The election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the US last week crystallised a raft of troubling issues that are affecting the US and its relations with the world today.

Now that the unthinkable has come to pass, the people of the US as well as citizens globally are more receptive to the discontent that drove so many Americans to disregard more moderate sensibilities to choose a candidate who is clearly unsuited for the responsibilities of leading a superpower nation.

It will be a curious footnote of history that some 60 million or 47.4% of American voters who chose Trump could blind themselves to the long list of negative qualities that he had displayed, from misogyny to xenophobia to bigotry and alleged fraud and other more lurid behaviour in between.

The biting sarcasm of the 20th century writer H L Mencken on the pitfalls of democracy provides food for thought: “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Indeed, it is sobering to realise that Trump won precisely because many of his supporters would have felt that his crude attacks against immigrants, Muslims and other targets spoke to their unhappiness about how their lives have turned out — in an era of economic and social dislocation.

The outcome of the election has been explained as a stunning repudiation of the establishment, as The New York Times described it, and an expression of the frustrations of working-class voters aggrieved over the changing tenor of their lives in the face of economic displacement and cultural angst wrought by the forces of globalisation.

On the international front, Trump’s victory signals the end of an era characterised by an outward-looking American nation and a shift to one where the flag bearer of democracy is primarily concerned with its own affairs. Trump’s statements on the role that the US should play in global politics, including the volatile Middle East, a burgeoning Asia, a Europe under siege, the Americas and the Russian sphere point to a new world order in the making.

The world waits for a realignment of forces based on the new direction in which Trump promises to take his country.

At home, the shock of Trump’s unsettling win has brought tens of thousands of protesters into the streets across the US, with some demonstrations even degenerating into violence and vandalism.

Civil rights groups are reporting an increase in hate crimes against minorities since the election, and conversely, Trump supporters have been attacked as well.

While some of the aggression could be due to an unleashing of pent-up emotions as a consequence of focusing on visceral issues during the election campaign, it is cause for concern that some of Trump’s supporters feel empowered by his victory to target groups that are seen as emblems of the US’ malaise.

Hopefully, both Trump’s fans and his detractors will soon realise that the real issues lie elsewhere and turn their attention towards firstly, identifying and understanding the roots of their societal dysfunction, and secondly, focusing on solutions that will allow the American nation to flourish anew.

In the meantime, the primary institutions of American democracy, including its representative houses, judiciary and civil society, must show their resilience in protecting the high ideals of a progressive and just society in the face of an executive that appears inclined to appeal to the narrow logic of self-preservation to have its way.

A key task is for the US to take stock of its growth formula to examine whether a policy of economic and political dominance is compatible with a world order that puts a premium on common welfare, human development and a sustainable future, or whether this trajectory sets in motion a competition among nations for supremacy that inevitably tends towards turmoil, displacement and ultimately, a breakdown in the global equilibrium.

For such views to find a breathing space, it is necessary to recognise that the credo that only the fittest deserve to survive has produced a world order that could result in the annihilation of the human race. Only when the folly of this approach is clearly realised can alternative paradigms gain credence.

Societies that lay more stock on nurturing values over selfish competitiveness could provide the templates for a new economic and political order that can bring about a greater sense of fulfilment and shared prosperity for the masses whose discontent is at the root of the current American dilemma.

So it is important to acknowledge that the crisis that is now playing out in the American political arena represents a fruition of the winner-take-all mentality that underpins its economy.

The challenge that the US must face is to rediscover the spirit behind the country’s founding principles that inspired generations of its peoples to defend the right of every individual to strive for a better life.

The million dollar question is whether the crisis that is gripping the US today will divide it at its seams or provide the stimulus for a renaissance of the American spirit. 

R B Bhattacharjee is associate editor at The Edge Malaysia.