The Pigsty of Donald Trump

Published in Excélsior
(Mexico) on 21 August 2015
by José Elías Romero Apis (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Natalie Harrison. Edited by Bora Mici.
It has been said that if you fight with a pig, you both end up muddy. The difference is that the pig likes to wallow in the mud, but to us, it reeks. For this same reason, you cannot play with it. In conclusion, the pig cannot be the enemy, but it also cannot be your friend.

For Martha, in this bad hour:

Donald Trump has declared war against the Mexican migrants in his country. But, has he only proposed war against them or also against the Mexicans who have not migrated? I am not a migrant, but nevertheless, I feel wronged. As for me, I am not going to leave my country, my children are not going to have their privileges taken away, my property is not going to be seized, and they are not going to incarcerate me. But, nevertheless, it has repulsed me. Like with the pork, I do not fight, but I am disgusted.

Trump is not stuck in a mess, but it appears that he himself is the mess. In the first place, I do not trust his speech — not because of the evident incoherence, but because of its author. I struggle to believe that a New Yorker, a son of New Yorkers and New York resident for life, would be a chauvinist and xenophobic. New York is the most open of all cities in the United States. It is the location on the planet where no one feels foreign. In reality, in New York, no one is foreign.

If such discourse came from a farmer in Indiana or a rancher in Wyoming, one could suppose their sincerity. It is said that these are regions where they do not trust people of other nationalities, other races or beliefs. As if it were not enough, it is from those places that work can be seen as threatened by immigration, no matter where it comes from. But in our New York character of today, his words feel fatty and uncaring.

In the second place, I do not trust his words because they do not appear coherent with his political-electoral purposes, and when someone makes a gaffe, we are obligated to suspect that there exists a hidden but cunning intent.

I say this because it appears that his speech is not directed just against Mexicans, but also against his rivals in the primary for the Republican candidacy, primarily against the Latinists, incarnated in the Texan-Floridian John Ellis Jeb Bush, and in the Cuban-Floridian Marco Rubio.

With this, he advances to the caucus coming up next year and has outdone himself prematurely. But he has the inconvenience that it begins very early and that there will be bumpy times around the Republican Convention. As if it were not enough, his speech appears on track to harvest the rural votes in a country where the rural electorate makes up less than 8 percent of voters. In the United States, farmers do not pick the president. The radical Republicans do not like the national electorate. Barry Goldwater brought them to the worst electoral defeat in the history of the Republican Party. Only moderate Republicans, like Nixon, Reagan and the Bushes, have won.

Finally, his speech is disguised as politics with nationalism, although rancid, but is naked as an anthropology with a racism so rotten. If he only did not like foreigners because he did not want them in his country, we should respect his opinion, although we do not share in it. Nationalists respect what other nations decide for their home.

But his “shoddy” nationalism shakes with real racism because Trump wants to deport the Mexicans, not all foreigners. He does not like Mexicans in the United States. But he also does not like Mexicans in Mexico, nor the Mexicans around the world. It is said he does not like living Mexicans.

It is not a matter of tolerance but of respect. Although, for a lot of people, it is a matter of fears and frights. The most affluent people believe that the poor nations, with their greater population growth, one day will fill the planet, and that the houses of the rich will be full of Latinos, Arabs, Asians, Africans and Hindus. The matter of immigration is tied with that of discrimination.

For us, the dialogue with the United States is of neighbors, although not of friends; of partners, although not comrades; of rich with poor, weak with powerful. But Donald Trump tells of a relation between superiors and inferiors, between those who have been elected and those who have been convicted, between those who exist to be masters and those who were born to be servants.

That and nothing else is the true discourse that really separates us. The border is not a river nor a fence, much less a wall. The true border is us. This human border helps our neighbors to protect themselves but also helps us to defend ourselves. If we collapse, the nation will become defenseless.


El chiquero de Donald Trump

Se ha dicho que si uno se pelea con un cerdo, los dos terminan embarrados. La diferencia es que al chancho le gusta untarse y a nosotros nos apesta. Por la misma razón, tampoco se puede jugar con él. En conclusión, del marrano no se puede ser enemigo, pero, tampoco, se puede ser amigo.

Para Martha, en esta mala hora.

Donald Trump ha declarado la guerra a los mexicanos migrantes en su país. Pero, ¿tan sólo ha propuesto su guerra contra ellos o también contra los mexicanos que no hemos migrado? Yo no soy migrante y, sin embargo, me siento agraviado. A mí no me va a sacar de mi país, ni a mis hijos les quitará sus privilegios, ni embargará mis bienes, ni me encarcelará. Pero, sin embargo, me ha llevado a la repugnancia. Como con el puerco, no me peleo, pero me asqueo.

Trump no está metido en un batidillo, sino que parece que él mismo es el batidillo. En primer lugar, desconfío de su discurso, no por su evidente incoherencia sino por su autor. Me cuesta trabajo creer que un neoyorkino, hijo de neoyorkinos y residente neoyorkino durante toda su vida, sea chauvinista y xenófobo. Nueva York es la más abierta de todas las ciudades de Estados Unidos. Es el lugar del planeta donde nadie se siente extranjero. Y es que, en realidad, en Nueva York nadie es extranjero.

Si este discurso lo escuchara dicho por un agricultor de Indiana o por un ganadero de Wyoming podría suponer su sinceridad. Se dice que son regiones donde desconfían de otras nacionalidades, de otras razas y de otras creencias. Por si fuera poco, es de los lugares donde la fuente de trabajo se puede ver amenazada por la inmigración, provenga ésta de donde sea. Pero en nuestro neoyorkino personaje de hoy, sus palabras las siento bofas y guangas.

En segundo lugar, desconfío de su discurso porque no parece coherente con sus finalidades político-electorales y, cuando alguien hace una estupidez, estamos obligados a sospechar que existe una intención oculta pero ladina.

Lo digo porque pareciera que su discurso no va dirigido nada más contra los mexicanos, sino, también, contra sus rivales en la contienda por la candidatura republicana, principalmente en contra de los latinistas, encarnados en el texano-floridano John Ellis Jeb Bush y en el cubano-floridano Marco Rubio.

Con esto se adelanta rumbo al caucus del próximo año y se ha aventajado prematuramente. Pero tiene el inconveniente de que comienza muy temprano y que llegará traqueteado a los tiempos de la Convención Republicana. Por si fuera poco, su discurso parece encaminado a cosechar los votos rurales en un país donde el electorado campesino no llega al 8% del padrón. En Estados Unidos, los granjeros no ponen presidente. Los republicanos radicales no gustan al electorado nacional. Barry Goldwater los llevó a la peor derrota electoral en la historia del Partido Republicano. Sólo han triunfado los republicanos moderados como Nixon, Reagan y los Bush.

Por último, su discurso se disfraza de política con un nacionalismo, aunque un tanto rancio, pero se desnuda como antropológico con un racismo un tanto podrido. Si tan sólo no le gustaran los extranjeros porque no quiere tenerlos en su país, habría que respetar su gusto aunque no se compartiera. Los nacionalistas respetamos lo que otras naciones deciden para su casa.

Pero su nacionalismo “chafa” lo zarandea con racismo real porque Trump quiere expulsar a los mexicanos, no a todos los extranjeros. No quiere arrojar a los canadienses ni expropiar a los ingleses ni encarcelar a los alemanes. No le gustan los mexicanos en Estados Unidos. Pero tampoco le gustan los mexicanos en México ni los mexicanos en el mundo. Es decir, no le gustan los mexicanos en la vida.

No es un asunto de tolerancia sino de respeto. Aunque, en mucho, es un asunto de temores, de sustos y de miedos. Los pueblos más opulentos consideran que las naciones pobres, por su mayor crecimiento demográfico, un día van a colmar el planeta y que las casas de los ricos estarán llenas de latinos, de árabes, de asiáticos, de africanos y de hindúes. Y aquí, el asunto de la migración empata con el de la discriminación.

Para nosotros, el diálogo con Estados Unidos es de vecinos, aunque no de amigos. De socios, aunque no de compañeros. De ricos con pobres. De débiles con poderosos. Pero, para Donald Trump, se trata de una relación entre superiores e inferiores. Entre quienes han sido elegidos y quienes han sido condenados. Entre quienes existen para ser amos y quienes nacieron para ser sirvientes.

Ése y no otro, es el verdadero discurso que realmente nos separa. La frontera no es un río ni una alambrada ni, mucho menos, una muralla. La verdadera frontera somos nosotros mismos. Esa frontera humana sirve para que nuestros vecinos se protejan, pero, también, para que nosotros nos defendamos. Si nosotros nos derrumbamos la nación quedará indefensa.
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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