The revolt in the United States is not just about the tragic killing of a black man; it is about the politics of ‘running with the hare and hunting with the hound’. The spontaneous upsurge following the murder of George Floyd is symptomatic of the helplessness felt by those who do not concur with Donald Trump’s politics.

Polarisation of society and perpetuating hatred has been key to his presidency and electoral appeal. Most ubernationalist leaders use proxies and surrogates to do their calibrated bidding, as they remain complicit by way of their telling silence. However, Donald Trump picks the gauntlet himself with midnight tweets, and even outdoes the script to the discomfiture of his aides.

Politically, he has been extremely successful and sees no good reason to change tact. Many of his core constituents amongst the ‘Rednecks’ seek redemption in his political incorrectness and decry the perceived enfeeblement of the Democrats who seek a more ‘inclusive’ agenda. Officially Donald Trump has condemned the hate-crime of George Floyd, but a lot of Americans remain unconvinced of his sincerity and actual feelings.

Like many authoritarian leaders, he disdains contrarian opinions and the best that he can do is to still pretend that he is the President of the United States of America. He utters cliched condolence messages. But his basic instincts of disdain and bullying are apparent in his statements. Given his lack of ideological or intellectual moorings, his pet peeves are more traditional and chauvinistic.

The targeted segments are the blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, native Americans, women, Orientals, people with disabilities, non-white emigrants etc.

This had led to an instinctive adoption of ‘bertherism’ to falsely discredit the Obama campaign in 2011 when he incredously said, “There’s something on that certificate that is very bad for him. Now, somebody told me and I have no idea whether this is bad for him or not, but perhaps it would be that where it says ‘religion,’ it might have ‘Muslim’.”

Mr Trump is boorish enough to not even spare women, even if they are from the colour-religion- ethnicity of his preference. The natural bully sees no irony in that. Like all intrinsically bigoted leaders, discriminatory behaviour is not a handicap but a qualification at the electoral sweepstakes, and Donald Trump’s name is etched along with the likes of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D Roosevelt etc.

The incorrigibility of leaders like Trump is in the language of violence, threat and provocation that is least warranted, in a wounded situation. Instead of soothing the frayed nerves, Trump insisted on ‘dominating’ in the wake of the uprising.

His message to the initially-peaceful demonstrators was about greeting them “with dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen”, adding that “many Secret Services agents are just waiting for action”.

But bullies are basically cowards, and this truism was evocatively brought out by the Mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, who said “There are no vicious dogs and ominous weapons. There is just a scared man. Afraid/alone…”.

Like all nativist leaders who believe in invoking the spirit of Majoritarism, Trump postures like a Robinhood taking on the ‘entitled establishment’ of yore… except that this protest is a spontaneous expression of an increasingly taunted and marginalised mainstream.

Even the usually compromised Industry felt compelled to call the bluff of Trump’s rants and Twitter took down “looting leads to shooting”, as offensive and promoting violence. Not done with his insensitivity, Trump threatened his citizenry with the unthinkable when he said shockingly “We have a wonderful military”.

Indeed, the protests have turned violent and incidents of looting have taken place, but the overall consensus is on the extreme mismanagement and provocation of the issue by Donald Trump himself. Reuters/Ipsos polls have concluded that 64 per cent of Americans were ‘sympathetic to people who are protesting’ as opposed to 27 per cent who were not (9 per cent were unsure).

This piece of statistic should worry Trump as it goes beyond the partisan pattern, and clearly some within his own cadres, are finally feeling queasy. Protest is the language of the discriminated and the deliberately diminished, and to use the same yardstick of social behaviour against the protestors, is pure political convenience.

The Trump establishment will now selectively try to divert attention by alluding to odd incidents of violence and extreme language to discredit the overall movement, and he may also succeed, but he will deepen the ‘divide’, and perpetuatedthe societal fautlines that were in the process of healing during the Obama dispensation tenure.

The South African comedian and commentator, Trevor Noah, who would know something about discrimination noted presciently, “They say it’s not the right way…it’s never the right way to protest because that is what protest is. It cannot be right because you are protesting against the thing that is stopping you”.

But perhaps this time, Trump has bitten more than he can chew in reaping the benefits of ‘divide’, and the protesting mobs are not just composed of blacks but include people of all colour, ethnicity, diversity and religion as they finally see the crumbling of the constitutional dream of the United States.

The ongoing unrest in America is the inevitable price paid by societies that diminish some of their own at the altar of electoral prospects. In multicultural societies like in the United States, the onus of ensuring progressive, inclusive and peaceful balm is on the national leadership. When they themselves surrender it by pandering to their worst instincts or even by toleration and silence, they themselves surrender the right to question the means of protest.

Amidst the din, the most balanced voice came from former President Obama who said ‘Let’s not excuse violence, or rationalise it, or participate in it’, whilst completely supporting the spirit of protest by stating, “The point of protest is to raise public awareness, to put a spotlight on injustice, and to make the powers that be uncomfortable”. That is the essence, necessity and value of protests ~ to speak the truth to power, gently but firmly, as Mahatma Gandhi once did.

(The writer IS Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), Former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands & Puducherry)