Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Why do politicians hate outsiders, such as Trump and Modi?

CNN is projecting that Donald Trump has won a massive victory in Nevada, with 42% of votes, Marco Rubio coming a distant second with 25% and Ted Cruz trailing in third place with 21.9%,  ahead of super Tuesday on 1 March, so that he carries the momentum to winning the Republican party nomination for the presidential election in November. So, who is The Donald, as he likes to call himself? He is a billionaire who built his fortune from real estate, has been married 3 times, has promised to build a wall to stop illegal immigration from Mexico, says that he will temporarily ban Muslims from entering the US, says that he has not been bought by special interests like other politicians because he is funding his own campaign and says that he will make the US great again. Naturally, liberals, who always talk down to us from the summit of Mount Olympus, say that he " is an ill-informed, inexperienced, bigoted, sexist xenophobe. And he's not a conservative at heart, just a pandering opportunist." So, what about the people who vote for him? Well they are a " Confederacy of dunces " said one newspaper, another saw New Hampshire voters as "...racist sexist xenophobic " and a third felt that the media had been soft on him and not focused on " months of bigoted comments and pathological dishonesty ". Although completely different there are similarities between Trump and our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Modi is not a billionaire but, like Trump, is feared because he cannot be bought. Trump is paying for his own campaign and Modi has no children, so no need to amass a fortune for them by any means possible. Trump is accused of creating an atmosphere of paranoia while Modi is reviled as spreading Hindu terrorism through an army of saffron chaddis. Trump promises to " Make America Great Again " while Modi is derided for promising " acche din ", which means " good times ", even as political opponents have disrupted 2 sessions the Rajya Sabha completely so that the economy is not allowed to grow and Modi can be blamed for persisting poverty. The media in the US abuses Trump in vile language in an effort to promote his opponents whereas the media in India is creating social tensions, even rioting, by manufactured stories about minorities and dalits. Trump has promised to build a wall to stop illegal immigration from Mexico while Modi is trying to stop immigration from Bangladesh which is being encouraged by the Congress, to increase its 'vote bank'. Americans are angry because of lack of jobs, immigration, because it is becoming weak and because people despise politicians who have brought Congress to a standstill out of petty self interest. Sound familiar?

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