Foreign Correspondence

Going about my errands the other day I listened to PRI (Public Radio International). News correspondents were talking with American journalists about foreign perceptions of the American presidential election and campaign. Interesting comments on both sides of the conversation. What do people understand about the American political system, and why does it matter – if at all!?

Well, I got the impression that people outside of our borders think a lot about American culture and life styles. They see a world of plenty and lots of sparkle. Whether the latter is accurate or merely a poor reflection of the glamour they see depicted on TV or movie screens, I don’t know. But I suspect the glamour is over estimated, and the glibness, too.

America is not glib in reality. It is forthright mostly. People do live out their personalities in the main but they also monitor themselves and keep from tipping over too often. The question of want and projection outward from the contained self is not all that free in America. There is constraint.

As we spiral ever more outward with exuberance, I think we catch snippets of images of ourselves and are sobered. Life is not all celebration. And it is definitively not all glamour.

There is plenty of grit: poverty, suffering, ill health, injury and disability. There are run down living conditions and miserable commutes from home to work or to school, and back. There is poverty of aesthetic surroundings. There is poverty of food and kindness.

Especially kindness. We need so much more of that. But our nation is one of volunteers and generosity. Millions of people everyday help others with basic needs. And many help with the personal and motivational needs so the beneficiaries of such help can soar on their own and be able to help yet others in turn.

Americans are not all jaded. No, we are not so enamored with ourselves that we have lost touch with reality. Far more factual is the worry and fretting over failure and fault lines in our lives. If anyone wants to capture what it is like to be an American at this point in time, it is concern over failed attempts to be better. At a lot of things: happiness, financial independence, health, job prospects, political unrest, growing worries over tumultuous times, injustice in many communities, and poverty striking friends and colleagues. A land of plenty that is sometimes not generous to the failed plans of others.

And then our political system which is open, transparent and free. So open. It is transparent by design. Complaints to the contrary are bunk. Politics is a rough and tumble game that is not for all people. So the rest of us sit on the sidelines and watch, knowing that we have a role in it because we get to cast our votes. Our vote. Just one vote per person. Oh for many different positions but only one candidate per position.

We have our say. It’s guaranteed in our constitution. And it is truly provided for and counted. Each of our voices.

Between elections – between the times our say counts officially – we sustain the buffeting of a culture that sometimes appears to have gone mad. Crazy nuts mad. A rich man who inherited his starting stake in life and was protected ever after by family wealth during failed times, is still now a wealthy man. And he has his say throughout his private kingdom of wealth. He has power. Now he runs for the highest political office in the land expecting it to be his because he wants it and is wealthy. Will he be denied?

Yes he will be denied. Because America does not grant wealthy people political power with the exception of their largesse purchasing influence. Yes, that goes on in America. It is a sad reality. And in a land in which the courts have said corporations are people, too! So they have the right to spread their wealth to all corners of the political system and make their influence known.

Of course that is wrong headed, but the US Supreme Court has made it the law of the land for now until we the people overturn their edict with a constitutional amendment which I feel certain will happen.

For now the wealthy Mr. Trump feels certain of his power. But he has none. There are voters who will vote for the man mainly because he is gross, glib, angry and seemingly powerful. But he truly is uninformed and self-centered. He may be a demigod in his family and corporation. But he is just another citizen among the rest of us.

Plus, he is not a nice man. He is surly, mean tempered, disrespectful of women and ideas that do not conform to his. And his sense of power is greatly distorted. His emotional stability formed by anger and inner frustrations make his public judgment unpredictable.

All in all he is not a good and worthy candidate for public trust. In the face of well trained and experienced talent in others, he would be a poor choice indeed.

So to our friends (and enemies) in the global community, know that America understands the Donald Trumps of its nation but will not vote them into power. We will reject him handily on Election Day. And the system will not be rigged. It will be orderly and operated totally within the law. We are good at the voting process. It is reliable and functions very well.

On November 8^th the American people will have their say in the ballot box. Just wait and see. I am confident of the outcome!

October 26, 2016