Why Russians (and me) are cheering for Trump
Let me start by saying that I'm far from being a Trump fan, and that I believe that in this election the American people were voting between self destruction (Trump) and World War III (Clinton).
They could have voted for a far better candidate, whom the whole world would have envied them, that is Jill Stein. But the media and the propaganda campaign from the two main candidates ensured that people were just too worried of averting the risk of either self destruction or WW3 to take any other option into consideration. Hopefully time and experience will teach us, that in a democracy we must choose the option that we like the most, and not be calculators. But I digress.
Clinton's campaign has often hinted that Putin was cheering for Trump's victory. While the connection is not obvious at all, and the markets seems to think otherwise (now, as results are out, the Pound, Dollar and Ruble are down, while Euro is gaining), there's indeed some support for Donald Trump in the Russian media and people. And while I'm not Russian, I do share this feeling and I'd like to try to explain you the reasons. Given that I do not represent Russians, and that I might be completely misreading their thought, I'm going to use the first person from now on; so if you don't like what you read, just blame me. :-)
First of all, Trump has made some positive statements in the topics of Russia, and world peace in general, by appearing to be willing to rethink NATO's role. He also made clear that Russia would not have taken Crimea from Ukraine, had he been president, a statement which I like to read in the sense that he would have not supported the Maidan coup in the first place. And generally, Trump appears not to be fond on military interventions all other the world.
Secondly, while Americans and the West in general regard at the U.S. as the most perfect democracy, I do have a much more disillusioned view of democracy. Impopular laws are all over the world, referendums are held and then ignored (like the Greek bailout referendum in 2015, most referendums in Italy, and possibly the Brexit one too), decisions are being taken in secret and/or without any public debate (EU association agreement with Ukraine, EU sanctions against Russia, EU agreement on refugees with Turkey, etc.). Given that I'm convinced that Trump will simply not be allowed to be the U.S. president, as Julian Assange recently said, or that he'll have to radically change his positions on NATO and the finacial establishment if he wants to keep the power, it will be interesting to see how this "perfect democracy" will twist its rules or its president in order to overturn the legitimate electoral result. The hope is that this will help opening people's eyes to how our democracies are really being controlled by the big powers.
Third, the fact that Trump is despised by most intellectuals and politicians in the West is a perfect opportunity for Western countries to rethink their relationship with the U.S., and switch from a complete subjection to a more critical stance. Which does not mean that we should be hostile to the U.S., please do not misunderstand me on that, but simply stop blindly obeying any order coming from there and start thinking of our own interests.
These are my hopes; but to be realist, the most likely thing is that Trump will simply mutate his positions and become a puppet of the big powers and continue preserving the status quo, while continue screaming against Mexicans and immigrants, and continue with the current imperialistic policies and with the exploitable-poor-creating-machine (i.e., "war", which creates floods of cheap labour while we steal their countries' resources) all around the world. And with the media calmly telling us that our vote counts.
They could have voted for a far better candidate, whom the whole world would have envied them, that is Jill Stein. But the media and the propaganda campaign from the two main candidates ensured that people were just too worried of averting the risk of either self destruction or WW3 to take any other option into consideration. Hopefully time and experience will teach us, that in a democracy we must choose the option that we like the most, and not be calculators. But I digress.
Clinton's campaign has often hinted that Putin was cheering for Trump's victory. While the connection is not obvious at all, and the markets seems to think otherwise (now, as results are out, the Pound, Dollar and Ruble are down, while Euro is gaining), there's indeed some support for Donald Trump in the Russian media and people. And while I'm not Russian, I do share this feeling and I'd like to try to explain you the reasons. Given that I do not represent Russians, and that I might be completely misreading their thought, I'm going to use the first person from now on; so if you don't like what you read, just blame me. :-)
First of all, Trump has made some positive statements in the topics of Russia, and world peace in general, by appearing to be willing to rethink NATO's role. He also made clear that Russia would not have taken Crimea from Ukraine, had he been president, a statement which I like to read in the sense that he would have not supported the Maidan coup in the first place. And generally, Trump appears not to be fond on military interventions all other the world.
Secondly, while Americans and the West in general regard at the U.S. as the most perfect democracy, I do have a much more disillusioned view of democracy. Impopular laws are all over the world, referendums are held and then ignored (like the Greek bailout referendum in 2015, most referendums in Italy, and possibly the Brexit one too), decisions are being taken in secret and/or without any public debate (EU association agreement with Ukraine, EU sanctions against Russia, EU agreement on refugees with Turkey, etc.). Given that I'm convinced that Trump will simply not be allowed to be the U.S. president, as Julian Assange recently said, or that he'll have to radically change his positions on NATO and the finacial establishment if he wants to keep the power, it will be interesting to see how this "perfect democracy" will twist its rules or its president in order to overturn the legitimate electoral result. The hope is that this will help opening people's eyes to how our democracies are really being controlled by the big powers.
Third, the fact that Trump is despised by most intellectuals and politicians in the West is a perfect opportunity for Western countries to rethink their relationship with the U.S., and switch from a complete subjection to a more critical stance. Which does not mean that we should be hostile to the U.S., please do not misunderstand me on that, but simply stop blindly obeying any order coming from there and start thinking of our own interests.
These are my hopes; but to be realist, the most likely thing is that Trump will simply mutate his positions and become a puppet of the big powers and continue preserving the status quo, while continue screaming against Mexicans and immigrants, and continue with the current imperialistic policies and with the exploitable-poor-creating-machine (i.e., "war", which creates floods of cheap labour while we steal their countries' resources) all around the world. And with the media calmly telling us that our vote counts.
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