Dickson Igwe. Photo: VINO

Now Trump fever is real. There has been a significant increase in mental and psychological “issues” since the rise and rise of Donald Trump. Michelle Goldberg writing in Slate magazine on September 23, 2016, an article titled, “FEAR, ANXIETY, and DEPRESSION in the Age of TRUMP,” stated that therapists and their patients are struggling to cope amid the national nervous breakdown that is the 2016 Election. Goldberg, in her story, and as Trump surges in key battleground states such as Ohio, Virginia, and Florida, stated that “a slow motion doom was descending on liberals.”

The symptoms of Trump Fever included: “anxiety, nightmares, digestive problems, and headaches.” San Francisco Psychotherapist, Fiachra O’Sullivan, specialises in relationships. O’Sullivan has stated that since the arrival of Donald Trump, people are distressed and that this distress is affecting their relationships.” There were instances of people waking up in the middle of the night in a state of “agitated horror.” A photographer in Minneapolis began to notice headaches, jitteriness, and difficulty breathing. She went to see her doctor who diagnosed her with anxiety.

Trump fever includes whole communities feeling anxiety. Blacks worry about the physical safety of their communities under a President Trump. Trump has stated that under a Trump Presidency the police will be “much tougher” with new “stop and frisk” powers.

Women feel that under a Trump presidency, “romance will suffer,” from a new rise in “MALE CHAUVINISM.” There is a belief that the rise of Trump will validate behaviours in men such as self aggrandisement, self importance, non-cooperation and non-collaboration with their wives and partners. Women further feel that under President Trump women will become defined solely by their physical features. Smart and assertive women will be frowned upon by a new and avant garde Philistine American Culture driven by Donald Trump where male dominance will once more become the norm.

Depressed anti Trump voters believe that there is calamity on the horizon.

Now there is no doubt that Trump has enormous momentum presently. The big question among the political pundit class is whether this momentum will carry Trump into the White House. Trump was flat footed by Hillary R. Clinton in the Presidential Debate of September 26, 2016. However, that debate does not appear to have stopped Trump’s momentum. Why: because Trump is all emotion while Hillary is all head.

America’s white working class and a significant subset of America’s white middle class are “pissed off with the elites: political, business, media, foreign policy, and academic.” Hillary with her plastic smile and condescending manner probably pissed them off further on Monday night. Hillary represents all that these voters are against.

Hillary is the consummate insider. Hillary has been at the center of US power for the past three decades. The 2016 Election is becoming an election of change. It is about the American worker giving the “proverbial middle finger” to the elites. It is all emotion. Voters will be walking into the voting booth in November and voting with their “gut” not their heads.

To understand the Trump phenomenon one must visit a Trump Rally. Michael Grunwald writing in Politico on September 26, 2016 described Trump’s rambling; his fear mongering; and his name calling. A Trump Rally was a “revival meeting of the Donald J. Trump Church of Cultural Resentment.”

A Clinton political meeting on the other hand was the polar opposite. Crowds are carefully selected to avoid protest and surprises. Speeches are standard campaign fare. Clinton talks policy. She sticks to a prepared text.

On the other hand there is electricity at a Trump rally that Clinton cannot match. Trump’s crowds wait with “giddy” anticipation for their hero. They go mad with anger when he shames enemies. They explode when Trump calls out the dishonest media. They go even crazier when he attacks the “job stealing Chinese,” illegal immigrants, and Islamic terrorists.

Trump is a comedian and a demagogue rolled into one. His supporters at his Monster Truck rallies love his flagrant abuse of facts, and the menace. They love his defiance. They believe that no one controls him. They state that Trump will call a spade a spade. Trump is fighting the forces of political correctness. “Trump is saying what we are all thinking” they scream. Trump fuels ugly stereotypes about blacks, Muslims, and Latinos, and his supporters love him for it. Most of Trump’s supporters believe Barack J. Obama was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim.

OK. A President Trump is far from a “done deal.” Enthusiasm alone will not get Trump into the White House. There is enthusiasm against the Trump Phenomena. There is cause and effect. The USA has never been more polarised.

Blacks are angry at Trump’s crusade to deny that Barack H. Obama, the First Black President, is a US Citizen. They are angry at Trump’s describing black families as “desperate charity cases.” Hispanics are energised by “Trumps call for mass deportations and his insinuations against Mexicans.”

Election 2016 has been described as Clinton mud wrestling with a “pig.” Both have got dirty. The bigger problem for Clinton is that “Trumps political brand is all about breaking rules.” Trump is the “candidate of change.” If Americans place change at the head of their list of political priorities, then Hillary Clinton is in deep trouble.

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