An Opinion on the New Day

The victory of Donald J. Trump is an immobile signpost that will mark the tidal retreat from the dominant world order of the last century. America—the nation, the idea of a liberal democracy that burned on the hill in the minds of men, has burst at the seams under the weight of total control by the artificial intelligences that are Corporations.

Mega-Corporations—impossibly powerful entities with the singular concern of the profit motive—were always insoluble with the idea of a state that would be governed by the people for the people. Endless profit for enterprises with no mortal boundaries and no moral consequence. As inequality has spiraled beyond all control, and as the polity has become consumed with funding its re-election, the media has abandoned the pretense of acting as a guardian of truth, and has exposed itself as the grasping fist of establishment enrichment. Mark the words of CBS Head Les Moonves, who explained: “It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS…The money's rolling in and this is fun…I've never seen anything like this, and this [is] going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going…”

The election of Trump means little to many that voted for him; to those that dream of a middle class—safe in the bosom of strong industries, with pension plans, and health care, vacations, and fair wages—this will not rise again from the grave plot of a Trump presidency. The homeless that camp in the tent cities lining the urban streets; the dismal flock who thrash their life savings upon heart medication, and cancer treatments for loved ones—this is Trump’s America.

But it was Clinton’s too. Who can really find no empathy for voters who rejected an old-world candidate that appears personally enriched by acts that seem corrupt by definition? “[T]he governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia…are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to Isil [/ISIS],” Hilary Clinton admitted in a leaked 2014 email, shortly after she oversaw billions of dollars of arms sales to each country during her tenure as Secretary of State, and after the Clinton Foundation accepted millions in donations from these very same governments. Who can really defend a system that thrives on such profoundly dangerous, eminently lucrative, closed-door/swinging-door deals, whilst ignoring the needs of its populace again, and again, and again? Obama was Hope. Trump is Resistance.

Now we watch in horror as our planet, with its dissolving biosphere, and collapsing environment, spins into a new dawn governed by one of the least predictable, and seemingly most dangerous men to have emerged from the last 50 years of geopolitics, finding in his hand the deadliest nuclear arsenal and the most powerful military force that the world has ever known.

The Democratic Party and the Republicans too, should be stricken with this pox that is an irretrievable curse on both their houses.

Written by Gus Donohoo