The Final Call

Election 2016: ‘Trumpism’ and voting for candidates few really like, or trust

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: Oct 4, 2016 - 1:35:13 PM

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WASHINGTON—Presidential candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton faced off in the most widely viewed debate in U.S. history Sept. 26 at Hofstra University on Long Island, New York. More than 84 million watched on TV, while tens of thousands more streamed online, while others attended viewing parties around the U.S. Thousands more watched around the world, across Asia, Europe and in Latin America.

Throughout the 90-minute, often antagonistic, debate (68 interruptions, 51 by Mr. Trump, 17 Mrs. Clinton) former Secretary of State Clinton and Mr. Trump, a real-estate developer and casino operator, the two most disliked presidential candidates ever, sparred on everything from foreign policy to trade deals to personal stamina.

On practically all scorecards, Mrs. Clinton was the winner, and her popularity poll numbers began to increase slightly after the debate, but Mr. Trump remains statistically tied for the lead. No scandal, no denunciation of him, no negative report that surfaces about him appears to cut into Mr. Trump’s popularity with his core voters, while Mrs. Clinton is haunted by what pollsters call “trust issues.”

Despite the fact that after the debate Mr. Trump drew unwanted attention when he repeated unflattering remarks about Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe, Mr. Trump’s supporters claimed debate victory, reasoning on conservative blogs and in discussion groups, “at least Trump didn’t blow it.” Then came revelations that the business mogul may  not have paid federal income tax for between 15 years to 18 years by claiming huge losses.

In fact, Mr. Trump rarely seems to suffer in popularity or electability, even when he does poorly. He seems, therefore, to be only one good debate away from winning. “Yes, that’s a possibility, and a very disappointing possibility at that,” Dr. Gerald Horne, Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston told The Final Call.

The best interest of Black voters is not well addressed by either of the major party nominees however. “It’s a very disappointing and unappetizing choice of nominees, if you only limit those nominees to those two,” said Dr. Horne.

“People usually refer to the ‘lesser of two evils,’ ” Dr. Ray Winbush, Director of the Institute of Urban Research at Morgan State University said in an interview. “I would not call them ‘lesser.’ One is obviously evil—Trump. It’s amazing that this country has elevated this guy to a point where he’s even in the position,” said Dr. Winbush.

There are two “very evil people” contending for the White House today, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said here at the Union Temple Baptist Church Men’s Day program Sept. 18. “Which one is worse, Lucifer, Satan, or the devil?”

As far as Donald Trump is concerned: “You vote for him he’ll put you on a rocket ship to hell,” Min. Farrakhan said. “Hillary’s rocket ship may not have as much octane in it, but she’s going in the same direction. Do you really think she will do any better for you?”

“I think the fear and anxiety of a Trump presidency is driving Black folks into the Clinton camp,” said Dr. Winbush.

“We have a morbid fear of Trump because we’ve never seen ... probably the closest that I’ve seen a candidate like Trump, but he didn’t get this far, was George Wallace in 1972. But see, this generation hasn’t seen anything like that, so we automatically say that anything is better than Trump. And this explains why Hillary’s poll numbers (are so flat) it’s like nobody is really enthusiastic about Hillary.

“They’re voting against Trump, more than they’re voting for her, especially Black folks. And she knows it. It’s not like she doesn’t know it. She knows it. She will probably get a higher percentage of Black votes this time than Barack Obama, because the fear factor is palpable among Black folks,” Dr. Winbush said.

“I totally understand the nervousness about a Trump presidency,” said Dr. Horne, “the fact that he’s doing so well in the polls, and in fact, according to some sources, is actually ahead in the Electoral College. But at the same time, Hillary Rodham Clinton is no prize. As a matter of act, in some ways, on foreign policy, she’s to the right of Trump.”

“It shows that there’s a sanctioning of White supremacy now at the highest form of government, and it’s rampant. It’s wide open,” Dr. Winbush said. “You don’t even call it White supremacy any more, you call it the ‘Alt-Right,’ which is a santitized way of calling somebody a White supremacist.” There may even be lasting effects on the U.S. political landscape.

“I think we have to not only be conscious and aware of Trump, we have to be conscious and aware of Trump-ism,” said Dr. Horne. “I think that an electorate that would elect a professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura as governor of Minnesota; an electorate that would elect a fading action movie star, Arnold Shwartzneger as governor of California; is quite capable of electing a Donald J. Trump, or, for that matter, a successor, another kind of Donald J. Trump going forward,” said Dr. Horne.

That is the reason, Dr. Winbush argues, that Black people “have to vote intelligently, we have to vote strategically. I believe—and I know some people are going to say, ‘Oh, come on Ray’—I believe that Black people in this country should strike one presidential election. They should just not vote at all in one.

“We don’t understand how our votes can be used strategically by not voting. Even if the devil himself or anybody gets into office, it will drive the Democrats to listen to us more, and the Republicans to say, ‘We might be able to win some people over.’ So I think that we have to strategically vote.

“As long as we have White bogeymen and White supremacists like Trump running on the Republican side of the ticket, Black folks just going to immediately go into the Democratic camp,” Dr. Winbush continued. “And we don’t want to talk about independent Black political parties. We don’t want to look at alternative parties like the Green Party—which I am going to be voting for.

“We don’t want to do that because we think it’s a ‘wasted vote.’ As long as we keep thinking that voting out of the dichotomous political system we have is wasting our vote, we’re going to be forever chained to the Democratic Party,” said Dr. Winbush.

But rarely are the expectations of the voters met. The political establishment never keeps its promises to suffering people, warned Min. Farrakhan. “Show me the promises they made to the native people, and tell me did they ever fulfill them? Show me the promises that they made to us, and did they fulfill them?”

“Dr. King didn’t say, just to vote blindly,” said Dr. Winbush. “He wanted us to use our votes as a weapon, and we haven’t done it as strategically in recent elections as we did years ago.”