THERE has been a mix of gloom and jubilation in the US over Donald’s Trump’s election victory. Bitter tears have been shed and protests staged. At the same time, while many suspended disbelief, euphoria was seen to reign in the Trump camp.

Democracy has a way of springing surprises. That is part of its beauty and its power. It is also part of its ‘flip’ side. The wise and the wonderful can be swept away in no time.

What Americans failed to reckon with was the nature of the present and of history. Trump is a symptom of the times. He is that quite predictable thing: a slick ‘symptomatic’ president-elect. He knew that, regardless of its implications, the idea of change had an irresistible allure.

Democracy has a way of springing surprises.

He was smart enough to see that it brushed aside all objections and exceptions and would serve to tar perceived corruption with the same brush.

In any case, we live in the Facebook era. It is an age that lacks gravity. Young and old alike twitter endlessly on social media. The concern overall is with attention grabbing. Serious and responsible thought has been banished from the scene. The world has been rejuvenated, but at what a cost. Hillary Clinton is ultra-sophisticated but, to the electorate, lacked charisma. That ingredient might have helped stem the populist tide.

The Democrats would have done well to bear one important point in mind: this is the age of ‘homo ludens’. The thought may not be edifying but it is an irrefutable fact.

Who can be held responsible? Presumably the world’s carers, who feel that reducing the populace to mindlessness somehow serves their own ends.

That is simply not true. Demagoguery was able to hold sway in the recent presidential election in the US and have its way. Ideological questions did not — and could not — arise. Discretion may be the better part of valour but was perceived to go by the board.

In any case, there is a fundamental issue involving democracy. It is vulnerable when entirely open-ended. Freedom is a worthy ideal but only if it entails the freedom to resist a manipulative rhetoric.

The fact is that there is a no man’s land on the margins of any democratic dispensation which, more often than not, remains untouched by its egalitarian promise.

This no man’s land cannot be wished away. There will always be those who are dissatisfied and disaffected. It was important for the Democrats, in the recent US presidential election, to address the diverse issues, social or economic, of such elements. However, this did not happen.

That partially accounts for Trump’s runaway victory. No amount of constitutional cant can explain the disaster that overtook a smug incumbency.

Something has to be done to ensure that history does not fatuously repeat itself. That is the need of the hour. The US political elite must reconsider the issues underlying American democracy.

According to the French president, the Trump win can have serious global repercussions because “the American election is a world election”. With elections around the corner, he rightly foresees a shift to the right in France.

Angela Merkel likewise struck a note of caution. She said that she was prepared to cooperate with America’s president-elect on the condition that he showed unconditional respect for human beings. Though clearly struggling with issues attending Brexit, Theresa May was — given the ‘special’ relationship between the US and Britain — predictably politic in her reaction. Russia all but declared a national holiday on the occasion.

While the billionaire president-to-be prepares to balance the books and bring about radical societal and economic change, there is a sense of unease among Muslim communities in the US. It appears that Donald Trump has reneged on some of the extreme racist positions taken by him during his election campaign. However, the damage has already been done. There are rumours of numbers of US nationals, including those of Pakistani origin, applying for visas to other countries.

It is hard to predict what will be on the cards as far as Pakistan is concerned. The Republicans have traditionally favoured the country, but one does not know if that will hold good during the Trump administration. There is a sense that India will be used to keep Pakistan ‘in check’.

Whatever the future holds for the world at large, insecurity abounds. The common man already finds himself straddling a no man’s land of sorts, plagued by a host of questions. The slightest hint of frivolous thinking in the new administration — such as the putative wall between the US and Mexico — will be cause for concern. One can only hope that the new order ushers in good sense — above all.

The writer is the founder chairman of Dialogue: Pakistan, a local think tank.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2016