Up to now, most folks have dismissed Trump as a wacko populist outlier who is cynically bucking the American elites for his ego – and wallet!! But whatever they might think, they still gotta explain why his supposedly outlandish positions resonate with so many Americans, no?? To be a populist means you’re purveying ideas that are “popular”, and in that case, Trump can’t be an outlier! To some large segment of the American populace, he is “mainstream” – as far as THEY’re concerned. We knew from voting patterns in 2016, when he became President, that his support came from a helluva lot of po’ whites from all over – including blue collar workers in the North. Even though he was lambasted for being a serial womaniser and a “crotch-grabber”, he yet grabbed votes from that demographic!! And while his lifestyle certainly didn’t show him to be no choir boy -his most fervid voters were fervent evangelicals – especially from the South and Midwest. How did an archetypal city slicker from that den of iniquity called New York City get to be the hero of those folks?? Well, yesterday, your Eyewitness mentioned his VP pick – JD Vance (he never uses the full “James David) – for this November’s election, and if you know about Vance, you’ll be able to appreciate the Trump phenomenon!! Vance wrote his modern American “rags to riches” story in the NYTimes bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy” – which Netflix picked up to make an Oscar nominated movie – and all is explained by showing more than telling. The old American “Rags to riches” story was told in the pulp novels written by Horatio Alger in the 19th century, and it was about impoverished boys who, through hard work, determination, courage and honesty, joined the “respectable middle class”. Well, JD Vance’s story is about the here and now, and describes intergenerational poverty of the po’ white Hillbillies from the Appalachian Mountains – which continued even as they trekked to the Midwest, only to see their bubble burst in what is now called the “Rust Belt”. The moonshine (bush rum) that fuelled the Hillbilly violent and unstable lives was now replaced by heroin in the Midwest as the factories that had provided employment and a decent life were hived off to China and other destinations foreign. Hard work don’t give you nothing when the factories are all sent abroad!! Vance decries the dominant liberal paradigm focusing on handouts like food stamps, which simply perpetuate the misery by convincing the welfare recipients they got no agency. The liberals ensconced in the cities, mansions and universities scorn the “white trash”!! Trump’s cussing out this elite – while insisting America must take care of its own – has given Hillbillies a voice. …police low The police have preyed on the Guyanese people for so long that there’s nary a soul who remembers it otherwise. When the Brits were here, they had the police do their bidding – “to keep us in our place” for over a hundred years. When Burnham took over, they continued preying on us, but this time to keep Burnham in power!! And since they knew Burnham was playing games with their professionalism, they jettisoned that completely as they started doing their own hustle. Remember getting arrested for having flour and sardines, and having to bribe the police by “sharing”?? Well, this has become so embedded after Granger took over and threw out some professional brass for his lackeys that things are now out of hand. The Home Affairs Minister was forced to call a spade a spade and denounce officers running procurement rackets from inside Police HQ! Imagine those miscreants became so bold that they had to be called out for ostentatiously wearing bling on the job!! Bun dem!! …US relationship Even as the US just announced they’re ratcheting up their strategic cooperation with us, your Eyewitness has pointed out they seem to be playing footsies with Mad Maduro – who’s going to the polls this month-end. So, what’s the ‘strategy”?
