As America, and indeed the entire world wind down from what has no doubt been a contentious and hotly-antagonised Presidential race, it may be useful to consider the after-effects of such a race against the backdrop of overarching socio-economic, political, historical and cultural issues and what these could mean for the future of global politics. For the winner there are a few things that will map the political trajectory going forward, such as:
�2 The nation state continues to be relevant:
At a time when the forces of globalisation create seamless boundaries among nations, Donald Trump fought with a diehard belief that the nation state should retain its divine right to sovereignty. This was seen in the Brexit vote which was campaigned on a fundamental belief that the United Kingdom had lost its power at the EU bargaining table. Trump has transmitted this same ideology, that America has lost its place as a world power and that the nation needed to reclaim something lost. Look no further than his campaign slogan repeated endlessly, "Make America Great Again."
�2 Partisan politics alive and kicking:
When Donald Trump announced his candidacy, most people shrugged it off. There was no way a reality TV host and real estate mogul could actually become the president of the United States. However, when Trump won the Republican primaries, then the nomination at the Republican Convention, it showed that irrespective of his nonconformist political demeanour, Republicans had no choice but to endorse him, showing that in the end partisan politics will always reign supreme no matter how radical their candidate might be.
�2 America more fragmented than it realises:
It is no surprise that Donald Trump's popularity was correlated to the racist and exclusionary values held by contemporary America. Trump showed that America is a truly divided nation yet to come to terms with issues of race relations and immigration policies.
�2 Beware of far-right populist fervour:
The rise of "Trumpism" on a much broader level is a manifestation of far-right conservatism intended to protect core conservative values. This was already seen in the Brexit vote and in a general feeling of Euro-skepticism. Such values are becoming normative as more nations seek to safeguard their own national and state interests.
�2 But everyone still loves an anti-hero:
Donald Trump was the epitome of an unconventional hero. He was the self-declared saviour of the contemporary American nation and therefore defined his campaign as a break with the status-quo, or as he said, one that sought to "drain the swamp of Washington."
Trump established himself as everything Hillary Clinton was not and in so doing rode a wave of ascendancy to a point where he had a legitimate path to being the 45th US president.
The 2016 US Presidential race will go down in world history as one that defied the conventional.
It has the rise of Donald Trump to thank for that as he has forever changed the political landscape of not just the United States but in fact, that of the entire world, and for the reasons listed above, one should be wary of the implications of such a future for world politics.
Jarrel De Matas
Diego Martin