No matter who wins in November American people will lose: Scholar

Hated by most Americans, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the two presidential candidates offered to the voters by the corrupt system that spawned them, says Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in politics.

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, told Press TV on Friday that no matter who wins in November the people of the US and the world will be the losers.

“The political charade of US presidential nominating conventions is finally over. The US political duopoly aka the ‘two-party’ system has once again been shown to be totally bankrupt, regurgitating two candidates that are hated by the overwhelming majority of the American people who must nevertheless choose between them,” Professor Etler said.

“On the Republican side Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, feigns a populist persona who has the back of the US working class. His promise to bring jobs home again is based on hot-air not concrete proposals. His xenophobia and Islamophobia are the tools of a demagogue,” he added.

Trump, bete noire of establishment

“In foreign affairs, Trump is a devoted Zionist who vows to invade Syria and the rest of the Middle East to rid the world of Daesh,” Professor Etler argued.

“Like a raging bull he seemingly wants to upset the US imperialist applecart. He lambastes NATO and other US allies for being ingrates while making eyes at Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, all the while trash-talking the Iran nuclear deal and relentlessly bashing China,” he stated.

“His iconoclasm has made him the bete noire of the US political establishment, cursed by both neo-cons and neo-libs alike,” he said.

“Trump's rhetoric of ‘Make America Great Again’ however is a prescription for a protection racket no different than that practiced by a mafioso in his home territory,” he noted.

“Trump's idea of negotiations is simply offering his opponents a deal they ‘cannot refuse.’ He would conduct foreign policy from a ‘position of strength’ by attempting to bully and intimidate his adversaries. His brand of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ will only exacerbate regional tensions and bring the world closer to war,” he pointed out.

Clintons are masters of deceit

“On the Democratic side of the coin is Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Clintons are masters of deceit and have skirted the law throughout their political careers. Her trustworthiness is on a par with Trump's. In other words, zilch,” Professor Etler said.

“She even has the audacity to bemoan the effects of laws passed during her husband's administration which led to the mass incarceration of generations of Black and Hispanic youth and the economic collapse brought on by a deregulated Wall Street,” he stated.

“Overseas her support of ‘color revolutions,’ ‘humanitarian intervention,’ ‘R2P’ (responsibility to protect) and fascistic states such as  Israeli occupied Palestine and Ukraine, serve as a cover and rationale for US military intervention throughout the world in furtherance of US geo-political goals,” he observed.

“Clinton likes to be portrayed as an advocate for women, children and their families. But, how many have been devastated and destroyed, both at home and abroad, by this their supposed advocate? How many women have seen their children blown to bits by US military action during her tenure as secretary of state?” the analyst said.

“And, how many mothers of color have seen their families torn apart and their children warehoused in Gulag Americana due to the domestic policies she helped set in motion? And yet she makes herself out to be the heroic champion of women and children the world over, no matter how much of their blood is on her hands,” he explained.

Both parties play to the gallery

“The Republican opponents of Trump were rejected by the base of their own party. Their record of war, duplicity, economic depression, and political gridlock has become an unpalatable mix of failed policies that has brought the US to ruin. But the Democrats are no better and Barack Obama doubled down on many of George W. Bush's policies, especially in foreign affairs,” Professor Etler said.

“Even the erstwhile ‘socialist’ Bernie Sanders gave up the ghost and now sits at the table with Clinton as a willing lapdog,” he stated.

“Both parties play to the gallery, framing their policies and rhetoric to elicit a slavish response from their respective political bases. Both conventions consisted primarily of fawning accolades for their anointed candidates, but in point of fact, the American people have not been given a free choice as to who their next leader will be,” he noted.

“They've been sold a bill of goods by a shrewd carnival barker on one hand and a sleazy back-room political operator on the other. No matter who wins the American people will be the losers and will have to suffer through four more years of broken promises, economic stagnation and military adventurism,” the analyst concluded. 

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