Trump-ed

As a family, we were fortunate to live in the USA for some time, over a period of years and in three different States, in the north, east and south. My work took us there and we enjoyed the experience of meeting new people, making friends, some of whom are still in touch, and getting to know and understand our cultural differences. None of that was a problem, maybe in part because we put our roots down into the local churches where we were placed. Most Americans are not loud, opinionated or arrogant. In fact it was easy to like them and be in their company. Talking about politics wasn’t even an issue, because although there were many differing opinions expressed, nothing got in the way of acceptance or friendships. Our last work assignment ended in 1991.

Scroll forward some 25 years, and I don’t recognise the general tone of US society and politics as reported during this run up to November 2016 when the American people will  democratically elect their next president. You would have to be a hermit to have missed the loud, aggressive candidates who are standing, and their supporters. My own recollections just a few years ago, are that debates were open, good and strong, but never personal. Something has changed.

Permit me the openness to say that the speeches and rhetoric of the present candidates who are hoping to become the unchallenged leader of the free world, are nothing short of school playground antics. I watch as the front runner of the Republican party hides behind bar room brawl talk. The kind of stuff that would only be allowed when you are drunk, and among your ‘own’ kind. Trump is a charlatan, who seems to have enough supporters who share his pub lounge antics, to get elected. If Trump is short on integrity, then Clinton is short on truth. She has not been open and honest with the nation she would aspire to lead, and is very short on credibility. Bernie Sanders is still an unknown, but he is viewed as an outsider who may just overtake the Democratic ‘favourite’.

So, the world outside the USA watches and holds their breath while a nomination circus spectacle takes place. The end result scares anyone who watches and follows with interest. Candidates with a chequered and coloured history fight it out to be the most powerful person in the free world. My questions are these: Is this the best of the country’s good people? I don’t think so. My second question, and possibly more significant: How did it come to this in the most democratic country in the world? My third question, and certainly the most significant: Do those many ‘good people’ within the USA care about the worldwide  consequences? We watch. We wait. We wonder. We worry.