Focus Malaysia:
Trump might pip Kamala in the race to the White House
By Phlip Rodrigues
FORMER US president Donald Trump might just pip Vice-President Kamala Harris to win the presidential race on Nov 5.
The macho man might be back in the White House to carry out the “biggest deportation of illegal immigrants in American history” and that’s what matters most in this closely-fought campaign.
Both contenders have a master plan: Harris to revitalise the economy and Trump to make America great again – and safer. It is the security aspect that Trump is exploiting to the maximum.
The irrepressible Republican standard-bearer has zeroed in on this one volatile issue – the threat from illegal immigrants – in all his rallies to punch home the urgent, ominous message that foreigners represent a real and present danger to the wellbeing of the mainly white land.
Harris has been touting her ambitious plan of making life better for the people but all her ideas and proposals are abstract concepts that will take a long time to come into fruition.
The immediate concern is the “wave of immigrants” which Trump claims are trying to enter what they see as a land of vast opportunities where they hope to realise their American dreams.
Trump didn’t see that way. To him all these “aliens” are trouble-makers out to destroy the “fabric of American society”.
He repeats this dire warning in all his speeches, even going overboard with his allegation that “immigrants in your neighbourhood are eating your pets”.
Trump is instilling fear in them with this unpalatable narrative and this line of strategy might just do the trick for him.
When Americans can feel and touch the immediate presence of danger in the form of illegal immigrants, they might rally behind the Republican flag to ward off this perceived invasion and in Trump they see a soldier who could get the job done.
Trump may have lost the debate but do the Americans care? He may have some legal troubles but are the voters swayed?
He may have instigated the mob attack on Capitol Hill when he lost the 2020 election but do the electorate give it much thought in his comeback bid for power?
It appears that the American public is not making a big fuss over his many flaws because most surveys point out that the race is heading for a very close fight.
Can Harris stop the republican noise machine? Democrats think she has one trump card that can tip the balance in her favour – the so-called Project 2025, a document that a premier Republican thinktank has concocted to radically reshape the American political landscape.
Harris denounced it as a dangerous plan that would give the president vast power akin to a dictatorship. She tried to whip up fear that democracy is under attack.
But Trump has disavowed all the radical proposals which were prepared by the Heritage Foundation, a diehard, conservative organisation that is regarded as the right-wing storm troopers of the Republican party.
The public appears not to be much bothered with this controversial document since Trump has vehemently denied he has anything to do with it, and the people seemed to concur.
What other potent weapons can Harris bring out to push back the Republican onslaught? It looks like she does not have much supply of ammunition left in her arsenal for a rapid counterattack except to hope and pray the American voters will not listen to Trump.
Trump is relentlessly playing the politics of race and fear because he probably thinks he has detected the mood of the voters in this election season – they are more afraid of immigrants than are enamoured of Harris’ theme of driving America forward. And he may have read the pulse of the nation correctly.
The vice-president is being portrayed as the face of the immigrants, an embodiment of all that is wrong with America today: high violent crimes, job thefts, “poisoning the blood of the country” – and all the handiwork of these undocumented class of people.
Such overt xenophobia coming out incessantly from the Republican noise machine might be jarring on the ears of the Democrats but it is probably music to the white race.
In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton won the presidential election with a simple slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid”. He beat Republican incumbent George HW Bush who thought his freshly-minted hero status from the Iraq war would win him another term in the White House.
In the 2024 election, Trump might reverse the fortune of his party with another simple, yet powerful slogan: “It’s the immigrants, stupid.” – Oct 17, 2024
Phlip Rodrigues is a retired journalist.
When Americans can feel and touch the immediate presence of danger in the form of illegal immigrants, they might rally behind the Republican flag to ward off this perceived invasion and in Trump they see a soldier who could get the job done.
Trump may have lost the debate but do the Americans care? He may have some legal troubles but are the voters swayed?
He may have instigated the mob attack on Capitol Hill when he lost the 2020 election but do the electorate give it much thought in his comeback bid for power?
It appears that the American public is not making a big fuss over his many flaws because most surveys point out that the race is heading for a very close fight.
Can Harris stop the republican noise machine? Democrats think she has one trump card that can tip the balance in her favour – the so-called Project 2025, a document that a premier Republican thinktank has concocted to radically reshape the American political landscape.
Harris denounced it as a dangerous plan that would give the president vast power akin to a dictatorship. She tried to whip up fear that democracy is under attack.
But Trump has disavowed all the radical proposals which were prepared by the Heritage Foundation, a diehard, conservative organisation that is regarded as the right-wing storm troopers of the Republican party.
The public appears not to be much bothered with this controversial document since Trump has vehemently denied he has anything to do with it, and the people seemed to concur.
What other potent weapons can Harris bring out to push back the Republican onslaught? It looks like she does not have much supply of ammunition left in her arsenal for a rapid counterattack except to hope and pray the American voters will not listen to Trump.
Trump is relentlessly playing the politics of race and fear because he probably thinks he has detected the mood of the voters in this election season – they are more afraid of immigrants than are enamoured of Harris’ theme of driving America forward. And he may have read the pulse of the nation correctly.
The vice-president is being portrayed as the face of the immigrants, an embodiment of all that is wrong with America today: high violent crimes, job thefts, “poisoning the blood of the country” – and all the handiwork of these undocumented class of people.
Such overt xenophobia coming out incessantly from the Republican noise machine might be jarring on the ears of the Democrats but it is probably music to the white race.
In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton won the presidential election with a simple slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid”. He beat Republican incumbent George HW Bush who thought his freshly-minted hero status from the Iraq war would win him another term in the White House.
In the 2024 election, Trump might reverse the fortune of his party with another simple, yet powerful slogan: “It’s the immigrants, stupid.” – Oct 17, 2024
Phlip Rodrigues is a retired journalist.
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