On the eve of the US elections, the most feared out- come has come to pass.
The extreme, controversial, loud and nationalistic style of Donald Trump has won out, and Hillary Clin- ton has been compelled to match his rowdy rhetoric to some extent in order to secure undecided votes. But shouting will not help the next White House tenant to manage a divided and confused America that is rapidly losing its international credibility.
Law and order, along with being a famous television series, was the leitmotiv of the Republican or Grand Old Party’s (GOP) convention in Cleveland in mid-July. The Dallas massacre and the Baton Rouge assault were vividly in the minds of partici- pants and Americans in general, who don’t quite know what to make of the dangerous campaign against the police force. Some accuse the police of having fuelled a climate of racial hatred, whereas others are convinced that a decline in moral values is to blame for the loss of respect for law enforcement. The former, which in- cludes the Black Lives Matter move- ment, are calling for a stronger insti- tutional response to the police’s ex- cessive employment of truncheons and guns. The latter, vastly in favour of Trump, would like to reverse the trend of cultural concessions made by the US society over the last 30 years. Trump, the New York real estate billionaire who has turned American politics on its head by play- ing to people’s basest instincts (in- dignation, rage and fear), straddles both camps. It is out of this cultural ground of fear and hatred that the law and order argument playing out in the US has emerged.
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On the eve of the US elections, the most feared out- come has come to pass.
