Finally Islamophobia has won resoundingly in the US instead of the first female president as Donald trump rose to power with an Islamophobic campaign. The American people choose an hardliner Republican as their 45th president.
It seems the US is now following the path of India. Now the both so-called biggest democracies have hardliner leaders. The election has clearly exposed the mentality of Americans. In December 2015, a poll found that 25 percent Americans supported hardliner Trump’s Muslim ban. The extremist nation’s support for the hardliner Republican presidential candidate further grew upto 51 percent in March 2016 survey.
From start to finish, the 2016 presidential election vividly revealed that Islamophobia is alive, and potent and politically resonant as ever. Scapegoating Islam and vilifying Muslims was far more than merely campaign messaging; for Donald Trump it was a winning strategy.
Trump’s full-blown Islamophobia resonated deeply with voters. Moreover, it mobilised more than just a fringe or rabid demographic, but a sizable segment of the American polity to cast votes in his favour.
It helped him carry Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and virtually every battleground state.
Long before election night, earlier numbers indicated that Trump’s deployment of Islamophobia as a primary campaign strategy would pay dividends and register votes.
Whatever Donald Trump delivered was in demand in the US market and he doubled down on his anti-Muslim rhetoric. He fed the Islamophobia his loud and angry base demanded, and as indicated by election results, a sizable portion of the silent, white majority.
Hardliner Trump said; “Islam hates us”, giving disaffected bigoted voters exactly what they wanted.
Trump won because he was willing to deliver Islamophobia in the blatant and brazen terms his Republican peers and predecessors would not fully commit to.
