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The Gateway Presents: The disruptive force of Donald Trump

For many Americans, it all looks like doom and gloom, and rightfully so. But what can we learn from the election of such a president?

Originally aired on the October 19, 2018 edition of “The Gateway Presents” on CJSR FM 88.5 Edmonton. Hosted by our editors and featuring a wide variety of subjects, The Gateway Presents covers timely news-, opinion-, and arts and culture-related topics pertinent to students and to campus every two weeks. Listen live every second Friday at 5:00 p.m. here!


Donald Trump has, without question, done many things to American politics. He’s pushed anti-immigration rhetoric strongly since taking office, attempted to define gender as tied to biological sex, and sensationalized the presidential news cycle more than it ever has been before.

For many Americans, it all looks like doom and gloom, and rightfully so. But what can we learn from the election of such a president?

For this segment, I spoke with one of our writers wanted to seek out the answer to this question. Atharv Vohra, a third year computing science student, wrote an article entitled “Trump’s disruption of American politics not a bad thing.” In it, he used the business concept of disruption, a sort of challenging of the status quo in markets, and applied it to what Trump’s presidency has done to American political life.

He argues that Trump has simply illuminated things in American politics and culture that have already been present, bringing them further into the public limelight. As such, Americans now have a chance to more critically engage with some of these unsavory notions and change them for good.

Over the course of our discussion, Atty and I talk disruption, its applicability in political analysis, the state of American politics, and more. To hear our conclusions, take a listen.

Andrew McWhinney

Andrew McWhinney is a fifth-year English and political science combined honors student, as well as The Gateway's 2019-20 Editor-in-Chief. He was previously The Gateway's 2018-19 Opinion Editor. An aspiring journalist with too many opinions, he's a big fan of political theory, hip-hop, and being alive.

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