfied with the authenticity.
Although, something still appears amiss. Arvind Kejriwal’s party lost badly in the nationwide 2014 polls, whereas Trump has won multiple states during his party primary polls. Donald Trump certainly has something Kejriwal doesn't. What’s Trump doing better and different than his Indian vindicator?
“America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.”
That’s a Trump statement. Now match it with this:
“‘India First’. Whatever you do, wherever you work, India should be the top priority for all its citizens.”
No points for guessing whose words from 2013 I’m quoting; our Pradhan Mitra, Narendra Modi. Along with the sensational politics of Kejriwal, Donald Trump has somehow maintained the traditional conservative/nationalist image of Modi too. So much so that if you just replace “Pakistan” with “China” in most of Modi’s election speeches from 2013-14, you’ll have Trump speeches of 2015-16.
All said and done, media, the fourth estate, appears to be a real underdog in the whole game. Or a dog, if you believe Andrew Brietbart, a popular American conservative commentator - "Feeding the media is like training a dog. You can't throw an entire steak at a dog to train it to sit. You have to give it little bits of steak over and over again until it learns." It may as well be the reason we even have such politicians today!
After all, if media wasn’t interested in Donald and Kejriwal, we wouldn’t have seen a Donald-Kejriwal phenomenon.
Image credits : Pallaw Kumar/Google Images
"'Unstable' Hillary, she lacks the judgment, temperament and moral character to lead this country. She is a totally unhinged person.”
Those are some kind words Trump chose against her Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton. ‘Crooked’ Hillary, like he calls her. And that’s just one tweet among thousands of such scathing remarks. How could such a man be taken seriously, you ask?
Well, we don’t have to look very far away to understand that.
"When Modi could not handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice. Modi is a coward and psychopath."
Yup. Our own dear Kejriwal. It maybe a post election comment by the Delhi CM, but still fit for comparison with Trump’s remarks on his opponent. Kejriwal may have started losing supporters now, but that’s another matter. The run-up to recent Delhi Vidhan Sabha elections were full of direct attacks by politicians on each other.
Both Trump and Kejriwal have been miraculously successful in making people believe in them. Is beginner’s luck at play? Are people around the world adventurous enough to entrust newcomers even when their policies don’t sound like erm..policies?
Talking about policies, they are another point of similarity between Trump and Kejriwal.
“Obamacare. We're going to repel it, we're going to replace it, get something great. Repeal it, replace it, get something great!”
I kid you not, they are Trump’s exact words. What’s the great plan? No one knows. Just like no one knew how Delhi was going to get free WiFi. There are other several statements like:
“We’ll strengthen the military so that it's so big and so strong and so great that nobody's going to mess with us."
Yeah, right. But how? Now of course our own Kejru couldn’t talk much about the military during his elections. But we all know the wonders he talks he could bring about if Delhi police was under his control.
Finally let’s talk about their pet projects. If you haven’t already heard, Trump wants to build a wall (solid, not fenced), along the US-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration. A plan which if put to work would cost their nation anywhere around $15-$20 billion dollars. And of course we know what’s going to happen if he wins. *cough*Jan Lokpal *cough*. If you are wondering, Jan Lokpal bill, the stuff for which people were willing to die a few years back, has still not been made into a law. Yep. That’s right.
Maybe, it’s not despite the policies that people support maniacal people to top jobs. Maybe, it’s because of them. The public is bored of the regular soft speak and cryptic diplomatic language which they hear from the mainstream politicians. It wants real action and change. It’s the resentment against the system which drives one to vote irrespective of 100 cons when they see the 1 pro they really care about.
What’s more, both Trump and Kejriwal have some sort of fixation with certificates. Donald Trump led a massive campaign during Obama’s election demanding to see his birth certificate. He wanted to be assured of his Americanness. Cut to India, where we saw the Modi certificate fiasco. Result? Both the certificates were later released and both Trump and Kejriwal ‘appeared’ to be unsatisfied with the authenticity.
Although, something still appears amiss. Arvind Kejriwal’s party lost badly in the nationwide 2014 polls, whereas Trump has won multiple states during his party primary polls. Donald Trump certainly has something Kejriwal doesn't. What’s Trump doing better and different than his Indian vindicator?
“America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.”
That’s a Trump statement. Now match it with this:
“‘India First’. Whatever you do, wherever you work, India should be the top priority for all its citizens.”
No points for guessing whose words from 2013 I’m quoting; our Pradhan Mitra, Narendra Modi. Along with the sensational politics of Kejriwal, Donald Trump has somehow maintained the traditional conservative/nationalist image of Modi too. So much so that if you just replace “Pakistan” with “China” in most of Modi’s election speeches from 2013-14, you’ll have Trump speeches of 2015-16.
All said and done, media, the fourth estate, appears to be a real underdog in the whole game. Or a dog, if you believe Andrew Brietbart, a popular American conservative commentator - "Feeding the media is like training a dog. You can't throw an entire steak at a dog to train it to sit. You have to give it little bits of steak over and over again until it learns." It may as well be the reason we even have such politicians today!
After all, if media wasn’t interested in Donald and Kejriwal, we wouldn’t have seen a Donald-Kejriwal phenomenon.
Image credits : Pallaw Kumar/Google Images