It is said that there are five stages of grieving - denial, anger, negotiation, depression and acceptance. In regards to Donald Trump's election as president of the United States, I am striving to reach the fifth stage.
What seems to have put Mr. Trump over the top is his overwhelming support from struggling white, working class Americans (not to be confused with America's poor people), who ironically used to be a bastion of support for the Democratic Party and who voted heavily for President Obama. This group is experiencing a "white identity crisis." The America they grew up in, abundant with opportunity to advance, is vanishing. Trump's election, the Brexit vote, and other similar events, to me, represent a last stand for these people and their world. The clock can't be turned back to what made (white) America or Europe great long ago. For better or worse, the world is changing and whites have to accept that they are only one of many colors on Earth and less and less are they the dominant one. I accept this even though I am a white American-Canadian male of dominantly German and English ancestry who voted in the U.S. election.
History provides perspective on this situation. The ancient Maya cultures of Mesoamerica were once one of the premiere civilizations on Earth over 1,000 years ago. Now the Maya heartlands are considered a geopolitical backwater. The magnificent Angkor Wat complex is in what is now one of the poorest countries in the world, Cambodia. Ancient Egypt was one of the all-time luminous civilizations; today's Egypt is a borderline failed state. In the time of Cleopatra (about 50 BCE) Egyptians were arrogant and angry because they were losing political, economic and cultural ground to Rome as it began its great rise (i.e., they were experiencing an Egyptian identity crisis). This is one reason they were so fiercely loyal to Cleopatra and hated the Romans, even though it is said Cleopatra had not a drop of Egyptian blood in her veins. She descended from the Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic dynasty who ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great. Cleopatra's suicide (30 BCE, only thirty years before Jesus was born) marked the end of Egyptian greatness that had lasted for some 3,000 years. One finds hundreds of other examples like these when sifting through the litter bin of history. The take-home lesson: all peoples eventually experience an identity crisis. Just imagine what the Neanderthals went through.
I have great empathy for Trump supporters who feel the pace of change in the world is too fast. People no longer have the time or ability to absorb the deluge of change. Many of the people fueling Trump's election, Brexit, Danish People's Party, Alternative for Germany, etc. are reacting to social and material changes they feel are leaving them behind. If the changes were such that they were increasing the dominance of white European or white American culture and politics, I'm sure such supporters wouldn't be reacting at all. But the opposite is happening. The train of global transformation is whizzing out of the station and they are still on the platform. They want the train to slow if not stop. The new politics is no longer "it's the economy, stupid" but "it's identity, stupid." I sympathize with Trump's ardent supporters. We are all facing an existential identity crisis from global change/globalization. I first felt it when I left the United States for Asia long ago.
Is it possible that Mr. Trump can harness the shared emotions among disenfranchised white, Christian, blue-collar Americans and others such as minority ethnic groups, LGBTQ community members, immigrants, and glass-ceiling-frustrated women who are not part of the wealthy and powerful elite who are benefiting the most from "the system?" Even many well-off and influential feel uneasy and queasy about the speed and depth of globalization, a phenomenon that can be argued began when a small group of Homo sapiens, whose blood line dominates the world today, left Africa about 80,000 years ago. It has been a glorious and perilous journey ever since. It is noteworthy that the anger of Mr. Trump's core supporters does not seem to have translated into empathy or understanding for how Native Americans, and other indigenous peoples around the world, must have felt as they were "losing their continents."
What is deeply sad about the recent American election is the manner in which Mr. Trump chose to conduct himself and his campaign. It is disturbing that extreme, derogatory, bullying, exaggerated, evidence-free statements are being associated with legitimate concerns of a (once) dominant people experiencing an identity crisis. The danger is that the perception will build that executing an ugly, rules-free, hate-fanning campaign is a justifiable means of dealing with an identity crisis in a democracy. It is likely a natural instinct for humans to be drawn to authoritarian, nationalistic (my tribe-enhancing) leaders when angry about threats to their identity. The brutal leaders of the Islamic State are seeking to make Islam great again in their demented way. They wish to reestablish an Islamic caliphate, the last major one of which was abolished by the first president of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in 1924.
Mr. Trump may find that the method by which he conducted himself and his campaign will dog him through his presidency and prevent him from seeing the commonalities among many people who are experiencing disease at the present state of the world. Hillary Clinton's gracious concession speech ("We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.") echoes the dignity with which Stephen Harper accepted his devastating loss in the last year's federal election. In the words and actions, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau exhibited the process of democratic transition at its best. So in the end, I am making peace with and accepting the new reality by working to understand and harness the shared human commonalities that can draw out the best in us.
-- Ken Wilkening
Associate professor, international studies, UNBC
