OPINION: Don’t blame yourself you Democratic and Republican morons alike.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Donald Trump has a ‘white tiger’ inside of him. The tiger is white as a swan. In Indonesian novelist Eka Kurniawan’s fine novel ‘Man Tiger’, the central character is possessed by a white tiger; the man falls in rapturous love with the beast inside him, even though the tiger murders a popular father of three daughters, ripping his neck to shreds. The tiger uses the man to commit the heinous act.
It’s Trump’s time to unleash his ‘white tiger’ on America, display destructive power to annihilate Republican candidates who have opposed him on stage or otherwise in the primaries; later, shred to tatters the Democratic presidential nominee, as the country watches in pure fascination, like a hypnotized moth committing slow hara-kiri, attracted to a flame.
Along the way, chastised opponents like the GOP establishment, Fox News network, some pollsters, pastors and politicians of all hues and colors who dared to mock him, his invincible powers to grab the attention of the public via an outplayed and flummoxed media, is sure to be damaged goods forever, ‘bitten’ and smitten in equal parts, by the white tiger inside the ferocious Trump.
The Trump phenomenon has reached today the first of many such climaxes, on the path to the November presidential polls, as voters in 1,861 precincts in Iowa will brace snow, storm and blizzard to pick their choice for the 45th president of the United States of America.
Trump has not been badly scarred on the primaries stage despite the efforts of many candidates to try paint and portray him as the absurd reality TV star in their midst, who took a careless jaunt to politics almost as a challenge to the egoistic white tiger inside of him, which stayed dormant till he turned almost a septuagenarian.
Imagine the irony of it all: Bernie Sanders who is 74 is an ‘old man’, classified as a septuagenarian, in some media reports. Trump, at 69, is still a man about town, vigor, vitality intact; a third beautiful wife hanging around him; virile comments about how Trump once said he could date his own daughter, Ivanka, actually bolstering his predator-like image, even in a conservative state like Iowa. Mind you, if they would have it their way, Iowans would rather vote a preacher to the White House than a prankster like Trump with his sound bites of “You’re fired!”.
But don’t blame the hapless Iowans, all you helpless Democratic and Republican morons alike: like you, the Iowans too are human beings, have been totally blown away by the unfettered beauty of the white tiger which has emerged from Trump, glimpsed his ability to devour with relish anybody who defies him, fallen in love.
In fact, the truth of the matter is that nobody should be surprised by the meteoric rise of Trump to the top of the totem pole in polls, even faster than a professional coconut tree climber in Kerala is able to glide up and chop down bunches of the fruit which has layers of milky white sweet flesh and delicious juice cocooned inside.
You see, most of America and Americans secretly would love to have a white tiger inside of them as well, to tear open with brute force the jugular vein of illegal immigration, to kill with certainty the scourge of rabid and radical Muslims, to eradicate the vicious powers of outsourcing, banish those abominable H-1B workers on their computers, revive manufacturing, regurgitate its historic past.
That’s what Trump is doing in his rallies, exposing his fangs, letting his audience get a glimpse of the white tiger inside of him, promising to not only fulfill his but their expectations as well. And the audience loves it, wants him to be their executioner, revive, glorify, make America great again, even as it’s ethnically cleansed. It’s infectious. Totally unseen phenomenon. You must be stupid to not either fall in love or be repulsed by it!
In America, where money dictates terms, be it sports or politics, the circus of politics is filled with stories of campaigns fueled on its own, through grass-roots or surreptitious super PACs. But, even money seems to have crumbled and scurried away in fright in the face of Trump’s white tiger heroics.
Who would have imagined that in a country, who are routinely spell-bound and influenced just by the money rolled out on ads in city council to Senate and presidential races, the consummate businessman has just spent $10.8 million of his own money in the fourth quarter, compared to Ted Cruz’s $15.5 million and Marco Rubio’s $14.7 million. That figure of $10 million presents an even more stark contrast when compared to what Hillary Clinton and Sanders spent: Clinton had $32.6 million in operating expenditures in the 4th quarter; Sanders nearly $32 million.
Even as others jostled to spend more money on their nervous campaigns, Trump pulled out the master stroke of raising money for veterans and avoiding debating his inferior peers altogether in Iowa, which saw all the liberal media networks too forced to train their cameras on Trump and making Clinton look like a forlorn blimp making her way to outer space. After all, there are planets out there where there is no Trump to contend with.
What Iowans will remember tonight as they trudge out in heavy winter gear to vote for Trump is that the night he skipped the debate seemed like gloom and despair settled over the country, as if the Super Bowl was postponed. The evening seemed monotonous, as drab as being confined to a library full of only last week’s newspapers. The world somehow seemed less interesting.
Most folks, however, said a silent prayer when they glimpsed Trump on stage on other networks, felt that they were not totally abandoned, the safari nights were still alive, the white tiger would stalk its prey soon.
As Iowans prepare to vote Trump and the white tiger inside of him to a famous ringside victory Monday night, and the voters in New Hampshire await eagerly their turn on February 9 and so in South Carolina, on February 20, the country awaits for the gladiatorial battle between Trump and the poor Mexicans and Muslims, to begin sometime this time of the year next year, in 2017.
Unless Trump shows that he pulled a fast one even on America too; hid a white rabbit too inside of him, which was just waiting for the job of the white tiger to be done with, before it emerged.
For now, enjoy Trump and his saga of the white tiger unleashed in all its powers.
(Sujeet Rajan is Editor-in-Chief, The American Bazaar. Follow him @SujeetRajan1).