EIGHT years ago, thanks to information communication technology, the world was glued to the USA presidential nomination race. In significant measure, this was due to the presence of two candidates in the Democratic Party who had all appearance of creating political history. Those candidates were Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Barack Obama.Had she secured the Democratic Party nomination, Mrs Clinton would have broken through the proverbial gender ceiling. As an African-American, Mr Obama, on the other hand, was set to become the first for his race to achieve this feat. The nomination was won by Mr Obama, who went on to win the presidency; not once, but twice.

With his victories came the assurance that, while race remains a factor in a society that has been birthed on racial discrimination, there continues to be movement in realising Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream: that a person should be judged by the content of his/her character, and not by his/her race.

Make no mistake: while Obama won the votes of the racial minorities, he could not have won the presidency without the votes of the white racial majority.

Here we are, eight years hence, with two candidates in the Republican and Democratic parties. The elections of Tuesday, 15th March, having delivered big wins for Mrs Hillary Clinton (Democrat) and Mr. Donald Trump (Republican), each candidate has been placed on a strong footing to secure their party’s nomination, barring some unknown/unlikely intervention.

That being said, the rise and inevitability (perceived or real) of Trump’s candidacy has been one marked with an admixture of passion, anxiety and angst, reflecting and/or representing the state of America’s politics. Trump is a businessman who, according to the 2016 Forbes Profile, is the 113th richest man in the USA, with a net worth of US$4.5B. He is no stranger to salesmanship, including the aspect that involves the use of the media. He is the executive producer of the reality television show “The Apprentice”, and is the previous owner of the “Miss Universe” pageant. It comes as no surprise that he has thus far been able to attract free or “earned” media time worth US$1.9B (according to tracking firm mediaQuant) to advance his political ambitions.

As the world looks on in real time, it has been seen that his rallies are very well attended, his supporters are energized, will wait for long hours and in harsh weather to get into the door, and some rallies have had violence.

Those sitting in the proverbial gallery have listened to his speeches, which carry strong doses of patriotism/nationalism to “Make America Great Again”; interwoven with building a wall to keep Mexicans out, his take on handling terrorism, intolerance to immigration, Muslims, and Syrian refugees.

To say there is at least one section of the American populace not enamoured by Trump’s utterances is to disregard his poll numbers, the wins he has been racking up, and the delegates’ counts that have given him the apparent status of inevitability. Super PACs seem incapable of halting his rise. The idea has been floated to broker another Republican Convention to secure another nominee, but Trump has televised that ‘I think you’d have riots’ if such happens. Those within and outside of the USA have been weighing in on the conduct of the race, and of the nominees and their statements.

President Obama, in a media address on Tuesday, expressed his concern about the campaign, with choice words such as “vicious,” “vulgar and divisive”. He has called it a “race to the bottom”, and one not in keeping with what America represents at home and abroad.

Last December at a news conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Trump, who responded in kind. According to “the guardian” online news (15/3/2016) Canadians are worried that a Trump presidency can jeopardise U.S. trade relations, and China is ridiculing Western democracy with the rise of Trump (17/3/2016).

In January, the British Parliament debated whether to ban Trump from entering the United Kingdom, given his anti-Muslim sentiments.

Trump has successfully obliterated his opponents through uncommon strategies. He has labelled his Republican challenger Jeb Bush “low energy”; Marco Rubio “lil Marco”; and Ted Cruz “Liar.” On the democratic side, Clinton is referred to as “no good”, and the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders is called a “communist.”

A week in politics is considered a lifetime; therefore, from now to November, when Americans go to the polls, anything can happen. Americans on both sides of the aisle (Republican and Democratic), like the world, know what they want to happen; but only time will tell which side of the aisle will get its desire.