Americans – look at yourselves in the mirror

Every four years the US goes through an election campaign to whittle down the list of presidential candidates and then to elect a president. Such election years, in which the various candidates offer their worldview and make their promises, could serve as a powerful mirror, or more than that, as an X-ray of American society.

Are they looking in their own mirror? Are Americans seeing what we see?   

Take just this week’s crop: Ted Cruze – who won the Republican Iowa caucus – explains that waterboarding is not torture. Question to Mr. Cruz: why – if not to torture and elicit cooperation from the prisoners -  did the CIA use waterboarding? Not to be outdone, Trump – who lost Iowa to Cruze – informed the voters that he would bring waterboarding and even go further than that.

He who promises to be nastiest gets to be president?