(ANTIMEDIA) Op-Ed — “It can’t be. Donald Trump is an outsider! Washington hates him!” I can already predict the comments on this article before I even begin to make my case. And that’s exactly what the establishment wants. It doesn’t want you to ingest new information and perhaps change your point of view; it wants you to be loyal to The Party, regardless of which one of the two monoliths it hopes you belong to. There’s a reason the political establishment is made up of two parties, and for that reason Donald Trump is the greatest gift to that establishment in recent memory.
Before you report this post as spam or react emotionally by accusing me of being a shill for Hillary Clinton, please see my other works, which have taken an equally (if not more) critical look at her awful record of war crimes, deceit, lies, and manipulation. You see, it actually is possible to oppose Trump and Hillary; I’m living proof. With that out of the way, allow me to make my case.
Divide and Conquer: how the establishment preserves the status quo.
Trump is running against the status quo, right? Not exactly. He’s working for it, and whether this is being done intentionally or not is of no consequence. It’s no secret Trump is the most polarizing politician in recent memory. But the groundwork for Trump’s ability to tap into the disgruntled American psyche was laid a long time ago. Bill Clinton was a nation-builder who got the United States tangled in foreign conflicts, helped perpetuate mass incarceration, and implemented the disastrous NAFTA trade agreement that decimated American manufacturing. Though George W. Bush ran against those policies, he simply made them worse by wrongly invading Iraq, then overseeing the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis. Obama ran against the wars and Wall Street only to bail out the big banks once elected. He continued the war in Afghanistan, renewed the war in Iraq, and started several new ones all over the Middle East. He also joined a couple more unwinnable civil wars.
Trump will run against all of that, and since Hillary was part of the Obama administration, that makes her an easy target. Every four to eight years it’s the other guy’s fault. I mean, they’re both right; Republican and Democratic policies are detrimental to our freedom and prosperity, but that point is completely missed by the loyal partisans who make up America’s voting populace.
This ebb and flow of disastrous Republican policy to disastrous Democratic policy — and back again — is how the status quo holds onto its power. By pitting everyday Americans against each other based on Party loyalty, the populace is neutralized due to its internal fighting. Meanwhile, the parties themselves — save for a few social policies — are practically identical in their practices and only differ in name and rhetoric. One party is eviscerated while the other one seizes power, only to see that cycle reverse itself each election season.
But how can I claim Donald Trump is helping this duopoly of doom dominate? Trump is running against the Republican party and the establishment, right? Well, rhetorically speaking, yes, he is. But politicians say the darndest things. Trump is the Republican party now — he’s their standard-bearer. Trump is simply the culmination of years of the Republican party’s misleading anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric finally paying off, though perhaps in a more abrasive way than party leaders had hoped. Trump is merely saying what a large proportion of American demographics have been led to believe through years of right-wing political and media rhetoric. Trump took their most extreme talking points and made them mainstream, and it’s this emergence into the mainstream that has turned 2016 into the most polarizing politicking year since the 1960s. And this plays right into the hands of the establishment.
window._taboola = window._taboola || [];
_taboola.push({
mode: "thumbnails-m",
container: "taboola-mid-article-thumbnails",
placement: "Mid Article Thumbnails",
target_type: "mix"
});
Trump’s misleading scapegoating of (insert minority here) is creating a culture of divisiveness that may be impossible to repair. White people, who have fallen for this Nazi-like rhetoric of blaming the “other” people for very real economic problems, are now solidified under Trump. With every anti-Trump protest — especially the ones that turn violent like last night in San Jose — CA, his base grows more loyal and afraid of minorities. With every protest, they grow more affectionate of this strong-man who claims he will protect them if elected. Meanwhile, every time Trump blames Mexicans or Muslims for the United States’ problems, American minorities grow more afraid of what might happen to them if he’s elected. Not only is Trump driving the Republican-Democrat divide, he’s also driving racial demographics apart — further splintering the already fractured American populace. Trump’s rhetoric alone has left Republican voter rolls flush with white nationalists and Democratic rolls overflowing with minorities willing to vote for Hillary for no other reason but to stop Trump.
Trump has grown the Republican party with his candidacy, attracting the fearful to his messaging. He’s also drawn a loyal base of opposition that is visible at every campaign stop. People hate both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump so much they will literally vote for one to deny the other the presidency. And as Americans, nearly all of whom have a common interest in prosperity, security, a better life, and a better standard of living, equally divide themselves against one another, the Parties relish in it — all of it. The Democrats get to whip up their base against Trump’s radical rhetoric, and the Republicans get to do the same against minorities, religious groups, and Hillary’s criminally dishonest past. Trump serves the establishment by having become the wedge used to separate American society, leaving them to fight amongst themselves while the true “powers that be” and policies they put in place come away unscathed.
Vote all you want, but as long as the conversation is centered around who can stop Trump or who can beat Hillary, the country is in for a long hard disappointment by this time next year — when we realize (again) politicians make promises that are almost never kept. Even worse than do-nothing politicians getting elected, a culture of fear is incubating where whites and non-whites glare at each other in distrust or hate simply because they’ve been captured by the political rhetoric of the status quo that thrives on division. Trump’s divisive, hate-inspiring campaign is setting the stage for decades of safety for the political establishment. The last thing the oligarchs want is unity among disgruntled population that just might just set their gaze on them instead of each other.
This article (Trump Is the Greatest Gift to the Establishment in Modern American Politics) is an opinion editorial (OP-ED). The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Anti-Media. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Nick Bernabe and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.