Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency. To get this far, his candidacy has passed through various stages. Firstly, insignificance: the real estate tycoon expressed once again his desire to be a candidate. This seemed to be written off as just another crazy idea. Then came the stage of high-flying notions and ambitions. From the very day he became a contender there was no longer anyone else. Trump used a formula which would prove to get him far: he accused Mexicans of being criminals and rapists, and the ensuing scandal then put him right in the media spotlight. Next was the clown stage: he said things that were politically incorrect with lighthearted audacity. From a clown who wasn’t really that funny, he became a clown with an irritating, crude sense of humor.
According to certain polls, Trump was the leading Republican candidate, but everyone expected him to meet an imminent downfall. In the primaries, the results confirmed what the polls had predicted: Trump was winning delegates. However people still expected him to slip up. He had offended women, Mexicans, Muslims, Jews (in this case he corrected himself), the Chinese, the media, entrepreneurs, and even his own followers and voters: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
He kept gaining ground. With this sharp turn of events, the only question that remained now was not when he would meet his downfall, but rather his viability as a candidate.
His controversial discourse has spread hatred among his followers. The damage has already been done: with the explosiveness of his provocative and racist discourse, some of his campaign events have been tainted by violence. Barack Obama initially made jokes about Trump, for example, that his experience in foreign policy consisted of having met Miss Switzerland, Miss Argentina, etc. However, a few days later, with the way looking ever clearer for the former reality TV show host, the U.S. president changed his tone: with Donald Trump as president there would be a threat of war. Even Obama had to leave the jokes aside and raise the alarm.
From funny to crude and from crude to xenophobic, Trump has become a war-like figure who must be taken seriously. Especially since he has realized that people actually agree with and actively support what he is saying: the United States needs to be rebuilt; its glory days will come again; the U.S. should rule the world. In his time, Hitler blamed the Jews for all evils. Trump however has picked out not one but rather several groups who should be persecuted: be it Muslims, Mexicans, the Chinese, entrepreneurs who invest in other countries or those journalists who follow a similar line of thought to my own.
Usually in political campaigns, the suggestions and solutions only come from the candidate’s team, supporters and the affiliated media. However everybody repeats the diatribes: those who agree with them and want to spread them, and those who are against them and in contradicting them end up circulating them. Additionally, the media have found that scandalous and aggressive Trump quotes sell better rather than the normal, dull ones. In this regard, to increase readership, to reveal what Trump had said or to try and combat it, everyone has been repeatedly quoting his words. Also, Trump has taken up much more Internet space than any other politician. He started out as entertainment, but has ended up becoming a large threat and a virtual candidate at that.
If the fact that someone supports spite, slander and the rejection of others is not enough, even worse is the fact that hundreds of thousands of people support him and that the democratic system has made his madness an option. In recent history there are many examples of exclusionary trends which weren’t taken seriously and which created powerful, oppressive dictatorships. In Trump’s case, if he becomes president he could put the entire institutional order of the United States at risk. An option for voters, and even those who will vote for him, is to elect a Democratic majority in Congress to preserve a vital balance, so that Trump will not become a de facto dictator. The Latino vote is a great force, which could prevent this from happening. It seems paradoxical, but with so many nationalists supporting Trump, it could be the Latinos who save the United States.
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