opinion:why TRUMP IS is successful........
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OPINION
Opinion: Why Trump is successful – and what we should learn from this
The first live debate between Clinton and Trump is expected to be the largest political television event in history. Ines Pohl discusses why this is and what the world should learn from Trump's success.
1. Production instead of product / Spectacle rather than real policies
In the history of television, there has never been a political event that will be watched by as many people as the first TV debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It is estimated that not only in the USA but worldwide, around 100 million people will be sitting in front of their television screens. This is not only because of the global importance of the office of US president. It is more than anything to do with Trump's unprecedented style of communication. He is a man who seems to masterfully know how to turn his public appearances into a spectacle; to amuse and entertain people with his provocations and oftentimes politically incorrect statements. These tactics seem to attract many people, perhaps because an objective analysis of our complicated world has become too difficult, or too frustrating.
2. Assertions without factual basis
Trump and his team have adopted the tactic of repeating untruths so often that they end up being discussed as facts in public discourse. The problem is that there are no longer any institutions in the US with role of providing an independent voice on such statements – and thereby debunking them and exposing them for what they are: simply lies. The extremely polarising election campaign has worn down the social forces that should have been taking on this role. This failure by the intellectual elite to engage in providing a balance to Trump's extreme views poses a serious threat in itself. This is how democracies lose the power to stop demagogues from using carefully selected disinformation to dominate public discourse.
3. Reliance on quotes rather than journalistic analysis
Ines Pohl
Donald Trump has been made great by the media through a reliance on quotes rather than providing any journalistic analysis. From the beginning Trump has relied heavily on his unique style with its continuous, high-voltage belligerence, which has provided a source of endless quotes. The media have jumped through every hoop that Trump has held out to them. For example, a campaign appearance was turned into a lengthy television broadcast, which provided the New York businessman with a self-promotion platform for hours on end. Journalists began factually checking Trump's assertions and challenging his statements far too late in the campaign.
4. Voters living in parallel worlds
A problem with social media is that there are fewer and fewer spaces where a meaningful political exchange can take place. Voters increasingly stay in their own little worlds where exchanges take place between like-minded people. They stay informed through media who no longer seem to have the requirement to report objectively and to evaluate arguments fairly. The mainstream media has not yet found a way to deal with the parallel world of social media. Donald Trump realised this early on and, though his use of Twitter, found a way to directly communicate with his supporters. The simplistic clarity of his messages seem to be made for internet services that only allow a certain number of characters.
5. A longing for solutions
It doesn't seem to matter whether Trump's plans are realistic or not, for example, building a wall on the Mexican border or defeating IS with military strikes. People are frustrated and desperate; they are insecure and afraid that they will lose their economic prosperity. They want to believe in simple solutions. They feel they are being taken seriously because Donald Trump is very specific about his concrete plans and in naming culprits.
6. Protest against the status quo
There has been no other presidential candidate who has stood as firmly for the Establishment as Hillary Clinton. What for her supporters is interpreted as expertise is seen by her critics and opponents as evidence for how corrupt the political system is and how the elite use the country as a self-service store. It is for this reason that Bernie Sanders, who presented himself as a revolutionary political outsider, was so successful. Many people are fed up with the current political system. A large part of Trump's support comes from people who want to protest against the political system itself.
7. Rejecting the truth
People dream of recreating a past that has no place in a globalised world of the future. Trump's propaganda and his power fantasies are in large part a rejection of the reality of today's world. His success is partly due to the low education level of many Americans, although there is also a large percentage of Trump supporters who have graduated from high school. But people are increasingly living in a virtual parallel world and are losing any connection to reality. It is no coincidence that Donald Trump was so successful as the moderator of a Reality Show.
8. Anything is possible
At the beginning of this election year no one would have thought it possible that Donald Trump could have defeated his republican rivals and have a serious chance of running for president. Not only the Brexit, but also the phenomenon that is Donald Trump, is proof that the Establishment must get down from its ivory tower as fast as possible and start engaging with everyday problems faced by voters. Of course there is only one Donald Trump. And it may be the case that the US electoral system is particularly susceptible to populism and changes in the mood of the public. But it in the end Trump's success has been made possible by a social climate where there is an ever-widening gap between the super-rich and those living on the edge of existence. And this situation is not only limited to the United States.
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