This Is Not Normal

Published in La Crónica de Hoy
(Mexico) on 21 January 2017
by Fran Ruiz (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Nick Dauster. Edited by Elizabeth Cosgriff.
Of the hundreds of published images of the United States protests of Donald Trump's ascent to power, the simplest and the least insulting has been the one that caught my attention the most. It said, simply, "This is not normal."

The phrase is hair-raising. What we understood as normal has stopped being so, technically, since yesterday, in the moment when Donald Trump swore his oath. However, the triumph of "what is not normal" actually happened that disastrous Nov. 8, when the Republican candidate surprised the favorite, Hillary Clinton, the candidate of what we thought should be "the normal," which is to say, a society ready to be governed by a woman, open, as it always has been, to immigrants and tolerant of the rights of minorities.

That is indeed what is normal in all the large cities of the United States, but not in that immense conservative territory, which benefited as never before from an unfair electoral vote count, and where millions of people were enthused when Trump promised them to turn the U.S. back into a "great" (and "normal") country.

All of this has passed. Trump rules and the million dollar question is: What will from now on be normal, the new normal of which the U.S. media speaks?

Trump's speech tells us a lot. Before, it was normal for the inaugurated president to speak of unity and to quote his great predecessors, such as Lincoln or Roosevelt. Yesterday, Trump did not name any. He dedicated himself to pointing the accusing finger at his enemies, the Washington elite, to draw an apocalyptic landscape (which only he and his followers see) and the rest of the time he dedicated to himself and presented himself as the messiah who comes to save his compatriots from disaster.

Humanity has already met messianic figures who assaulted power, and despite consequences that were catastrophic, has not been able to get rid of them. But the unimaginable thing is that this happened in the United States, which thus renounces continuing to be the leader of the free world, and becoming a vulgar isolated nation devoted to a protectionism that does not go with its nature.

The only thing we have left is to cross our fingers and hope that this new normality does not end up contagious.


De los cientos de imágenes publicadas de las protestas en Estados Unidos por la llegada al poder de Donald Trump, la más simple y la menos insultante ha sido la que más me ha llamado la atención. Decía sencillamente: “Esto no es normal”.

La frase es estremecedora. Lo que entendíamos por normal dejó de serlo, técnicamente, desde ayer, en el momento en que Donald Trump juró su cargo. Sin embargo, el triunfo de “lo que no es normal” ocurrió de facto ese nefasto 8 de noviembre, cuando el candidato republicano se impuso por sorpresa a la favorita, Hillary Clinton, candidata de lo que creíamos que debía ser “lo normal”, es decir, una sociedad dispuesta ya a ser gobernada por una mujer, abierta, como siempre ha sido, a los inmigrantes y tolerante con los derechos de las minorías.

Esta es, efectivamente la normalidad en todas las grandes urbes de EU, pero no en ese inmenso territorio conservador, que ha salido beneficiado como nunca de un injusto escrutinio electoral y donde millones de personas se entusiasmaron cuando Trump les prometió convertir de nuevo a EU en un país “grande” (y “normal”).

Todo esto ya es pasado. Trump gobierna y la pregunta del millón es: ¿Cuál será a partir de ahora lo normal, el new normal del que hablan ya los medios estadunidenses?

El discurso de Trump nos dice mucho. Antes, lo normal era que el presidente que jura el cargo hablase de unidad y citase a sus grandes antecesores, como Lincoln o Roosevelt. Ayer, Trump no nombró a ninguno. Se dedicó a señalar con el dedo acusador a sus enemigos —la élite de Washington—, a dibujar un paisaje apocalíptico (que solo él y sus seguidores ven) y el resto del tiempo se dedicó a sí mismo y a presentarse como el mesías que llega a salvar a sus compatriotas del desastre.

La humanidad ya ha conocido a personajes mesiánicos que asaltaron el poder y, pese a que las consecuencias fueron catastróficas, no ha logrado desembarazarse de ellos. Pero lo inimaginable es que esto haya ocurrido en Estados Unidos, que renuncia así a seguir siendo el líder del mundo libre para convertirse en una vulgar nación aislada y entregada a un proteccionismo que no va con su naturaleza.

Sólo nos queda cruzar los dedos y esperar que esta nueva normalidad no nos acabe contagiando.

This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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