Now the unthinkable materialised right before our eyes, everybody seems
eager to comment on it: each one his own post factum logic to balsam our
conscience bruises. If this exercise is an honest one it could make us
more cautious at the spread of dangerous populism
that threatens the old world as much as it is engulfing the United
States. We have absolutely no reason to look down on "these stupid
Americans". Tomorrow we could awaken in exactly the same earthshaking
reality at home.
Mind you, Trumpism
will not show its ugliest teeth at once. He will continue to act as the
sympathetic leader of the righteous people's movement and the shifting
in the people's minds will take place step by step. At first many of us
will feel relieved because Trumpian reforms will seem less radical then
his campaign promised. Not such a bad guy after all. The contamination
of the American culture, what people think and feel, of their souls,
will happen almost imperceptible to many. That's how populism works. But wait and see what will have happened 4 years from now.
Global
warming? Just part of the Jewish/black conspiracy to frighten real
Americans and keep them calm while they ruin our oil industry and these
leftist queers in New York and San Francisco spend all our money. Of
course making coarse comparisons depicting Trump
with a little moustache and a swastika on his arm is all too easy:
populism of another kind, that is. But still: history has shown us how a
whole nation of honest, well thinking and hard working people can be
lured into accepting and even committing the worst atrocities against
fellow humans. "Wir haben das nicht gewusst" is not an explanation and
will never be. We do see what is happening, we must see it and we must
act upon it.
Hereby I just want to remind us how Michael Moore
had warned us in July but nobody (and I include myself) has taken it too
seriously then. We were really so convinced he was exaggerating.
Unthinkable? Well, here we are now. What are we going to do about it ?
Americans but also we Europeans who are facing the rise of pied pipers
as Le Pen, Wilders, Farage and the like. Let's be vigilant.
