You may have noticed that the United States of America is having an election. You may have also noticed that the campaign for the presidency has descended to the lowest form of fear-mongering, hate-inspiring, juvenile, falsified, disrespectful, conspiracy theory fuelling circus.
At first it was mildly amusing and I will admit that watching the news was, for a while, a guilty pleasure, kind of like watching The Kardashians or Honey Boo-Boo. It was easy to just pass it off as Americans beingAmerican.
Not so funny now.
I must admit up-front that I watch too much news. I know many people who do not care one bit about foreign politics and think that whatever they decide in the US has no bearing on our lives here. I am not one of those people.
Recent history has shown that a foreign election can have a devastating effect on the world in general.
In 1932 there was an election in Germany that sent shockwaves around the world, with 38% of the voters in that free democracy voting for one Adolph Hitler.
Adolph Hitler was, in the words of one of Americas most eloquent orators, "a very, very bad person". He was also a racist, homo-phobic, narcissistic, raving lunatic with a bad barber.
On the up-side, he did have a plan to Make Germany Great Again.
It was a simple plan really, one that could be done in logical steps.
STEP #1 – Find someone to blame.
(There were very few Mexicans in Germany at that time, so the Jews were the easiest target.)
STEP #2 – Convince the public that he AND ONLY HE could solve the problem.
STEP #3 – Round 'em up.
Step #4 – Kill them all.
Why should we care about foreign elections?
Right now America is openly and seriously debating STEP #3!
My father and grandfather served in the merchant fleet. My uncle served in the army. Thousands upon thousands of my generation grew up with scarred or broken fathers.
In every peaceful little town in our peaceful country you will find tombstones and memorials to the thousands who died in the awful conflict that came about as the result of that foreign election.
That is why we should care about American politics.
W.J.Given,
