How will Orlando change America?
Terrorists usually have two major goals: kill as many people as possible, and cause as much damage to society as they can. They specifically target vulnerable places that symbolise open and free societies, aiming to cause doubt in those tenets of said society. Which is why the attacks in Paris and Brussels, and now Orlando, is as dangerous for society as it is monstrous in its atrocity.
The Orlando attack has struck a society that was already at a crossroads, with a battle coming up between two paradigms, not just presidential candidates. What is at stake here is the direction that the American society would go next - and with it, the most powerful and influential country in the world. This choice will affect world politics, so it is not just a decision of the American people about their own future. So you can understand why the rest of the world is so fixated on it.
Granted, the president's authority is not limitless in America. There are checks and balances. Obama himself found that out on a few occasions: the health reform, his intentions to shut down Guantanamo... In a two-party system that is now almost devoid of compromise and is marred by confrontation even on the most trivial of issues, the president is highly dependent on support from the Supreme Court. Which is why this election campaign is so important and so fiercely contested. It is just that the influence that those judges are wielding right now is immense. They are the people who ultimately make the really important decisions.
And because the supreme judges are for life, their terms do not end when a president ends their turn. As of now, one of those seats is vacant, and another two could be vacated soon. Which means that the next president would likely be nominating at least two new supreme judges.
The horrible terror attack in Orlando comes right in the middle of the presidential election (of whose length most people around the world are dismayed). And predictably, right after the attack, Trump's supporters showed that they would not hesitate to use the incident for their purposes: immediately after the first indications of Muslim background of the attacker, the social networks were flooded with praise for Trump's anti-Muslim stance. Those people will certainly be using Hillary Clinton's solidarity with the Muslim community as a weapon against her. They will be playing with people's fears with the sole purpose of earning some more political points for their candidate. And it would not be surprising if they succeed in pushing him to the fore, because right now, a lot of Americans seem particularly susceptible to that sort of populism. They are prone to believe all sorts of insane promises, without realising what it truly means to live in a society that has imposed self-isolation and total control upon itself.
When he is promising to make America great again, Trump mostly means he is supposed to rule a country that would not be allowing Muslims on its territory (whether the Gulf billionaires or the London mayor would make a disingenuous exception, as Trump has indicated, is still an open question). What he envisions is a country that would not be dependent on the decisions of judges with Mexican ancestry because they are not American enough and Trump-friendly enough; a country where women will have to endure misogynist verbal harassment as a norm, and possibly revert to a second-citizen status as a by-product.
So, will America really fall into the terrorist trap? A skillful demagogue would know very well how to use the bloodbath in Florida to the best of their purposes. Terrorist attacks are indeed a huge challenge to any society, because they demand of us to answer the complicated question how precious freedom really is, and what lengths are we prepared to go to, and what risks are we ready to take in order to preserve it. But because such attacks inevitably generate a reaction of hate and desire for vengeance, the politicians and society as a whole tend to find difficulty in keeping their cool in such situations. After the Paris attacks, the French president Hollande coped relatively well with that task. In the US however, there is a political battle of unprecedented toxicity and divisiveness. So I fear for the American society a great deal.
This is why the main question right now is, will America do exactly what the terrorists are aiming for, and seek refuge from its own fears by reverting into an un-free, closed society - which is exactly the kind of society that the Jihadist fundamentalists want? Or will it somehow be able to preserve the "American dream", which is only possible in a truly open society? Unfortunately, there is great danger that blind anger could prevail.
The Orlando attack has struck a society that was already at a crossroads, with a battle coming up between two paradigms, not just presidential candidates. What is at stake here is the direction that the American society would go next - and with it, the most powerful and influential country in the world. This choice will affect world politics, so it is not just a decision of the American people about their own future. So you can understand why the rest of the world is so fixated on it.
Granted, the president's authority is not limitless in America. There are checks and balances. Obama himself found that out on a few occasions: the health reform, his intentions to shut down Guantanamo... In a two-party system that is now almost devoid of compromise and is marred by confrontation even on the most trivial of issues, the president is highly dependent on support from the Supreme Court. Which is why this election campaign is so important and so fiercely contested. It is just that the influence that those judges are wielding right now is immense. They are the people who ultimately make the really important decisions.
And because the supreme judges are for life, their terms do not end when a president ends their turn. As of now, one of those seats is vacant, and another two could be vacated soon. Which means that the next president would likely be nominating at least two new supreme judges.
The horrible terror attack in Orlando comes right in the middle of the presidential election (of whose length most people around the world are dismayed). And predictably, right after the attack, Trump's supporters showed that they would not hesitate to use the incident for their purposes: immediately after the first indications of Muslim background of the attacker, the social networks were flooded with praise for Trump's anti-Muslim stance. Those people will certainly be using Hillary Clinton's solidarity with the Muslim community as a weapon against her. They will be playing with people's fears with the sole purpose of earning some more political points for their candidate. And it would not be surprising if they succeed in pushing him to the fore, because right now, a lot of Americans seem particularly susceptible to that sort of populism. They are prone to believe all sorts of insane promises, without realising what it truly means to live in a society that has imposed self-isolation and total control upon itself.
When he is promising to make America great again, Trump mostly means he is supposed to rule a country that would not be allowing Muslims on its territory (whether the Gulf billionaires or the London mayor would make a disingenuous exception, as Trump has indicated, is still an open question). What he envisions is a country that would not be dependent on the decisions of judges with Mexican ancestry because they are not American enough and Trump-friendly enough; a country where women will have to endure misogynist verbal harassment as a norm, and possibly revert to a second-citizen status as a by-product.
So, will America really fall into the terrorist trap? A skillful demagogue would know very well how to use the bloodbath in Florida to the best of their purposes. Terrorist attacks are indeed a huge challenge to any society, because they demand of us to answer the complicated question how precious freedom really is, and what lengths are we prepared to go to, and what risks are we ready to take in order to preserve it. But because such attacks inevitably generate a reaction of hate and desire for vengeance, the politicians and society as a whole tend to find difficulty in keeping their cool in such situations. After the Paris attacks, the French president Hollande coped relatively well with that task. In the US however, there is a political battle of unprecedented toxicity and divisiveness. So I fear for the American society a great deal.
This is why the main question right now is, will America do exactly what the terrorists are aiming for, and seek refuge from its own fears by reverting into an un-free, closed society - which is exactly the kind of society that the Jihadist fundamentalists want? Or will it somehow be able to preserve the "American dream", which is only possible in a truly open society? Unfortunately, there is great danger that blind anger could prevail.