A possibility that seemed too good to be true to some and a dystopian reality the entire world needs to avoid to others, Donald Trump, against all odds has beaten a plethora of candidates to emerge as the Presidential nominee of the Republican party. What was unimaginable until a year ago but has seemed an inevitability for the larger part of the past 3 or 4 months, Donald Trump is finally one step closer to the White House.
One of the greatest accomplishments of Donald Trump, however, has been exposing conventional wisdom for the farce it is when it comes to politics. The conventional wisdom in a Democracy which mandates appeasing various sections of the society to ensure one’s accession to power was exposed for the sham it is by the Trump phenomena. He has decisively proved that if one sticks with repeating uncomfortable truths, it hardly matters how it is conveyed or spoken. Donald Trump has proved that even in a democracy, if one decides to be a leader and has the necessary attributes, people will gather around him.
Donald Trump’s opponent from the Democratic Party is Hillary Rodham Clinton, only the formal coronation of the Presumptive Democratic nominee at the Democratic convention stands in the way of a Trump vs Hillary Race to the White House. Conventional wisdom suggests that it would be an easy victory for Hillary in November but the Trump has displayed a total disregard for conventional wisdom up until now.
The Trump vs Hillary Presidential Race will prove to be one of the most interesting elections in recent times. Quite amusingly, it pits two of the most hated characters in the United States of America right now against each other. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to imagine any presidential candidate who could be hated as much as Donald Trump but ‘Crooked Hillary’ certainly puts up a great fight if not actually winning that poll. Hillary Clinton is certainly hated enough for some to mount a serious argument that between Clinton and Trump, Trump might actually be the lesser of the two evils and not be ridiculed.
Trump’s strong stance against terrorism and his proposed temporary ban on immigration of Muslim Migrants gains sway with more people everyday as Europe devolves into an ocean of chaos even as we speak. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton’s almost stern refusal to address the problem by its true name, ‘Radical Islam’ even when prompted repeatedly by her haters and well wishers alike is likely to work against her as the situation in Europe deteriorates further as is most likely. Clinton did come up with the term ‘Radical Jihadism’ however and like her defense of her email scandal, no sensible person can make sense of it.
Hillary Clinton brings a lot of added baggage with her which definitely casts a shadow on her credentials as the Presidential nominee. Her failures during her tenure as Secretary of State to Obama’s administration and overall lack of any significant achievement gives plenty of ammunition to Donald Trump, something he has utilized to the fullest extent. The scandal involving her email address is a surest proof of criminality for many many people and her image as someone who used her political clout to avoid conviction does nothing to help her cause.
Meanwhile, things have gone from bad to worse for the presumptive Democratic nominee. Wikileaks has published an unprecedented number of emails which show collusion between certain mainstream media houses and the Clinton campaign to cast Bernie Sanders in poor light and offer Clinton an unfair advantage. Worse, the emails also reveal that the DNC had already decided on their nominee even before a single vote was cast in the primaries. Amidst revelations that the DNC made a deliberate attempt to sabotage the Sanders campaign, the chair of DNC has resigned. On top of that, the leaked emails reveal that the Clinton campaign regards the Hispanics as little more than target consumers. The DNC leaks might just prove to be the final nail in the coffin for Hillary Clinton.
Despite mounting pressure, Bernie Sanders is yet to rescind his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. For a person who claimed to fight against the establishment, it didn’t look good on him when he formally became a part of the establishment he so much detests when he endorsed Clinton for President. However, all polls showed him beating Donald Trump by a margin far wider than Clinton herself. But the DNC leaks goes on to prove that the primaries were rigged against him from the very beginning and Trump was right, like he has been on so many occasions, that the entire system is rigged.
With every passing week, the gap between Clinton and Trump is reducing according to multiple polls. It is debatable, however, if the gap is reducing due to Trump’s surging popularity or Clinton’s diminishing credibility. The unusual circumstances surrounding the Presidential Election of 2016 and the high levels of unpopularity of the nominees of both parties makes it very possible to have a third party candidate making it a three way fight to the White House. Governor Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party nominee, is the likeliest person to end up in the podium with Clinton and Trump.
2016 has been the year of underdogs. From Leicester winning the Premier League to Portugal’s triumph in the European championships and Trump’s victory at the Republican National Convention which seemed like an impossibility for more than a year, 2016 does seem to be more favorable to underdogs than usual. With Clinton’s credibility diminishing with every passing week and Trump’s predictions regarding the situation with the migrants proving to be more accurate than anyone else, momentum is definitely on Trump’s side.
And with a lot of Sanders’ supporters feeling betrayed by his endorsement of Hillary, it will be interesting to see to what extent it benefits Trump as a significant chunk of Bernie bros had Trump as their second choice for President. With Bernie out of the way, Trump is officially the only Anti-establishment candidate and pitted against a woman who represents everything that is wrong with the establishment, one is inclined to believe he might have a fair chance at winning. Conventional wisdom, however, dictates that Clinton will win and win big but if there’s anyone who has defied every single conventional piece of wisdom we have been led to revere, it’s the one and only Donald Trump.