Several messages from friends, who seemed to be rather optimistic, despite the fact that Trump managed to command the votes of almost half of the country’s voters, found me rather surprised.
“I am very optimistic about the future of the USA” or “It feels the world has moved back to being a better place”, “A good day for the frontier of freedom”, and even the hope that “the US finds back to being a legitimate world leader”.
Before we get too excited, we ought to consider the country's history. The country that started wars, claiming that it was trying to bring democracy to others, was never a true democracy itself. From slavery they moved into segregation, and rampant racism is still part of the daily bread.
If we needed any proof, how sick the US is, we need but look at those senior Republican politicians, who still come out in support of Trump and his machinations. We know from the near past how systematically partisan the Republicans on Capitol Hill act: During Obama's presidency, all they did was to put spokes in the wheels. The name of their game was to make Obama fail, in order to prove that he is a failure. Moreover, part of that was pure racism. This will not change. This will be exactly their game-plan for the coming four years.
Like most, I also prefer the US to the USSR system. But that should not blind us into becoming all poetic. Democrats as well as Republicans have led us with lies and deceit into unnecessary wars, with millions of dead and many more miserable and homeless. These wars served mainly an industrial-military elite. Much of it was and still is illegal and almost nothing was legitimate about them, nor were they good for the “frontiers of freedom”.
The fact that by chance of birth, we happen to benefit from a decent standard of living, which to a not insignificant extent we owe to these wars and to the deals, which we have been making with corrupt regimes that happen to suit our needs, should not blind us to the truth.
We in Europe need to try hard and ensure that Western Europe becomes a stronghold of viable democracy. This is not easy, as we have, unfortunately, tied our hands in an EU partnership with Eastern European countries, that do not share democratic values. That should be our main goal for the next ten years. The United States is unlikely to be a relevant or reliable partner for this endeavour.
you are right.
ReplyDeleteDanke dir sehr, freue mich besonders über die Vitzepräsidentin,eine Frau and black. Klasse.
ReplyDeleteSteady on, David. You are beginning to sound like the European lefty elite which has always parodied the USA as a crude purveyor of most of the evil in the world.
ReplyDeleteIs it that different from the sopisticates from the old continent, with the added ingredient of a global reach which we have long since lost - largely because in the last 100 years we have been too busy killing each other in quantities unmatched by the USA in all its misguided post WWII ventures.
Sure, like most countries at the apogee of their power, its global interventions have created more problems than they have solved. Nothing unusal about that - ask the British or French.The power is the problem rather than the intrinsic morality, or democratic credentials of the perpetrator.
Yes, it does have a problem of deeply institutionalised racism. No wonder, given the legacy of the slave trade profitably managed by we Britsh and exploited by English and Irish settlers in the Southern States. But is it miles worse than the British variety? I would suggest not, if you are black and from Walthamstow. And what about lingering pan european antisemitism, in its widest sense, which your blog constantly reminds us of? Relative economic hardship post 2008 has seen the growth of crypto fascist parties in many European counties which command a large slice of the popular vote - or, as in the case of the UK, a move towards the illiberal/isolationist by the Conservatives to capture that ground.
Then there's China....
Not much to be poetic about anywhere. But at least the nutter in the White House has been voted out, pretty decisively, after 4 years. He is not the first such to be elected (another European First), nor the last, I suspect. Yes, the USA is going through a tricky period of adjustment to economic decline and its new leader will have little leeway to strike altruistic deals. But is there another game in town?
The other game in town is strengthening liberal democracy in western european countries. As you rightly say, it needs strengthening. That is what our collaborative energy should target.
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