Matters Of Debate | Issue 5

Matters Of Debate | Issue 5

Donald Trump running for the Republican Party Nomination is a positive thing for U.S. Politics.

This column is written by the Otago University Debating Society, which meets for social debating every Tuesday at 6pm in the Commerce Building

Affirmative, by Old Major

Let’s face it; US politics is screwed. The entire system of Government in the US is an ill-functioning bureaucratic monster. Currently, Republicans and Democrats agree on pretty much nothing to the point that in 2013 Congress forced a government shutdown by not approving the budget put forward by President Obama. This meant that people employed by the Government didn't get paid while the Republican Party, egged on by Ted Cruz, had a wee hissy fit. That same Ted Cruz is now currently second, behind Donald Trump, in the number of delegates he has in the Republican Party primary. Cruz doesn't care about the people. If he did, he wouldn't have forced the shutdown, which cost hundreds of thousands of Americans their weekly incomes.

Since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, during which time America’s car and manufacturing industry went to shit, real wages haven't increased. So while everyday goods, like food, power and clothes, have increased in price, wages have stagnated, meaning that the average worker can now buy less with their wages than they could before the GFC.

Trump recognises this. In the midst of all his incoherent speeches, he constantly pivots to talk about the economy as it relates to America's working class. He talks about the free trade deals that have opened America's economy to foreign competition and thus rendered the domestic auto industry less feasible. He talks about the loss of manufacturing jobs to countries that exploit their work force and have poor labour protection laws, which means that they can undercut the US worker. He talks about the hopelessness and alienation felt by blue collar, white Americans, who feel that there is no longer a place for them in US politics.

The fact that Donald Trump is able to give voice to these issues, and draw attention to the plight of the working poor is enough of a reason to say that Donald Trump is a force for good in US politics. Because, let's face it, he's never going win the general election. What his campaign does do though, is draw attention those people in the US who don't have a voice, and it creates a prerogative for the next President to address these issues.

Negative, by Squealer the Pig

Donald Trump espouses the politics of racist, bigoted hatred. Even if he has voiced support for certain positive policies – he at times has come out in favour of some form of universal healthcare, has been in favour of abortion rights in the past, and he speaks of helping the economic situation of the working class – he is so wildly inconsistent that it is impossible to get any idea of what he actually stands for. He doesn't have any sound policies that could even achieve any of his oft-changing end goals. What he has not been inconsistent, or infrequent in doing, however, is perpetuating the discourse of hatred.

Any positive benefit that might be gained from having a political candidate talk about the lack of jobs in small-town America, and the lack of opportunities that kids from poor, traditionally blue collar backgrounds face, is vastly outweighed by the active harm that Donald Trump does. When people stand up and say that it's ok to blame another group of people (in Trump's case Mexican, Muslim and Chinese people) for your problems then you start to say that it's ok to retaliate against them. 

You start to create an “us-them” narrative, where the ''us'' needs to be protected from the ''them''. When you create, and enflame, divisionary views in a pluralistic society you start to break down the rule of law, and general social good will.

When Trump tells his supporters that all Muslim people are terrorists, he is in effect telling his supporters that all Muslim people want to kill Americans. This rhetoric immediately denies the fact that you can be both Muslim and American. It widens the division between those people who form the ''us'' and those who form the ''them''. It dehumanises the people who are not ''us'' and makes it easier to violate their rights.

This has already had spill-over effects. There have been violent clashes at Trump rallies between his supporters and protestors. He has also indirectly threatened to send his supporters to Bernie's rallies. Trump is a danger to US politics. He is inflaming and legitimising racist and bigoted views.

This article first appeared in Issue 5, 2016.
Posted 12:46pm Sunday 3rd April 2016 by Otago University Debating Society.