The 2016 presidential election is nearing its final stretch, with the punditry and the bobble heads on national television-masquerading as journalists and experts on everything under the sun- fuming and fretting over the nastiness of this election and the people venting frustration over the daily torment of a prolonged nightmare, It is all too simplistic and customary to dismiss it as politics. This election by all means has turned out to be one of the nastiest and the most watched one-the world worried over the outcome, an outcome much anticipated and detrimental to the cohesiveness of the world as we see it. The people who has decided long ago to turn their head against the cross-winds of politics, a politics for many years that permeated the environment every four years with promises and slogans that forces one to seek shelter under a stone or to retch under a spasm of disgust. This election season has put us again in more frenetic pace than evermore, more distasteful turn of events all due to the prospects of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. The candidate, who destroyed veterans, seasoned politicians of every color and shades with his catchy phrases and unfettered tongue lashing, sullied the image of many and cluttered the mouths of the few that remained standing. Many could not muster courage nor find word to counter the pungent and prurient vocabulary of the golden haired man of bombast, for whom nothing is beyond the pale. He has used every occasion to belittle his opponents on stage and on twitter-a master of the latter who found it very useful and cleverly used it to his advantage. His candidacy was earlier dismissed by political mavens and lampooned by the punditry then, had a hearty laugh at the dismal prospects of his venture later to wallow in their colossal failure of misjudgment.

Trump political career- if any to mention was built on the single most issue-birtherism that he espoused along with conservative talk shows and media that denied the first black president his legitimacy and effectively destroyed his presidency for most of his two terms. This affected his policy and ability to get laws passed or even to confirm his appointees. His stature and the presidency was demeaned, his image sullied- a broad diminution of the presidency.  The Tea party movement that sprung up immediately after the defeat of John McCain and the election of Barak Obama- to spout the illegitimacy of a black man sitting in the White House- gave a new voice to the fringe, an ultra- nationalist conservative block. The Tea party agenda was actively promoted and supported by the right wing of the Republican Party and sailed smoothly to get hold of the power houses in Washington-the Senate and House. This victory cemented the long term relationship with this core group of supporters who are gun and bible worshipping and chest thumping for the constitution whose inner strength comes from the superiority of the white race and its elegant dynastical rule over every sphere of influence. Their lordship was lauded and celebrated. The seismic shift in the world wide economy and the sinking futures were not visible to them until the election of Barak Obama- an election that threw them out of their comfort zone. Their seething anger at the diminishing prospects and drastically changing world gave further impetus to their growth and sphere of influence. The speed of interdependence and connectedness that call for rapid change in a technological world were mere words as they clung to the old ways of economic growth and means of production. They were immune, incapable or willing to adapt to an economy based on technological-mathematical model of education. The grim prospects of competing in a world economy made easier by the world wide web made them irritable and angry-an anger easily turned into die-hard support for Trump, who very easily tapped into this frustration with his vocalization for anti-immigration, anti-trade deals, anti-peace deals and everything what the government does: an anti- establishment tirade. This showed up its ugly head at the primaries where die-hards easily berated Hispanics, African Americans, Muslims and pretty much of what is not Caucasian. This euphoria caused him to play to their fears and dismantle the traditional candidates who garnered money, wealthy donors, pollsters and pundits who excel at the art of white washing every candidate with catchy phrases and slogans. The Trumpism thus became a mantra for another successful bid to the white house and the continuation of the politics of obstruction and negativism that has benefited the Republican Party. The support for the republican nominee was not uniform but became a mandate for the survival and many folded and buckled and only a very few questioned the unconventional candidate and his mannerism. The acerbic tongue-the candidate’s weapon against any opponent was parried as fresh talk and anti-establishment.

The ascendency of Trump to the forefront of politics was a moot point-for the savvy who believed in the

Power of the tea party brigade to march behind him in full regalia to defeat the candidacy of the democratic nominee Hillary Clinton whose candidacy was seen by many as a mere distraction rather than a serious threat. She has done this before and failed to a novice in politics- a freshman senator from Chicago, Barak Obama. So she was easy meat and toast, and old hag! The politics of nastiness and sexism once again reared its ugly head and regained strength at the hands of the right wing media who has devoted many resources to crush her and depict her with the most unsavory and unprintable epithets deserved for the lowest human being on earth. It is noteworthy that Hillary has been hounded for the last thirty years-the day she became the first lady of Arkansas.  Many feared her-her forceful determination and inner strength, to stand up after every debacle and face it with a smile to wither every storm real or imaginary- unnerved her detractors who caricatured her to the most vile person alive on the planet. To the misogynist, any formidable lady- one who cannot be destroyed by any means is depicted either with a B-word or W-word that rhymes with ich, Ouch! The sad fact is that someone to have experience of this nature need to be in politics and thus make their own fair share of mistakes-some with sloppiness and some with sheer arrogance- an arrogance borne out of inner strength and heavy reliance on the ability to wither any storm and wiggle out of controversy. To take risky ventures- an underlying flaw in her temperament- caused angst and anxiety for her ardent supporters. The case of email-a norm perpetuated at the state department by former secretaries of state Collin Powell and Condoleezza Rice could not absolve her, nor her explanations savvy enough. To have sensitive and classified information in your private server itself is not a crime unless it was allowed to be hacked or leaked. To the people whose sense of heightened patriotism must answer this: who went to jail for the millions of sensitive emails Snowden took to Russia nor the recent saga of the Contractor who had 500 million sensitive documents in his possession when arrested!. Did anybody found culpable. No. Since the guy is a small fry and not a politician .The volley of die-hard opposition to a female candidate and to the fact that the millennial demand ‘newness’-been there, seen that, done that- is no folly of theirs but the zing of the generation. This was apparent in the primary when millennial questioned her authenticity and lack of freshness. A female who withered every storm of the bygone era- era when men derided female, decided their future, harassed intimidated-a norm that took leaders like her and her ilk to make sacrifices to change the system. Hillary is neither a victim of the bygone era- an era where female strength was not sought required nor necessary and deemed secondary to that of man- the man who was the epicenter of the world.

This brings us to the very present- the day after the third debate, The debate saw a much somber Trump-the initial half hour, whose inner Rottweiler was tamed and held in place by outside forces-he wanted to unfetter and pound on Hillary with venom and tear her to pieces. To call her nasty and deny every sexual allegations, deride his female accusers as liars while he waxed eloquent at his willingness to pay no taxes or release his tax returns as his strength shows his arrogance and a temperament to listen to himself and be responsible for nothing. This is the candidate vying to get our votes and to become the President of the United States-the presidency that is basically the leader of the free world, who must control the forces of evil and make the world a peaceful place for the entire humanity. The republican party must repudiate  the awful tendencies of  a spoiled billionaire who has no leadership qualities and who if elected will destroy the free world as we see it-who has no qualms about destroying the very fabric of our democracy  by decrying it as rigged. Free and fair elections- the centerpiece of the democratic framework on which this country functions- to call it rigged if he loses and accept it only if he wins diminishes the stature of our country and its system of government-diminution of the presidency itself.  It would have been easy for the party to defenestrate him rather than to destroy the party’s future for generations to come.

This is the most astonishing saga of this season- the Indian diaspora- the inability of them to separate the facts from the fiction and to see with clear eyes rather than jaundiced views to cast their ballots in favor of a candidate who has in his own words has shown no respect for women, abused women, belittled immigrants, stiffed hard working people of their wages, declared bankruptcies six times and who is a free loader and a tax- dodger. A view that Hillary is a candidate for the establishment and Trump is not for an establishment is a non-brainer, since Trump has equally mollified the establishment and raked billions and he will not raise a finger against his own establishment- The Trump Dynasty- which is built up on mirrors and golden hued images. His motto “Make America great again” is a misnomer as America is great already- otherwise how could a man who declared bankruptcies six times end up at the helm of the Republican Party. I ask this: can any common man declare a single bankruptcy and end up like that, you figure! Can anyone who dumped his wives for better blondes after their beauty has faded, repeat the sanctity of marriage, oath and vow or even keep any promise. So let me ask the people-Indian diaspora who has ‘assimilated’ in to the culture of this country and who tenuously and timorously hold on to their culture- some who avowedly affirm their faith and stretch it to their sleeves- how could you vote for Trump? Don’t you have daughters, sisters and mothers? How could you look at them with straight face after all the sleaziness has started to pile up? Your vote for Trump is a vote for all he stands for; to say the least, his utter disregard for womanhood and fondness for sleaziness. If you abstain from voting, history will judge you as the person without a moral turpitude and whose strength of character evaporated in the face of challenge- a challenge you are facing now, an inner turmoil. This is history being written- to join to elect the first female president of the greatest nation on earth. Take a deep breath, hold your nose, you may hate her. You are not voting for the guest of honor at the dinner party, a job that needs a tough cookie even a ‘crooked’ one to stand against Putin and his ilk.  Vote for Hillary and be on the right side of ‘history’- Yes We Can- finally write “Herstory” for the first time in the greatest nation on earth. Let us celebrate this great democracy and hope you can play a part too, after all, this country of moral and physical pulchritude is the only hope left for our next generation-a generation we hold dear and pin all our hopes for its continued success.