Trump’s US success should help us rethink our politics

No one understands the inadequacies of democracy and its operating philosophy, locally christened “tyranny of numbers” more than Tea Party favourite Ted Cruz and the Republican establishment. Donald Trump’s stunning “hostile takeover” of the GOP made it clear that sobriety, common sense, Republican-aligned views and establishment support do not a win make; if they did, Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio will be carrying the Republican flag. To the dismay of many on the right, it is now a forgone conclusion that the celebrity billionaire will be the nominee of the Republican Party.

The media and numerous pundits who wrote Trump off when he announced his candidature in June 2015 are getting it wrong once again; they have already started measuring the drapes for the Hillary Rodham Clinton Whitehouse, assuming he is “unelectable”. The worst mistake the Democratic squad can make is underestimate Trump and overestimate the American voter. My first employer, one David Mereka introduced me to the world of Donald Trump by giving me Trump’s first bestseller “The Art of the Deal” when I was a young lawyer. Even where I disagreed with his views, which by the way have been fairly consistent, I reluctantly admired the man’s gravitas. When I heard he was running for President, I initially thought that it was an attention-seeking stunt to raise the profile of his businesses until I watched his first TV interview. I realised he had understood the American voter well and was a serious contender. The capture of politics by an increasingly incestuous coalition and the inability of politics to answer the world’s increasingly complex problems has created an “outsider” mentality to most of the worlds’ voters. The impact of increased immigration and the rise of global terrorism inevitably produced right wing nationalistic leaders in many parts of Europe and now America. Donald Trump is the poster boy for a disenchanted voter who believes politics and politicians have been taking him for a ride. Trump is not the suave politically correct establishment created politician. He provides simple answers for complex problems of immigration, the terror threat and America’s struggling economy.