I’ve been watching the American presidential race on television and social media for a number of months. It’s actually near impossible to not have any exposure. It’s the most important election of a leader in the world and given America’s un-usurped dominance in projecting itself onto the world, it’s covered everywhere. I know more about American politics than that of my own country.

It’s amazing though to see how far a businessman and former reality TV star Donald Trump has come in the bid for presidency. It was kinda cool and fun to watch, but it’s really becoming quite serious now and not so much a laughing matter. I guess joke presidency isn’t a new thing. All sorts of weird and wonderful combinations have been running for office. Jesse Ventura was running with Howard Stern as his running mate. That didn’t last very long as most people could see it for the joke that it was. Though occasionally the jokesters do get in to power. Clive Palmer who is brash and somewhat of a larrakin slipped through the cracks and started Palmer Unitied Party whose main goal was to disrupt through alliances. He is seen mostly as a  court jester, something for the media to gawk at and report for amusement. And given his limited power in the house of reps, he is mostly ignored except when it comes to siding on some important piece of legislation, where he does have some additional sway in the senate. Then there’s Ricky Muir, a petrol head who ran on a lark and somehow found his way into politics. He has been of marginal interest. I think he even surprised himself by his apparent luck.

But Trump on the other hand seems to have transcended the joke aspect of it all (which is how the rest of the world sees it) and is well on his way to become the next American president!

In a way, Trump and Palmer are of the same ilk. Palmer sets sail to Titanic II, Trump builds a massive wall. Palmer calls the Chinese “mongrels” who want to “shoot their own people”, Trump calls the Mexicans “rapists”. As well, they are both are very successful businessman. Both have made an absolute bucketlload of money in business, and presumably both now have transcended money as a mark of power and success and are using their wealth as a commoditised instrument to trade for political power. And it seems to be working well for both of them.

Cult of personality is more a thing in America than here. Australian politicians aren’t held in high regard, even if they are quite effective in their position. Politicians are generally considered wankers and viewed as mere public servants. Certainly not put on to a pedestal like the yanks do. And we won’t clap and cheer for them either. Americans seem to have this other-worldly exuberance for their politicians. Shouting, cheering, flag-waving etc. Trump is so outlandish that he’s mesmerized the public and put them under a spell. He even claims he can “shoot someone” and his supporters would still flock to him.

Trump is surprising and unconventional figure. He isn’t hiding his hate, racism and bigotry. But one wonders why America seems to be embracing this type of campaign with such gusto . His fans, and he has a lot of them, seem to enjoy the free reign they are having. His rallies are more like physical theater shows. He disbars black people from attending his rallies, and in one incident a number of black students who were enrolled at a college were ejected for no reason given. Not provocative, not yelling, not holding up signs. They were kicked out by security with cheers from the crowd. Another black man was sucker-punched by an old white man. Interestingly enough, it was the black man who was arrested! Trump is not running a conservative campaign, he’s allowing the inner demons to be drawn out for fun and entertainment. Appealing to those that are typically gung-ho with a  narrow set of well ingrained values, and perhaps this is Trump’s biggest draw card — the uneducated masses.

Donald Taif Trump really has tapped into a murky well of America is bringing the rotting substrate out into the topsoil. It seems like every racist, lunatic and uneducated fool has been given a license to congregate and spill out their repressed desires and feelings in public. Trump is not afraid to call out sensitive topics in a very black-and-white way and this only fuels the crowd and the sense of exclusivity. I’ve seen a number of his rallies and they are entertaining. He has a great presence and an off-key sense of humour that is very disarming and intoxicating.. Trump is not running a presidential race by formulating any well reasoned, clear policies. He isn’t educating himself about current events. He isn’t even trying to pretend. He knows that it doesn’t matter anyway. The strategy to win is to be as outrageous as possible and the rest of the world is looking on incredulously.

Take for instance the wall. He wants to build a massive wall to keep the Mexicans out. As he has stated “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.“. And to top it off, he wants Mexico to pay! On the surface it’s very funny. But when you realise this is the man who will be running the free world, it becomes a sad indictment. He’s an equal opportunity hater, and has issues with Muslims. In typical Trump style there are no shades of gray. All Muslims must be banned from entering until “we work out what’s going on”.

Trump has done nothing to abate these us-vs-them policies. he is quick to denounce Mexicans, breast feeding women, Muslims entering the country etc. but he won’t denounce support by leading white supremacist group. When cornered about this, he stated that he didn’t know anything about it and needed more time.

It’s scary to think how bad this will work for the rest of the world too. Trump certainly is not presidential material. Obama has been a fantastic president, a true statesman and a man of character, inclusiveness and empathy. Despite what the Republicans will tell you, Obama has made an indelible change to America over his 7 years of presidency. I was watching a video on C-SPAN where he spoke about the qualities of a president, and it really struck home, that it’s a very serious job. It requires a level of patience, virtue, intellect and keen insight. It’s not a clown job .

Being a president is a serious job. It’s not hosting a reality show. It’s not promotion. It’s hard. It’s not about pandering and it requires hard decisions and standing up for people who are vulnerable but don’t have some powerful political constituents.

It requires being able to work with leaders around the world in a way that reflects the importance of the office, and gives people confidence that you know the facts… and that you know their names…and you know where they are on a map… and you know something about their history… and you’re not just going to play to the crowd back home, because they have their own crowds back home and trying to solve problems.

Trump’s rise to power is antithetical to the ticket that Obama was riding on. His key mantra was “hope and change”. And while I concede that he has been disappointing in areas, he has succeeded in bringing about change. Especially in the area of health care. And that brings us to another Trump policy. He doesn’t seem to want to bring in or enact any worthwhile social policies. He is quite adamant to knock them off. He wants to rid ObamaCare (*and make something better*). He wants to remove Common Core from education without any detailed information on what may replace it. He is very thin on actual detail on just about anything.

I believe that Trump will ultimately lose the presidency to Hillary Clinton. Clinton herself is a deeply unlikable and firey character. She is slimy and will change her beliefs and policies depending on who she is targeting. She is bought and paid for by Wall street and other big business interests and will only answer to them. To make sure that Bernie Sanders (whom I quite admire) doesn’t succeed, she has had to bend herself to ‘left leaning’ principles to take the wind out of Sander’s sail. But make no mistake, once she’s neutralized Sanders, she will snap back to the ‘bought and paid for’ interests. Presidents no longer represent the interests of the American people as a whole. That died sometime ago, probably even before Reagan. It’s now an argy bargy between the corporations and the people. And whatever interests are at stake. Gun rights tend to clearly show this in action. Suspected terrorists that are on the no-fly watchlist have been granted access to guns! Children have been granted access to guns! Tennessee has curtailed the need for license and training for gun ownership. But I digress (as I’ve already written an article on this before)

Hitler rose to power by amassing support for controversial programs and by riding on the power and charisma and leaving people spell bound. I believe Trump is doing the same thing. He quotes from Mosollini (“It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”) a fascist. He knows what he’s doing, but do the American public know what they are doing come election day?