Trump and Consequences
“Trump and Consequences”
There’s a Chamorro saying, comes in different forms, but
follows this basic logic, “an esta masångan, mappot pumañot tåtte.” Once
something has been said, it’s difficult to swallow back.
by Michael Lujan Bevacqua
The Guam Daily Post
March 30, 2016
This applies to what parents say to their children. What
friends say to each other. What people post on their Facebook or Instagram. It
is a simple reminder, that while it is easy to spit whatever nonsense comes
into your mind at any given moment, the ease with which it is verbalized, is in
direct contrast to how impossible it may be to rid the world of it. Nowhere is
this more true than for politicians. There is an amazing process in which
lifetimes of public service, legacies of accomplishment are reduced to gaffes,
or mistakes or slips of the tongue. You must always be vigilante about what you
say, because once it leaves your mouth, it belongs to the world, and it can be
used to elevate you higher or drag you lower.
It has been remarkable to watch the rise and rise and rise
of billionaire Donald Trump in this year’s election for President of the United
States. He has defied conventional wisdom and even perceived common decency
time and time again, to continue winning in Republican primaries, much to the horror
of the majority of his own political party. What has been most remarkable for
me, is the massive unchecked ego that he navigates the world with, which makes
it possible for him to say ridiculous things, reverse his positions almost
instantly, and take up a variety of mind-blowing policy arguments without
appearing to know anything about them or consider what types of challenges or
consequences would be involved.
For most of the election cycle, we have been able to observe
the chaos of the Republican primaries from afar. As comedian Stephen Colbert
has noted, this political season, which at one point had more than 15
candidates, isn’t just the Hunger Games, it is the Hungry-For-Power-Games! From
Guam, we could watch as the Republican party eviscerated itself, trying with so
little success to tame the angry white fearful political base that they have
spent generations creating. Trump emerged like a towering “yuge” beast,
smashing aside all respectful, likeable or “electable” candidates and becoming
a deity for this menacing base to worship and to see as their savior. For the
millions who nurse daily at the teat of Fox News, and are fearful of Sharia
law, anchor babies and secret Obama cabinet Muslims coming to take their guns
and declare war on Christmas, how could someone as bland and normal as Jeb Bush
inspire them? Only someone like Trump, who promises grandiose impossible things
as often as he blinks, could sate them. Only he who can salve their irrational
and laughable feelings of marginalization and oppression, with equally
irrational and laughable aggression could be the one to guide them. When those
who belong to what you could argue is the most privileged demographic of people
in the history of the human race, want to act like they are a besieged and
embattled minority, only someone who is filled with an equal level of fantasy
and insanity could be the hero they are searching for.
Trump reared his voice and his large orange head locally,
briefly earlier this month for the Republican caucus on Guam. His comments were
vague and baffling. Trump who leads a coalition of people who appear to become
more xenophobic and racist with each state that votes, reaching out to one of
the most diverse places in the American empire was hysterical. He used the same
rhetoric used on the campaign trail, referring to the territories as places not
taken seriously, and he will make sure we are treated seriously. It would be
interesting to hear what a focus-group of Trump supporters might say about
places like Guam, and what they know about them and how they should be treated?
This is both part of the appeal, but also the danger of
Trump. It is enticing, because he appears beyond political calculations. He is
definitely not your usual politician. He may have an ego the same size as your
usual politician, but his approach to politics is generally something that
would disqualify him from ever achieving a sizeable presence in terms of
political power. Straight-talking or straight shooting sounds nice, but tends
to be a terrible approach to governance and also leads to people who know
little of the world or their own country being propelled into power.
This is one of the many dangers with Trump, is that because
he doesn’t seem to have any internal order to ideology, but just wants to be in
the news and wants to be liked, he speaks and acts without any sense of what
might happen afterwards, who might be affected and who might get hurt. We can
see this in terms of the treatment of protestors at his rallies. We can see it
in the way he has thoughtlessly or strategically demonized various groups,
further inflaming the racial animus that makes up his core supporters. We can
also see this in the way Trump talks about the rest of the world, and the how
his foreign policy seems to be built on whatever random fragment of information
he knows about a certain place. He sees authoritarian leaders as being models
that he admires and sees almost every other country as needing to be put in its
place. As his rhetoric is built around America losing, being taken advantage of
and needing to be made great again, he is constantly speaking in coded terms
about a lost greatness. Something that was there before and we can’t find
anymore. His foreign policy is built on the idea that people around the world,
have gotten their grimy mitts on America’s greatness, and they need to be
forced into giving it back.
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