The story of New England is the history of the present day America. It was the nodal junction of the melting pot – a place of refuge for those that escaped the onslaught of the Roman Soldiers in the ravaged ancient Europe. The refugees who by might became Lords over the more indigenous but powerless host- the Red Indians. American history is closer to Biblical Exodus than Genesis. America is a nation-in- transit! Attempt to give her status of a settled state caused her metamorphosis into United States – Union of those that gave up their rough edges to foster a common state.
It is a state that emerged out of anger and angst – a state initiated by the frustrated victims of Old England’s oppression. A state promoted by those who were sufficiently angered by the fate that befell them in Old England but ended up transferring their aggression to their host, the Red Indian, who ended up aboriginally in their own land of birth. America is a state where people sleep differently but woke up together at midnight with a collective dream- the American Dream! The dream under President Washington was a package; liberty, justice, and equality!
The reality today is that America has moved, at least forty-four Presidents away from President Washington. Import of history is getting waned; challenges of power are pulling the lever of liberty. Gradually, America replaced the fallen Europe and the button of naked power is in her hand. Like the rise of Pharaoh who knew not Joseph, President who knew not Washington is on the throne. With this setting, dream is bound to become nightmare.Trump won election on the strength of what other Presidents before him played low - the American internal affairs! His was a new message. Trump has become a movement in America. America! America!! And America!!! His new strategy is to make the external victims of his policies pay the price of their implementation. Mexico paying for Trump's Border Wall construction is not only sinking the Boat of your enemies but also burying them in seas of waters! Hitting below the belt is the new foreign policy direction. If you can’t withstand the heat, quit Trump's kitchen! Trump means business! The 45th President of United States is a Business man. He does not deal in history. Diplomacy is not in his stocks. To him, America is an Island, not a Union! A lake, not an ocean! Trump is the American reality show. America has never had allies among members of international community. From Saudi Arabia to Israel, from Europe to Asia and from Artic to Antarctic, America have puppets, not allies! She chooses the international conventions, laws, customs and statutes to obey but quick in enforcing all of the others. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) fame is a case in mind.
America has severally violated Laws of Armed Conflict, of International Humanitarian law without consequence. So, what a hue about the Refugee Law that Trump has just thrown under the whim of a dangerously sliding but moving nation? America is on course, true to her dream. Trump has just removed the veils from the face of a jaded state that is irrevocably committed to her occidental individualism; a nation that pride her Goliathism over the smallish Davidic world. Raising the banner of international morality against America by the globe that has for decades surrendered its heart and pulse to the whims and caprices of America is belated but not misplaced. In this open protectionist choice that America has made there will be repercussions.
There will be realignment of forces against her. America will lose her friends and she will not gain her enemies. The interrelated and interconnected world will work against her and she will become victim of her own dream!
The internal violent implosion will happen side by side with external aggression against her. There will be canon resistance to both, thereby paving the way for dictatorial response to combat them. In the days ahead, Trump’s policies will continue to attract and defy global outcry, depending on the divides. Presidential power will increasingly inch away from participatory democracy toward majoritarian autocracy. The clime will prepare for the fallout from her own protectionist drive. There will be re-emergence of Adolf Hitler’s nihilistic tendencies. America under Trump will champion its own exclusion. Aside from the physical walls, she is building; mental walls are already springing up in the mind of people and in the hearts of nations and state. There is no worse tragedy that can befall humanity than cruelty to those who take flight from fear only to be exposed to further threat or even more harm in a supposed place of refuge. The world is hurt enough. Putting further stress on it beyond the capacity of its people to freely relate and resolve issues will leave the entire world at the mercy of extremists; whether that of ideas or that of violence. There is enough Gun Violence in today’s America, adding isolationist stance to it will produce extremely unhappy people with abundance capacity to self-destruct. America, America and America alone policy will not make Americans to love their country more than before now.
The global position has been the source of inspiration for Americans’ patriots. Trump’s policies of exclusion will create a pool of children of anger. Generations of vandals that will destroy everything in sight, including values of humanity. It will return Americans to what their fore-parents and ancestors ran away from in ancient Europe. The truism that pride goes before fall is about finding fulfillment through America's Trump presidency. Trump is in recent history the only one that is unpretentious to the American dream; dream filled with ego for breakfast; unmitigated supremacism for lunch and reckless omnipotence for dinner. Like Roman and British Empires, historians will in no distance time gather the relics of what is left of American civilization, the pride of a fast disappearing super power. With the stroke of a pen, Trump uprooted the Statue of Liberty. He blotted out the Bills of Rights and held a sword against humanity. Adolf Hitler did in Germany. Donald Trump is doing it in America. Trump anchored his campaign on ‘Take America Back.' Yes, with Trump policies, they will take America back, but they will lose their community. They will lose their humanity. The American dream will become a global nightmare!
Gbenro Olajuyigbe is an Abuja based Human Security Expert
