I’m writing this early in the morning of the 6th November, and the truth is that not all the results of the US election are in yet. But, shockingly, disappointingly, frustratingly, it looks all too much as if Trump is set to win.*
What happened to you, USA? For decades you were the cool big brother that everyone wanted to grow up to be. We admired you, we liked you, we wanted to be like you. US culture was not only pervasive, it was just…cool. Something about the mentality of the people, the way society was structured perhaps, something, led to such an ongoing outpouring of rebelliousness, inventiveness, innovation, of a never-ending stream of styles that just chimed with everyone, especially everyone under a certain age who wanted to throw off the shackles of their stiff and stuffy societal conventions, the old order, and be like you: fresh, irreverent, devil-may-care.
And then there was…rock n roll…surf rock…hip hop…you know, basically all genres of music that we came to know, love and adopt as our own (except Britpop, that’s ours alright?).
But the pendulum always swings, doesn’t it? At some point.
It was only recently, I think, that it slowly dawned on interested people across the world that the USA: for so long held up as the best, the first, the truest democracy, wasn’t one at all; that the majority of the people in a country could vote for one candidate, and yet another one could win. The electoral college system in the end makes a mockery of this supposed democracy. It ain’t it.**
Regardless, you have chosen, USA, imperfect democracy or not.
Choosing Trump once might seem like misfortune; choosing him for a second time looks like carelessness.
Just to remind ourselves, Trump is:
- a confirmed sexual abuser if not a rapist
- a convicted felon on 34 counts of falsifying business records
- a “charged with four criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.” (bbc.com)
- charged with “32 counts of willful retention of national defense information, 1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, 3 counts of withholding or concealing a document, 2 counts of false statements, and 2 counts of altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object or record” (pbs.org)
- And…oh, you know, the list goes on. You know all this anyway.
I remember when Trump was voted in the first time, back in 2016. I remember thinking, well, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt….
That didn’t work out too well did it?
Now he’s back, he’s worse, and this is the reality for the next 4 years.
And yes, I think it’s okay for me – a dual-nationality UK and European/German citizen, living in Berlin – to have an opinion on this, because what happens in US politics will have a major impact on all of us across the world. Just beginning with Ukraine.
Oh well. Here we go.
* I’m finishing this off the same day in the afternoon, when we now know for a fact that Trump has won and will be US president. Oh well.
**That point just cropped up in my early morning perambulations; turns out more than 50% of Americans want Trump as president too. There you go.
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