COMMENTARY Trump, Modi, Pink and Fawad Khan September has been very Rangeen (colorful) All views are personal
By Meena Yeggina
country - an umbrella for many ethnic groups and communities that come here in search of better lives in a free, fearless and equal society. As an Indian Hindu Immigrant, I become extremely scared of Trump and his petty, fear- mongering politics. I don’t think he will do any good to my children, or me, by denying access to other hopeful immi- grants. And if a man hates one commu- nity what is the guarantee the he wouldn’t others like us later, once his goal is achieved? Fact is Trump’s racial prejudice is a recorded fact. Writes Nicholas Kristof in New York Times: “Frankly, we should be discomfited that many Americans have absorbed the idea that Hillary Clinton is less honest than Donald Trump, giving Trump an edge in polls of trustworthiness. Hello? There is no comparison. One commonly cited example of Clinton’s lying is her false claim in 2008 that when she was first lady she came under sniper fire after her plane landed in Bosnia. In con- trast, with Trump, you don’t need to go back eight years: One examination found he av- erages a lie or an inaccuracy in every five minutes of speaking. (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/opini on/sunday/how-to-cover-a-charlatan-like- trump.html?_r=0) Under these circumstances, I was thrilled to watch him fall bit by bit and expose himself to attacks of rage, anger, lies and worse, bad vocabulary. Easily rattled and forced to backtrack several times, he looked petty and defensive. After that debate, I knew no fair- minded person could waste their vote on him. Nevertheless, there indeed are several Hindu groups supporting him in the US and in India and that is ex- tremely worrisome. Several studies de- clare that educated Americans are
As Martin Luther King, Jr once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” So here I am crossing the border be- tween silence and safety and the un- known world of controversy, criticism and even rage. Particularly about- Trump and Modi - conversations over whom allegedly families, love-lives and friendships have been been shattered). I have noticed several disturbing paral- lels between the two, and not sharing them to the initiated felt like too big a moral burden. So here goes: To begin with, it was wonderful watching the presidential debate: To see
against him and that it is the scared un- educated who prefer him. That study definitely is confusing, considering the fact that many Hindu engineers and doctors are crazy about Trump. It could be due to his promise of tax cuts and immigration laws or his fascist pull. Fear, nationalism, fascism and religion are like opium, to borrow from the words of Karl Marx, and act as a tem- porary yet strong forces of vote banks. Even the financial promises of Trump are riddled with controversies, so much so that economists are acutely skeptical of the financial gains of such cuts that will make rich richer and poor poorer. Trump’s theory of “trickle down” economics is hard, if not impossible, to achieve. The millions of jobs under Trump’s presidency is just an electoral myth repeated rhetorically to make it seem true (http://thewire.in/70777/can-trump- create-millions-jobs-dont-bet/). Unfortunately, like Modi, Trump also has become a prisoner of his own image - the “duplicitous demagogues,”; as such, his fall in the presidential de- bate thus is a feast to my eyes. In fact I wondered how he could re- ally come this far! I reveled in the fact that “Donald J. Trump’s support has “plunged across the swing-state map
Trump loosing his cool, mocking Clin- ton in a slanting, cheesy berateful pos- ture, not to mention his crumbling on facts and vocabulary, was a treat to my eyes. He completely proved my strong belief that he doesn’t deserve to be- come the President of this great na- tion, which stands to be the greatest democracy . That’s why we all are here, right? To reap that freedom? But here is a man, preying on the fears of some re- garding safety and finances, while also harboring a huge hatred for minorities and immigrants wanting to lead this
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Open House Special 2016
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