 "Trump 2.0, Modi 3.0 and the meltdown of woke, Left-‘liberal’ world")
First, they would stubbornly acknowledge them as “nobodies”. But when they get elected, this very ‘liberal’ brigade mourns and screams as if it’s the end of the world. Lord Meghnad Desai, in an interaction with this author way back in 2017, soon after the release of his book Politik Shock, recalled meeting a prominent member of Lutyens’ Delhi as the latter invited him to a qawwali event in May 2014, in the wake of Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister of India. “You must not miss the last qawwali programme in the city,” the gentleman told Desai with a tinge of sadness-cum-sarcasm on his face.
As Donald Trump registers an emphatic win against Kamala Harris in the US presidential elections, the mood in the left-‘liberal’ camp is sombre. It kept running a high-decibel election campaign, projecting the contest to be too close to call, with an edge to Harris. But as the Tuesday results show, Trump has not just managed to cross the magical number of 270 but also become the first Republican in 20 years to win popular votes.
Why did most political pundits get it wrong? Because they desperately wanted to see the kind of result they predicted. They became partisan and wrote and reported what they wanted to happen. Part of the failure to gauge the support in favour of Trump also lies in the fact that it’s not fashionable to be seen to be vouching for Donald. You stand the chance of being cancelled and being called out as fascist, white supremacist, racist… Trump, thus, had many silent voters, especially among educated middle classes. In fact, as the numbers show, he managed to get some Latino votes too. The Democrats still get the maximum of their votes, but they don’t get all of them now.
Trump’s success is also the result of the reaction to obsessive wokeism and political correctness dominating the American landscape. The rise of Kamala Harris saw the Democratic Party being hijacked by the Leftist progressives, the patron-in-chief of wokeism and political correctness in America, alienating a significant section of the Centrists and even Left-of-the-Centre voters as well.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsDuring his second term, Trump will be expected to be wiser and saner. Last time, he was foxed by the American Establishment, which managed to keep him preoccupied with one crisis after another while stalling his “disruptive” ideas and initiatives.
The truth is, for all his projected impulsiveness, eccentricities, and even villainy, Trump is a pragmatic person who means business and is good at clinching deals. One may paint him as a dark, unstable person, but to his credit, he ensured that during his term America didn’t go to war — something which the suave, sophisticated, and peace-loving Democrats failed to do. While on the one hand the Americans under Joe Biden left Afghanistan in an embarrassing situation, they, on the other hand, got themselves entangled in a totally avoidable war in Ukraine.
Trump’s historic comeback, however, won’t just cause a liberal meltdown but also put Left-‘liberal’ icons like Justin Trudeau and Volodymyr Zalenskyy in a state of shock. Trudeau would find it tough to come to terms with losing an ideological ally in the Oval Office, and worse finding a new president who isn’t quite fond of him, especially at a time when he is waging a diplomatic war on India. It won’t be surprising if Trudeau sends out truce feelers to Delhi sooner than later.
It’s, however, Zelenskyy who would be having nightmarish thoughts. He has leased out Ukraine to the Americans to launch a war against the Russians. The new US Army’s Commander-in-Chief isn’t keen to continue this war. The very prospect of the Americans leaving Ukraine would be a frightening scenario of Zelenskyy.
As for other big players, Europe will look at Trump 2.0 with a lot of concern. The president-elect has no time for the Eurocentric worldview and has repeatedly shown his weariness for NATO. China would be watching Trump cautiously. It would expect the US to further firm up its tariff war against Beijing. Also, Trump’s Russia and India policy would be keenly watched and analysed in Beijing.
Among other major players, Russia would be relieved, hoping to see the back of the Americans from Kiev; Israel would be elated, especially amid the Gaza war, which was being minutely scrutinised by Kamala Harris, often sending contradictory signals and messages.
As for India, it would be pleased with the return of Trump. One may now expect tougher economic negotiations between India and the US, and Trump’s endeavour to bring factories back to America may clash with Narendra Modi’s Make-in-India initiative, but there will be greater trust between the two countries. Trump would be an inward-looking president who doesn’t like snooping into the internal affairs of other countries, especially those he regards as allies and friends.
There has always been a tendency in the US administration to interfere into the internal affairs of other countries, which gets especially pronounced under the Democrats. However, under the Biden dispensation, especially in the second half of the term, the party was hijacked by the Leftist clique. And during this time, India saw increased and intense meddling attempts from the US administration, whether on the issue of religious freedom or diplomatic/geostrategic autonomy.
There were also perceived attempts to influence the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in India. The presence of Donald Trump, who enjoys good chemistry with Prime Minister Modi, would help shed trust deficits between the two countries.
PM Modi and Trump have worked with each other during their first term in office, when they were relatively new in the global arena. Today, Modi is the third-time Prime Minister, and Trump has made history to be the only second American to become President after a failed re-election bid. The two are going to dominate the global arena for the rest of the decade, the prospect of which is enough to send the woke, politically correct Left-‘liberal’ world order into a state of meltdown. The devastated ‘liberals’ in the US may be rushing in to catch up with the last qawwali… err jazz performance!
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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