Opinion- The frightening realities behind the Trump phenomenon

Personally I would not vote for Trump if I was paid (if I was an American) and I think like many people that Hillary Clinton is a very flawed candidate as well.  If ever an election cried out for a credible third option this is it, but that won’t happen.

Who knows who will win?  The pollsters seem to think that Clinton will just get over the line but no-one is really ruling Trump out either.  In a couple of weeks we will know.  Either way I think the result is potentially a disaster for the USA.  The only hope is that Clinton does win and turns out to be a greater unifying influence than anyone expected  –  if that happened she would turn out to be one of the great Presidents. But unlikely I reckon.

I think there is a problem whoever wins and the problems is seated in the deeply divisive political issues which currently be-devil the USA.  These problems lie in part in the influence of lobby groups of all types in the influencing and thus undermining of the political process in America – with the gun lobby being the most obvious example.  As result I think that Americans from a range of backgrounds have lost confidence in the political process.   But the other part of the problem is that hard core of white largely blue collar Americans who feel deeply disenfranchised by the political process and the establishment and  are the most fervent supporters of Donald Trump.

As other commentators have pointed out in recent days, the Trump supporters may be smaller in number than those who are probably disposed to vote for Clinton, by boy are they motivated and thus they can be sure to turn out.

It is a real double jeopardy situation.  If Clinton wins and reverts to type there will be a hard-core of very angry Americans who might be disposed to do some very ugly things.  That will be particularly but not necessarily the case if they are egged on by a losing Trump.  Although it might be thought that Trump is the key to this I think he probably just represents the views of those hard-core Americans i.e. even if he was disposed to back off if he lost, his supporters might not.

If Trump wins the risk of adverse reactions is even greater than if Clinton wins.  The Trump supporters will have high expectations of Trump delivering on the things he has talked about on his campaign.  When those expectations are not realised – and I don’t think they will when it comes to the point if only because Trump gas just shown no ability to “walk the talk” – the reaction might be worse than under a Clinton win.

An issue too is whether any of the sexual harassment claims that have surfaced against Trump will result in legal actions – or even moves toward impeachment – if Trump wins.  Or even if he loses come to that.

As I said above an awful lot hangs on how Hilary Clinton might handle victory, if that is what she gets.

This is very much a case of “watch this space”.

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This is another of Bas Walker’s posts on GrownUps.  Please look out for his articles, containing his Beachside Ponderings.