Jul 31, 2016

Political conventions/frightening entertainment

Superb Swedish summer and American political conventions. A strange mix.

I have CNN on my TV menu, but very rarely watching. These last two weeks though have been an exception. All the time I haven’t been spending in the sun working on my tan, the TV has been on. Watching the morning after summery for breakfast, and from dinner to late bed following the live coverage from the Republican and Democratic convention. Wishing I would have been in the U.S. of course, but happy that the extra dollars for CNN every month, for once is paying off.

Actually, gorgeous summer weather and conventions is a normal, as the conventions happen when Seattle is at it’s best. 2012 I was spending my days on a balcony at lower Queen Anne with a killer view of downtown Seattle, Mount Rainier and Elliot Bay. What miss matches 2016 is the CNN frenzy mixed with the serenity of pine trees, spruce, birches and green fields as a back drop.

Now, one could see the conventions as great entertainment if it was a movie. Or, they would easily be imagined as one of the White House/Washington TV series. But they aren’t. They are real. They are reality, and the outcome of them don’t only affect the U.S., they affect the whole world. Sometimes, over here, we ask ourselves why the American election gets so much media attention, and why we seem so obsessed with it. And I would say the answer would be it really is great entertainment, but even more that it has such an impact on all of us.

If I was an American I would be a democrat. And 2016 I would be a Bernie Sanders supporter. But you don’t have to be either a regular democrat or a Bernie Scandinavian Socialist to be scared to death by Donald Trump.

The man who started out as a joke has become someone who no one is joking about anymore. The fact that he himself doesn’t seem to know when he is serious or joking makes it’s even harder to smile. Was asking Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s emails a joke or not? Is the threat to lock her up a joke? Will he punch “that little man so hard”? To mention a few of those things lining up, only during the convention.

I could make a never ending list of all the things which would be devastating not only to the U.S. but to the world and for generations ahead, if Donald Trump would get to be the next president of the United States. But in a contemporary context I find one particular issue very alarming.

Why is it that in 2016 there are countries which perceive themselves doing better on their own? Why is it that Boris Johnson had the majority of Great Britain vote for the isle kingdom to float by themselves outside the European Union? Why is it that Donald Trump is able to incite Americans shouting “America first!”

Is it that Great Britain has the history of colonial power? And that the U.S. (note, not only Trump) sees itself as the leader of the free world? A hubris of national self confidence? Making believe that they need no one else but themselves? Great Britain a  federation of islands. United States a continent. Well, no man is an island.

Brexit was a joke until it happened. No one thought it would. Not even the Britons  themselves. People voted Brexit just for fun. But it turned out votes are not a joke. Boris Johnson and his crew left the ship immediately, the fight had been the fun, the execution and the managing wasn’t their cup of tea. And now Britain is stalling the exit from the E.U.

A clown with a funny hair do had a good time and altered the politics and the market in Europe and thereby the world. Now there is another clown with a funny hair do having a good time, and the consequences of that are likely to be devastating. And I have a feeling the managing won’t be his cup of tea either. Or rather his six pack of bear.

I can’t vote, so I have to ask you, fellow Americans, to make this scenario not happen. First Ladies are the future. So, let’s vote for Hillary Clinton this time around. And make her pave the way for the next one 2020. The outstanding Michelle Obama for president.

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