God Bless America – for all our sakes

No other country splits the foreign Like vs. Dislike poll quite like the United States of America.

We devour their products — Coca Cola, Hollywood movies, iPhones and hamburgers. We hugely appreciate their many life-saving contributions to everyday medicine and technology, such as chemotherapy and traffic lights. And we deeply deplore their gung-ho gun control, their eagerness to sue for disproportionate big bucks over petty claims, and the arguably bullying tactics of some of their larger corporations, such as Starbucks, who shamelessly trade abroad without paying a fair dime in corporate tax to those countries. Yet we continue to lap up their warm hospitality and friendly, helpful service. And a decent Flat white.

As equally paradoxically, we shake our heads in horror at US warmongering for personal gain — say, oil in the Middle East — yet automatically look to the US to ‘do something’ in times of political unrest. And they do.  As Churchill once famously said: The Americans will always do the right thing… after they’ve exhausted all the alternatives. This backhanded compliment sums up a country that we outsiders don’t always get, that often doesn’t get it, but is usually more than willing to get their hands dirty. With or without a wide-spectrum international mandate to act upon.

I’m a great believer in leaving a truly democratic country to get on with their own domestic politics.

I was outraged when President Obama flew into the UK to urge voters to remain part of the EU. Not because I necessarily disagreed with his message, but because a foreign Head of State telling the British voters to do anything is tantamount to securing a vote in the opposite direction. And because, as a non-EU country, the entire Brexit issue was none of America’s immediate concern. But, the repercussions of the American vote on 8^th November is of everyone’s immediate concern. Right across the globe. From an international point of view, the new American President will hold the keys to US nuclear weapons and wield great power over stability in the Middle East, NATO, the UN, the quality of the air we breathe, our oceans, and the environment we live in.

Which brings me to US politics and a political system, in which money talks and buys votes.

Disagree? Consider how much money it takes to reach the White House and win the American Dream jackpot. And the fact that the two remaining Presidential candidates of the ca. 200,000,000 possible (roughly calculated on citizens minus minors and the very elderly) have been whittled down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Election run-ups, by default, involve taking sides. Picking a winner and putting a cross by their name on the ballot paper. But the 2016 Presidential Election, so far, has been more about voting against rather than voting for. Ask any American about the upcoming election, and in all likelihood he or she will not begin by telling you why their preferred candidate should win, but exactly why the other of these candidates is unfit to be president. Is a liar. A Racist. Is a danger to peace. Is corrupt. Has blood on their cuffs.

And this is where it gets really scary: 44% will be referring to Trump, and 41% to Clinton. (Figures taken from New York Times on 4^th October.)

Republicans stand firmly behind Mr Trump, turning two blind eyes to his lies, insults, blatant racism and breath-taking ignorance. A bigot in the White House is better than a Democrat, or, Lord save us, a black Democrat.

The Democratic camp is split between those who stand loyally by the well-prepared, highly-experienced Mrs Clinton, and those inclined to vote for an independent candidate, and thereby risk Trump’s success, rather than compromise their integrity by voting for a corrupt warmonger with her dirty fingers in umpteen illegal pies.

So if there is one thing we can be certain of, it’s this: when all the votes have been counted and the new President has been sworn in in January, the US domestic turmoil will continue.

Republicans will continue to disregard democracy by continuing to block and halt the political processes to the nth degree of their mandate. Every move Clinton makes, personal or political, will be picked apart in the media to uncover her hidden, self-serving agenda.

Or Democrats will hugely resent, ridicule and continue to undermine a Commander-In-Chief who avoids tax, rewards the rich, and regularly belittles the female half of the population.

I have some very dear, highly-intelligent and caring American friends.

They share the same concerns and fears as we onlookers. Their country is too bitterly divided over these two candidates to be reunited by either of them. And strength lies in numbers.

Personally, at global level, I’m intrigued to discover what might be achieved, or prevented, with Mrs Clinton in the White House, Mrs May in No. 10 and Mrs Merkel as Chancellor of Germany. In the midst of all the political unrest, trusting in the ladies is an exceedingly spindly straw. But I’m clutching it.

In the meantime, God Bless America. For all our sakes.