The most important election in the world is just days away. And this time around, the vote to elect the next America president actually matters precisely because it can usher in significant change. The mainstream media-driven hysteria against the campaign of Republican presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, reveals that the November 8 ballot is not just another ‘democratic circus’ in which the America electorate votes without actually having much of a choice.
There is no precedent in US history when the global media, elite and their institutions had so aggressively involved themselves in targeting the campaign of a particular candidate, suggesting that Trump’s benefactors are expecting him to deliver colossal changes tantamount to the deconstruction of the Soviet Union.
Social dissatisfaction
Following the collapse of the US real-estate market, the crumbling of traditional industries, the migration of the manufacturing base to Asia and a deep economic crisis, the social picture in the US has been dramatically altered. Naturally, these changes have also affected the country’s electorate, giving rise to anti-establishment candidates.
So-called marketing tricks can no longer conceal the millions of jobless and a dramatic drop in the standard of living, especially among the middle class.
For most Americans, these times of crisis require decisive leadership.
Despite the aggressive media campaign against him, Donald Trump has still managed to emerge – at least in the eyes of many Americans – as a decisive man.
The neoliberal transformation of the America is increasingly viewed as a meat grinder, and a large portion of the American people appear to have had enough. They are ready to vote for Trump, even out of spite, because, as many of them say, “he is against everyone” – where “everyone” signifies the US Congress, the White House, the Pentagon, Wall Street and Hollywood.
Anti-war activist and radio host Don Debar believes that what we are witnessing is “an explosive condition with all kinds of super-structural problems like the global economy and the political division in the United States, where the outcome of this election may be uncertain, decided by the elite in the eyes of one or the other half of the population, and maybe the possibility of civil unrest as a consequence.”
Can Trump beat Clinton?
The most unusual presidential campaign in modern America history became even more unusual just days before its climax.
Polls, which initially gave the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, a 10% lead over her Republican rival, began shifting in Trump’s favor last week, following news that the cost of Obamacare plans is set to rise by an average 25% in 39 states during 2017.
The healthcare insurance scheme that Barack Obama pioneered, Hillary Clinton supported, and Donald Trump has vowed to abolish if elected, could drive up the monthly cost of living for the average American by several hundred dollars. This is a considerable sum of money in a country where, according to surveys, one-third of the population has less than US$ 1,000 in savings.
But Trump’s ability to close the gap between himself and Clinton got a major boost last Friday when FBI Director James Comey, announced that the Bureau was resuming its investigation into the Democratic Party nominee’s use of a private server while she was serving as US secretary of state.
Los Angeles-based author, columnist and journalist H. A. Goodman explains that, “essentially, what Hillary Clinton did is she put 22 top-secret emails with special-access-program intelligence on a server that was unencrypted, according to Fortune magazine. She connected that server to a Blackberry that the NSA said she could not use. Then she deleted 30,000 emails by key word searches. She had no right to do that. She broke State Department guidelines and rules…this is a person who you would not want as secretary of state again.”
This practice effectively allowed Clinton to hide her correspondence from the public, which is illegal under America law.
“Wikileaks emails are authentic, genuine and they show massive corruption in the Clinton campaign and especially the Clinton Foundation. All of this stems directly from the Clinton Foundation, which is essentially a money laundering vehicle by which they derive immense political power… now the Clinton Foundation is being investigated and is linked directly to the email scandal. Those 30,000 emails she deleted almost certainly have to do with the Clinton Foundation. She deleted the emails because she did not want people to know,” Goodman added.
The consequences of Comey’s announcement saw a 12% lead, which Clinton enjoyed according to ABC News and The Washington Post polls on October 23, turn into a tie by October 31. This despite the fact that among those surveyed, Democrats outnumbered Republicans.
According to an LA Times tracking poll, which was the most accurate four years ago, Trump is up by 3.5% nationwide. The poll also recorded that growing support for Trump was in line with a steady decline in support for his Democratic rival.
The Clinton camp has long since admitted that it does not garner the same amount of enthusiasm among young Americans as Barack Obama did during the last two elections. Meanwhile, early voter turnout reveals that the number of African American voters, who came out in droves to get Obama reelected, is estimated to have dropped by 10% this year.
In addition, the effects of the Obamacare fiasco and the FBI investigation could force undecided voters who may have been leaning towards Clinton to stay away from the polls.
For his part, Trump has reportedly secured a considerable number of votes from ‘traditional Republican’ voters. The fact that Trump won 50% more votes than any Republican candidate in history during the primaries also suggests that he has managed to attract new supporters to the party, including those opposed to neoliberal trade agreements, as well as a significant portion of the working class, which has traditionally voted Democrat.
Recently, renowned American statisticians, including the likes of Nate Silver, have doubled Trump’s chances of victory. But regardless of all the numbers, common sense dictates that a win for Trump is no longer an impossibility.
Source: Al-Ahed News
