The American people have spoken and Donald John Trump is the president-elect of the United States. It is not the outcome that close to one-half the voting population desired, but it has satisfied the expectations of the other half. Perhaps the most defining emotion that characterises the Trump win is shock, even among those who voted for him. The shock continues to reverberate among Americans as can be seen in the protests that have erupted in American cities against the Trump victory.

The polls consistently showed Hillary Clinton in the lead, even when she suffered an almost fatal political blow from director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey’s revelation about a further probe into her e-mail.

Even if the Trump camp genuinely expected him to win, they could not have thought that he would have won to the extent he did. To be sure, it was a complete rout of the Clinton camp. Those who are protesting Trump as president must understand that, as hard as it is to stomach, he won fairly and squarely, consistent with the constitution.

Not only did he win the presidency, but his victory ensured that not only the White House, but the House of Representatives and the Senate remained in the control of the Republican Party. In a post-election speech, Paul Ryan, Republican Speaker of the House, praised him effusively for the political feat he had achieved, and pledged to work with him to carry out the mandate of the people.

What exactly is that mandate? During the campaign, Trump himself made a number of incoherent and eclectic statements as to what he would do as soon as he took office. “From day one”, he trumpeted that the Affordable Care Act, infamously known as Obamacare, would be repealed and replaced by a dubious health care plan. A plan to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure is expected to be rolled out. Government regulations that have stymied production ought to be addressed, as well as the high taxation burden on corporations.

All executive orders issued by President Barack Obama, especially related to immigration, would be rescinded. Trading treaties would come under increased scrutiny with a view to having them rolled back. The Iran nuclear deal would be scrapped. America’s relationship with the world would be reassessed, and its relationship with organisations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would be given special attention. So too will be the climate protocols that America has entered into with the rest of the world.

No detailed discussion of any of these statements was given during the campaign or since. They were essentially offered as one-liners, and so no one knows for sure if Trump meant what he said, especially with respect to his signature issue of building a big, beautiful wall on the border and having Mexico pay for it.

Both the campaigns were taken up with personal attacks and trivia about the character of the individuals running for office. As a result, the American people were short-changed and are today not any more informed about what will happen now that Trump has won.

So uncertainty prevails, and the fear and anger that were the dominant emotions in the run-up to the election persist. Yes, people are fearful. They were fearful during the election when ‘Trumpian’ bile was being spilled, and they are even more so now that he has won.

The vast majority of those who voted for Trump believed that they were losing or had lost their country. Not many doubted that the Trump slogan “make America great again” was more than a code for “make America white again”. The racist and nativist overtones of the Trump campaign were palpable. The white demographic came out in the vast numbers they did because many truly believed that the demographic character of America, or better yet, the “browning” of America was happening too fast and it had to be stopped.

There was definite grievance among the Trump voters that they were being left behind in an economy that was making more of them poorer. Many did not feel the recovery from the Great Recession inherited by the Obama Administration in 2008. Many who had lost their jobs had now become unemployable because the economy had become more digital and a number of the traditional jobs had disappeared. Those who remained employed did not see any rise in their wages. Many worked one pay cheque to the next without any real prospect of surviving financially if they should lose the job. A study indicated that as much as 65 per cent of Americans did not have the ability to meet an emergency situation that required over US$500.

The middle class felt the brunt of the recovery process. While they sacrificed, they saw gains in the recovery going to the top one per cent of the population. This was aided and abetted by Federal Reserve policies of quantitative easing and zero interest rate policy that left many retired savers in the lurch. Monies that were saved up over the years for the rainy day proved inadequate to meet the demands of people when the rains really came. It is a frightening prospect when you have become elderly and you have to be now feeding on the principal of the little nest egg that you would be relying on when you can no longer work.

The net result of all this is that fear turned to anger. It was anger at the loss of their self-worth caused by the indignity of not being able to provide for their families. Prolonged unemployment can have a crippling and deleterious effect on a personal psyche. It did not help that many had to take lower-paying or menial jobs just to survive. The reduction of the unemployment rate to 4.9 per cent masks the frustration of people with these jobs.

The anger was not only self-directed, but was directed at the Obama Administration which had come to represent the epitome of people’s discontent. Trump harnessed this discontent and rode on it to the presidency. Clinton failed to really understand how palpable this was, not only to the white underclass, but to the many blacks and disadvantaged groups who felt left behind. They saw her as part of the establishment, which was not complimentary.

Furthermore, her negative bona fides, paralleled by Trumps, fed into the narrative of a corrupt, entitled politician who would do nothing to shift the dial of their misery. And so they rejected her for the knight in shining armour who they hope will not become Don Quixote tilting at windmills.

So what future is there for America under a Trump presidency?

This question will be answered more clearly in the days ahead. After his inauguration in January 2017, the country and the world will begin to see the the direction in which he intends to take the country. Knowing Trump’s penchant for erratic behaviour, we may well begin to see some semblance of how he will behave in office before that time.

It goes without saying that the president of the United States has vast powers not enjoyed by any other mortal on planet Earth. He or she literally has the security of the world at his or her fingertips. But it must also be understood that America has resilient institutions, born of constitutional authority, that were designed to restrain a heartless president or one given to behaviour that will do harm to the American body politic. The founding fathers, in their wisdom, designed a political system of checks and balances by which the American people should be governed.

This system works best by consensus and compromise. When such protocols are not observed, the result is gridlock and obstructionism of the kind that has been seen in Republican repudiation of the policies of Barack Obama. The net result is that the country has been hurt. For the better part of the Obama presidency hardly any legislation of worth has come out of what has been dubbed the “do nothing” Congress. For the last two years the country has simply limped along, and the president — to preserve any modicum of legacy or respectability in office — has had to resort to executive action, which has caused his opponents to cast him as an imperial president who does not observe the rule of law.

If Trump seeks to carry out even a smidgen of what he presented in the campaign against minority interests in the country he will stub his toe against the constitution. Then he will be rudely reminded that there are limits to his vast powers and that dictatorial proclivities born of narcissism do not work in this system.

The people, those who voted for him and those who did not, are yearning for something new. He may not possess the intellectual sagacity or deep philosophical thinking that can bring about the required change, but he can surround himself with people who can help him. If he can understand the promise of consensus and compromise, truly understand that he is the president of all Americans, including the Democrats in Congress, and if he imbibes a dose of humility in governance, he may yet prove to be a president that will get some things done, of which America will be grateful. At least this is my hope.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest and social commentator. Send comments to the Observer orstead6655@aol.com.

PULL QUOTE

If Trump seeks to carry out even a smidgen of what he presented in the campaign against minority interests in the country he will stub his toe against the constitution. Then he will be rudely reminded that there are limits to his vast powers and that dictatorial proclivities born of narcissism do not work in this system