CHUKS
OLUIGBO
“Are
you for Trump or Clinton?” That was how I shoved the question straight into the
face of my Nigerian-American friend the other day. It was meant to be a parting
shot after a half-hour-long animated WhatsApp chat.
“Both
of them are complicated but I’ll go for Clinton,” she retorted, then fled
before I could ask her to break it down.
Just
a few days later, someone posted an emotionally-charged speech by Michelle
Obama on a WhatsApp group where I belong.
In
that speech, Michelle said Hillary Clinton’s opponent was “perhaps living life
high up in a tower, in a world of exclusive clubs, measuring success by wins
and losses and the number of zeroes in your bank account”, with “so little
exposure to people who are different than you”, making it easy for him “to take
advantage of”, “dehumanise”, “treat...with contempt” “those who are down on
their luck, folks who play by the rules, pay what they owe, because to you
those folks just aren’t very smart and seem somehow less deserving”.
“Maybe
that’s why this candidate thinks certain immigrants are criminals instead of
folks who work their fingers to the bone to give their kids a better life, to
help build the greatest nation on Earth, because he doesn’t really know ‘them’.
Maybe that’s why he thinks we should be afraid of our Muslim brothers and
sisters, because he really has no idea who they are. He doesn’t understand that
they are ‘us’. They are our friends, our family, our neighbours, our
colleagues, people of faith just like so many folks around the country.” Et
cetera.
“Great
speech by Michelle. As always,” I commented. Someone concurred: “In fact after
this speech, if I were a skinhead (KKK) I would vote two times for Hillary.”
But someone else – let’s call him Mr. D – had a different view, though not
about the message but the messenger.
“Michelle
Obama is part of the problems of the world today. Those people are hypocrites.
They are evil. She is not the saint she paints herself. If you know them, you
will never admire them again,” Mr. D offered.
But
I was not willing to be dragged into taking Panadol for another man’s headache.
So I simply said I was not competent to discuss American politics, which gave
me the imprimatur to stay on the sidelines and observe. But there were some who
were ready, so they challenged Mr. D to simplify.
“First,
if you know Hillary Clinton, I mean, if you know her and what she’s capable of
doing and what she has done, anyone who supports her has a question mark,” he
replied.
This
only attracted more “voices” asking for specifics.
“That
Hillary deleted 33,000 emails and bleached the server; that FBI on Friday
reopened her investigation; that she is at the forefront of pushing for
abortion, LGBT; that she uses her office to enrich herself, for instance,
taking $12 million bribe from King of Morocco, etc,” Mr. D said.
“The
greatest fear in America today is religious freedom. There is a gang-up against
Christianity, especially Catholic Church. Hillary Clinton is at the head. There
are legislations and laws to suppress religion. Taxes paid by Catholics are
used to fund abortion, called Planned Parenthood. They plan to force churches
to wed gays and lesbians. It is a whole lot, I mean, trying to go against
people’s conscience and freedom of worship and backing it up by law, else you
go to jail.”
More
opposing “voices”. But just when it seemed Mr. D was running out of steam, a
Nigerian-American on the forum came to the rescue.
“When
we look at American politics from the surface, it looks harmless as the medium
that promotes the flourishing of human freedom. But this post-Christian
culture/politics has become forcefully secular, demeaning very frequently
religious beliefs, especially Christian faith, and idolizing radical ‘atheistic
humanism’. We often do not see how SOME of the current laws hamper religious
liberty. Obama's 'Health and Human Services' contraceptive mandate immediately
comes to mind – the legal challenges to HHS contraceptive mandate filed by
religious nonprofits like the Little Sisters of the Poor. American mainstream
media do not have interest in bringing to light these abuses of power,” he
said.
“This
quiet marginalization was what prompted Cardinal Francis George, the former
Archbishop of Chicago, to observe that he would probably die in his
bedroom/hospital, but his successors might die in prisons – because of
faith-motivated dissent. It is sad, but if we read beyond CNN and others, we
would encounter several Christians from different denominations who stood firm
to their Christian convictions and who paid the great prices for it. In light
of all of this, it is important to note some points. With the recent passage of
Justice Antonin Scalia, if Hillary Clinton is elected president, and a liberal
jurist joins the high court, the fortitude of a few jurists, like Thomas
Clarence, could be further tested. God save us!” he further said.
Then
he concluded on a rather sombre note: “The alternative, Trump, is also scary.”
Sincerely,
it was the first time I’d seen folks vent such anti-Clinton sentiments. The
groundswell of opposition right from the beginning of the campaigns has been
against Donald J. Trump, especially in media circles and among the intellectual
class. From the early days till now, articles opposing Trump’s candidature have
flooded Project Syndicate, a highly reputable site that features “exclusive”
Op-ed “contributions by prominent political leaders, policymakers, scholars,
business leaders, and civic activists from around the world”.
“Why
Trump?” by Elizabeth Drew, “Trump’s Italian Prototype” by Bill Emmott, “Donald
Trump’s Message” by Joseph S. Nye, “Republicans Ride the Trump Tiger” by Theda
Skocpol, “Trump the Traitor” by Bernard-Henri Lévy, “Trump’s Fiscal Follies” by
Jeffrey Frankel, “What Putin Sees in Trump” by Christopher Smart, “Reason in the
Age of Trump” by Ana Palacio, “The Many Extremes of Donald Trump” by Simon
Johnson, and “Trump Versus the West” by Dominique Moisi are just some of the
headlines.
Ironically,
the more they wrote, the higher Trump soared, ultimately proving a big threat
to Clinton, whom many had thought would easily coast to victory with Trump as
her major opponent.
Well,
the die is cast. The election is just two days away. My opinion is that
Americans are old enough to know what they want. Whoever they choose, it’s their
choice to make. Nothing we say here can change that fact. Many Americans
apparently believe it’s a between-the-rock-and-the-hard-place scenario. The campaign
itself has been all mudslinging. Even the Financial
Times has called it America’s “most vicious electoral campaign in living
memory”. But choose they must.
Last
year Nigerians had a similar scenario – or so we thought – but we made a choice
and we’re living with it. Whoever the Americans choose, they’ll also live with
it. The decisions of an American president cannot possibly affect us much more
than Buhari’s are already doing, unless we don’t live in Nigeria. And for those
who say they’d tear their green card if Trump wins, the choice is theirs as
well. But aren’t they lucky to have a green card?