I don't know if there ever was a time when an American presidential election
was mainly about hope. However, I believe that in 2008 and 2012 US
presidential elections centered on resentment.
President Barack Obama won thanks to a coalition; call it the ''resentment
rainbow'', built on ethnic, religious and ideological minorities that together
account for 32 per cent of the electorate.
The current Democrat Party standard-bearer Hillary Clinton hopes that the same
coalition consisting of African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, Native
Americans, gays and lesbians, ecological militants and crypto-Socialists will
carry her to the White House. Only this time, Obama's ''resentment rainbow''
has a mirror-image in a rival ''resentment rainbow'' symbolized by Donald
Trump.
This rival ''rainbow'' consists of a different set of minorities, notably
white men, Christian Evangelists, gun enthusiasts, rust-belt working classes
and people regarded by leftist elites as ''the poorly educated'', not to say
''the unwashed.'' (Trump says: ''I love the poorly educated''.)
To mark out his ''rainbow of resentment'' from that of Obama and Clinton,
Trump needed to identify the ''others'' who are the objects of hatred for his
constituency. He chose two: Muslims and Hispanics. He has said he would ban
the former from entering the US until further notice. As for the second, he
promises to build a wall on the border with Mexico.
There are many similarities between Obama and Trump. Both are outsiders who
hovered on the margins of the American elites thanks to expensive education in
Obama's case, and family wealth in Trump's case. Both entered the presidential
race with little or no political experience and both won the nomination of
their respective parties against heavy odds. At the same time, neither could
be fully identified with his ''resentment rainbow'' coalition.
I remember chatting with Reverend Jesse Jackson in Evian, France, in 2008 when
he was castigating those who said ''Obama isn't black enough''. Many also said
that Obama wasn't ''poor enough'' or ''Socialist enough'' or ''pro-Israel
enough'' or ''Muslim enough''. The ''coalition'', however, ignored such
quibbles.
As for Trump, he certainly isn't ''Christian enough'', if only because he is a
thrice divorced self-boasting philanderer who claims the Bible as his favorite
book but puts his foot in his mouth when trying to offer a quotation.
Nor is Trump the typical rust-belt victim of globalization, being an Upper
Manhattan tycoon surfing the waves of globalization. Also, despite his talent
for showing off, Trump isn't rich enough to symbolize the ever-receding
Eldorado.
Trump isn't even Republican enough, having joined the party a few months
before the primaries. Yet, 78 per cent of self-styled Evangelists say they
will vote for him, the highest for any Republican nominee. Jerry Falwell Jr,
heir to a Bible-touting dynasty, describes Trump as ''God's man to lead our
nation.'' Former Education Secretary Bill Bennet, one of the Republican
intellectuals I respect most, endorses Trump without qualms.
Trump's anti-Muslim pose isn't surprising. Rightly or wrongly, in the US
today, Muslims don't have a good image. Having emerged as a noticeable
minority only in the past two or three decades, Muslims are easily excluded
from the American historic-national narrative.
It is different with Trump's attacks on Hispanics. For the United States has
contained a Hispanic element almost from the start of its history or at least
since the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Being overwhelmingly Christian,
Hispanics cannot be pointed out as ''outsiders'' with the same ease as is the
case with Muslims.
Had he studied American history a bit more seriously, Trump would have found
Hispanics in all walks of the nation's life. He would know of such military
figures as General Beauregard, Admiral Farragut and John Oretga, the ''sailor
hero''. In literature, Trump would have noticed the novelist John Dos Pasos,
the poet Juan Felipe Herrera and the writer Richard Blanco. In the Hall of
Fame, Trump would have seen Hispanic sports champions at the peak of honor.
Could Trump ignore Aida de Costa, the first woman to fly a solo motor
aircraft? And, what about one of baseball's greatest champions Al Lopez?
Cinema, the quintessential American art form, offers a galaxy of Hispanic
stars. Would Trump keep Rita Hayworth, Maria Montez, Joan Bennet, and Dorothy
Lamour behind his wall? Or, to be politically correct and respect gender
equality, would he banish Rudolf Valentino, Ricardo Montalban, Cesar Romero,
Mel Ferrer and Anthony Quinn?
Being old enough, Trump must have shaken a leg with music by Xavier Cugat and
his wife Abbe Lane of heavenly legs, or at least Gerry Garcia's The Grateful
Dead, and Manuel Perez.
In affixing identities on people, Trump would do well to use Ockham's razor.
Trump describes Gonzalo Curiel as ''the Mexican'', although the judge was born
and bred in Chicago. Also, the Curiels were originally from France; the
judge's ancestors moved to Mexico sometime in the 19th century just as Trump's
German forebears left Europe for the New World.
In politics, nostalgia can be a powerful potion, hence Trump's slogan of
''getting our country back.'' In real life, however, rewinding history is a
futile pursuit, much like trying to re-run yesterday's river. The river is
always there but you never swim in the same river twice.
A nation is both a being and a becoming, with the latter defining the former.
The US is what it is because of what it has become.The essentialist approach
to identity could only lead to hatred, violence and, in sadly not so rare
cases, mass murder. Only an existential approach could teach us to accept each
other as we are right now and not as our ancestors were in their times.
In many walks of American life today, things are not as Trump and some of his
supporters might like. But, so what? In other walks of life, things are not as
Trump's opponents would like.
Whether Trump likes it or not, the concept of gender equality has become part
of American culture. A majority also accept gay and lesbian marriages. In many
places, soft drugs have become legal, and no one could push the genie of
abortion back into the bottle. Gun control is stricter than ever before. More
and more states are abolishing capital punishment and adopting environmentally
friendly laws. And, horror of horrors, this primary season millions of
Americans in 22 states voted for a self-declared Socialist as their favorite
to be the Democrat Party's nominee.
No one can revive the Rust Belt industries by reversing globalization. A wise
way would be to move beyond old industries by further building up ''brain''
industries of which the US is already the pioneer.
Having appeared from the 1960s onwards, hyphenated identities have done damage
to social cohesion in the US, making it easy to create ''resentment rainbows''
based on real or invented identities.
The US is the first country created as a corporation in which every citizen
has a share, and the first not to name itself after any ethnic group, race or
religion.
The rival ''resentment rainbows'' should learn to live and progress together.
To do that they would have to stop excluding each other with hyphenated
identities and move the debate to the political rather than subliminal racial,
gender, life-style and, yes, grievance arenas. A pious hope? Maybe.
Amir Taheri was born in Ahvaz, southwest Iran, and educated in Tehran,
London and Paris. He was Executive Editor-in-Chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran
(1972-79). In 1980-84, he was Middle East Editor for the Sunday Times. In
1984-92, he served as member of the Executive Board of the International Press
Institute (IPI). Between 1980 and 2004, he was a contributor to the
International Herald Tribune. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, the
New York Post, the New York Times, the London Times, the French magazine
Politique Internationale, and the German weekly Focus. Between 1989 and 2005,
he was editorial writer for the German daily Die Welt. Taheri has published 11
books, some of which have been translated into 20 languages. He has been a
columnist for Asharq Alawsat since 1987. Taheri's latest book "The Persian
Night" is published by Encounter Books in London and New York.
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