Trust British lawmakers, traditionally adept at putting opponents in their place by resorting to caustic satire and deadpan humour, to crush Donald Trump’s inflated ego.
Last Monday, members of the House of Commons spent hours debating whether to ban the bombastic billionaire from ever entering Britain, a debate prompted by a petition by as many as 570,000 British citizens revolted by the Republican front-runner’s views on Muslims. Truth be told, it was not in the legislators’ power to bar Trump from entering the country, since, presumably, only the home secretary is authorised to do that. But the debate, one suspects, was an excuse for legislators to both ridicule the man and to engage in a high-minded discussion about free speech. Perhaps an excuse also to debate an issue no less significant to those in the United States: How America has gone so astray as to choose a demagogue like Trump to be a potential candidate for president.
And make no mistake — in their debate, the lawmakers hit out at the man with every disparaging epithet under the sun, with “demagogue” being one of the more benign. Try “buffoon”, “fool”, “idiot”, “clown” and, yes, “wazzok” — which I am told is a British colloquialism that pretty much combines all four. That likens Trump to American anti-Muslim bloggers and agitators, notorious for disseminating hate speech, like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who were banned from the UK several years ago.
‘Domestic crises’
In the end, after three hours of debating the issue, members of parliament — none of whom, lest we forget, stood up to defend Trump — spared him the indignity of a ban. Jamie Reid, A Labour member, had earlier written a piece in Newsweek where he said: “The absurdity of Trump’s candidacy is matched only by the fact that he is set to be the subject of a debate in the House of Commons. In the midst of so many domestic crisis, this is a huge waste of UK taxpayers’ money.”
But it is not, you see. When a cartoonish figure like Trump aspires to become the leader of what is called the free world — and the man may, just may, be elected — then we have a phenomenon on our hands. It concerns not just Americans but every engaged individuals around the world. And the better we understand this phenomenon, the better we understand why and how he has become a worm in the American apple. What, for example, has propelled a tempestuous bigot like that to become not a sideshow but the main event in the Republican presidential debate? And whatever you think of him, the man continues to lead in the polls.
It is not true, as Ronald Kessler, the New York Times best-selling author, wrote about him: “Love him or leave him, no one has been able to figure out Donald Trump.” Perhaps the reason no one has been able to figure out the man is because the answer is there in plain view.
The GOP front runner is popular with people who have no college degrees, people who feel left behind by progress, class mobility and an economy that increasingly requires specialised skills in the market place.
They blame immigrants for their own poor performance, since at the end of the day they compete with these immigrants for the same low-paying jobs. And economists are today in agreement that incomes have stagnated, and in some sectors declined, between 2002 and 2013 for American households headed by breadwinners without a degree.
No wonder that well over half of registered GOP voters go along passionately with Trump’s call to deport all 12 million undocumented immigrants — a logistical nightmare if there ever was one.
But clearly, with most of these Americans alienated from the establishment in Washington, an anti-elite candidate like Trump, who has answers for complex questions, leaving no answer in doubt (the Chinese are behind global warming), a man who shrugs off gaffes and outright fibs (Muslims “celebrating” 9/11 and Syrian refugees representing a “sinister plot”) hits a chord with these folks.
He says things that other politicians balk at saying. And never mind that those things are untrue, insensitive or racist. Being politically incorrect, in his book and in that of his supporters, is macho. As one of his under-educated supporters put it simply: “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. We’ve been having that (expletive) pushed at us for the past forty years. He’s saying what needs to be said.”
Shaking up the establishment
To these and other deluded souls, including the Evangelicals — not noted for their pedagogic talents either — Trump is a noble, though flamboyant, hero willing to speak truth to power, much in the manner that Jefferson Smith, in Frank Capra’s iconic 1939 film, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, did when he arrived in America’s capital and shook up the establishment.
Back to Westminster. One of the legislators there, Naz Shah, who gained her seat in parliament at the 2015 general election and who defines herself as a “proud British Muslim woman”, also held back on banning Trump from entering Britain, offering instead to “invite him for a curry”.
And yes, Naz, make sure the dinner you serve him is a Phaal — a dish that originates in the Indian restaurants around Birmingham, that has gained notoriety for a concoction of the hottest Indian spices with the world’s hottest chilies, hotter than vindaloo, reportedly 200 times hotter than Tabasco. A few bites at which are known at times to have left unsuspecting neophyte diners — and we suspect Trump to be one — sweating, crying, shaking and worse.
And then, Ya, we’ll take it from there.
Fawaz Turki is a journalist, lecturer and author based in Washington. He is the author of The Disinherited: Journal of a Palestinian Exile.