NIC Undergrad Review Volume 2 - Issue 2
organizations, meaning public votes in each State occur essentially by popular demand rather than obligatory legislation. Read more about this topic in page [see page 41 for more on this topic]. Furthermore, American elections may seem kind of odd here in Europe as they are not as simple and blunt as our own. In fact, despite all the news we see about the controversial Donald Trump showing him get ahead from the other Republican candidates and despite the fact that he would mostly benefit from a terrorist attack on US soil as we talked about, he may or may not win the American elections in November 2016, as these elections are all so uncertain. One of the reasons he might win is the tendency of the American voters to alternate between the two main (we actually can say the only two, for that matter) parties for the White House - both Democrats and Republicans. The administration of George Washington’s folks’ country has changed from time to time as the clock tick-tacks. In fact, we must return to the period of 1932-1952 to see a Democrat president standing in the Oval Room for more than 2 mandates. And here we are talking about Franklin. D. Roosevelt, the popular man that arguably helped America get out of the Great Depression (4 mandates) and President Harry Truman (1 mandate) who actually did not have an absolute majority in his election in 1948. The attrition of being in office applies to both parties, and the not so popular Obama administration did so to its party. Republicans 38
are now fresh and clean to start a new mandate in America, and people recognize that. We can’t know for sure if a Trump nomination will overthrow Clinton - who is now nearing the Democrat nomination - or the not so likely Bernie Sanders. But what we know for sure is the reaction showed by the American people to terrorist attacks and the reaction they have been taking towards fear. As the human beings they are, Americans cannot flee from one of the root basic instincts we all have: the strong reaction to fear. Humans tend to react to this by one of two ways: we either flee or fight. Since these emotions are way too powerful to get wasted by American politicians, they are undoubtedly boosting the anti-muslim sentiment that is growing in US since the 9/11 and the Iraq situation. We can call Trump whatever pleases us, but we cannot avoid to recognize in him the sight of the big american picture: people are done with the traditional politics, people don’t see the economic recovery within their lives, people want a radical change, people don’t believe anymore in casual politicians talking, people feel that America is not The major world power it used to be. And Trump is taking advantage of that: his path is to unite the American people by appealing to their sense of pride and creating the notion of a common enemy - in this case, Muslims - so he can appear as the American D. Sebastião. If we would answer in a quick and easy way - as we stated - we would mostly say yes; Trump would strongly benefit from a terrorist
attack on US soil. When we think about anti-muslim sentiment or the feeling “shoot first ask later” we don’t think of Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz, despite the radical he may be. Much less we think in Bernie Sanders. When we think about it, we think in Trump, the populist by nature and the one that is basing his campaign in these arguments. However, it is not guaranteed that the people convinced with Populism will be enough to win. If he cannot unite his party how can he get a consensus outside? Will undecided people vote for the controversial fear-boosting guy over the politically correct ones? Because of that, this election will be historic; will Americans be done with common politics and radically change for Populism or will Americans continue to embrace the predictable, traditional way of choosing the path of low profile politics? Will we indeed see Donald J. Trump in the same wall as men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln? As the United States 58th President? Source: The Washington Post