The Trump’s ‘Pacifism’ and ‘America-First’ Policy by Mohammed Kudu Ibrahim
When most foreign commentators especially those in the developing world interrogate the foreign policy of the Trump administration particularly its America-first inclination, or lack of apartheid for foreign military interventions, they often do so from a very narrow prism. They often fail to take into account the not so silent domestic strategic or ideological underpinnings and the racist, if not primitive motives involved.
Still, we must credit Trump for recognizing that America’s pre-eminence as the global economic powerhouse and sole superpower following the demise of the old Soviet Union had been on the wane even before he descended the escalator at Trump Towers to declare his intention to run for the presidency in 2015.
It was the subsequent manner and strategies he threatened to adopt and eventually started implementing to restore America’s diminished status in his exact image that provides me with a point of departure.
While the troubled American economy provided him with sufficient ammunition to rile the Democratic candidate who served as the Vice President to Barak Obama and to appeal to undecided voters in particular, the nauseating tone and method he did so by accusing the first and only African-American to ever occupy the White House with everything except treason stank of racism to say the least.
It was even more absurd since throughout his second term in office Obama – who must take maximum blame and responsibility for allowing himself to be sucked into the idea of regime change in Libya by the way – operated under the excruciating grip of a Republican held Congress under the leadership of Mitch McConnel and Paul Ryan.
The Republican Senate leader McConnel in particular, who infamously labeled himself as the “Grim Ripper” on account his proficiency at truncating numerous legislations brought by the Democrats to improve the US economy, civil liberties as well as multiple nominations liberal justices into the US Supreme Court where they could have Offered greater protection for minorities and civil liberties.
As it were, as soon as Trump was elected President, the same Congress, under the firm grip of Republicans, swiftly approved his three nominees to the Supreme Court to replace retiring liberals which conveniently altered the balance in favour of conservative members of the apex judicial body by 6-3!
Permit me to proceed on the hypothesis that the election of the first African-American President was the trigger for what resulted in the Trump presidency and its outcome from which America is yet to recover. Let me explain.
In the view of the racist elements of America society, it was never assumed that a minority let alone a black man of African ancestry would ever occupy the same White House built by black African slaves!
It set off alarm bells on how far America had come in its diversity. America in the racist view of its arch conservatists, was becoming less white with all its damming implications for their pervasive hold on power and that was more telling in the southern states such as Georgia where Trump vainly attempted to alter the outcome of the results in the last election.
With that perspective, we require no further explanation on the constitution of the racist mob who heeded Trumps calls to storm the US Congress to halt the compilation of the results of the last presidential elections. There were hardly any blacks or Hispanics among the mob.
They were drawn from representatives of the dubiously titled “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), “Proud Boys” and Q-Anon conspiracy theorists. A quick google search will dispel whatever doubts we have on their raison-d’etre.
In many respects, therefore, when Trump serenades such crowds with chants of “Make America Great Again” what is actually implied is a clarion call to “Make America Great Again”.
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It was a desperate a movement created with the principal goal of protecting white privilege with all its exclusivity which an increasingly diverse America presented a generational challenge. But how? Where is the hard proof? Well, they are legion!
The first was the recognition by the arch conservatives and racist fringes of American society – which Trumps represents – that America had no business dissipating its resources on foreign military expeditions while it was losing the more important and critical war at home – the accelerated diversity of American society which they regarded and still regard as the greater existential threat to their hegemony.
The second was when Trump commenced rolling out a combo of major inhibiting policies strategically calculated to reverse the rapidly changing American demographic constitution in favour of minorities.
We saw that with tilt in the composition of the Supreme Court in favour of conservatives likely to be disposed to the requisite rulings on cases involving civil liberties brought before it.
It was under Trump that America breeched constitutional provisions to divert parts of the funds already appropriated for the military towards the building of a border wall with Mexico. Again, please don’t take my word for it, google the fact.
As anachronistic as it may seem, and my candid opinion is that it will soon become a relic to recall his tragic presidency or tourist attraction like the Great Wall of China – the principal goal of the wall is to halt the upsurge in migration into the United States, which threatens the status-quo for the same reasons I have already addressed in this discourse.
Next was the cocktail of legislation introduced and passed by the legislatures in mostly Republican controlled states to stifle universal suffrage by making it difficult for minorities to vote!
Next was the open and relentless assault on American democratic institutions to either weaken or discredit them through subterfuge and barefaced liars to achieve the same objectives. We saw that on open display when Trump was arraigned in a New York court on a felony in what promises to be only the first of several in the next several weeks.
The strategy has always the unbridled appeal to fascism by which the very foundations of democracy must be discredited through the creation of alternative realties that conveniently ignores substance and the material facts.
But by far the most telling and sober manifestation of Trump’s assault on democracy was the January 6, 2020 insurrection which he orchestrated and for which he may also be summoned before a judge.
The January 6 insurrection will forever be remembered because it was the closest America came to another Civil War since the last one that ended in 1865. It is also a fitting point to bring this discourse to its conclusion because in truth, there are so many parallels about the two epochs.
If the first American Civil War was partially a product of the Emancipation Proclamation and the freedom it granted to American slaves; the election of the first black man as the President of the United States in 2008 triggered a chain reaction in American society in which Trumpism and the ultra-conservatism we have experienced in recent times find ready definition.
In that respect therefore, Trump’s dubious image as a reluctant warmonger because of his refused to embark on foreign military expeditions was entirely self-serving and not out of any love America’s habitual punching bags in the developing world which he infamously dismissed as “Shit-hole” countries if we can recall.
In all these, the only silver lining remains the resilience of the American democratic institutions which had come under persisting assault in recent times. What transpired in a New York court a few days ago was re-assuring for all neutral observers of an empire in its dying days.
– Mohammed Kudu Ibrahim is the President/CEO
Niger Valley Resources Ltd
Abuja
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