ON November 8, Americans vote for their next president.
You may think that doesn’t affect you, but rightly or wrongly, whatever America does affects all of us.
I believe America is a force for good, but then I’m not a hipster. I mean, just a few days ago I saw a post on Facebook from a South African expat saying she’s going to Cuba on holiday ‘before the Americans wreck it’.
Right. Six decades of communism have impoverished Cubans even further while making the Castro family gazillionaires – but let’s get there before the Yanks ruin it.
Anyway, when the charismatic President Obama was elected in 2008, most of the world was delirious with joy. The global hipsters believed this was the dawn of Aquarius. They even had a name for it: The Era of Hope and Change
How has that worked out?
Hmmm … looking at it from a global perspective, if anyone had said in 2008 that Obama would alienate America’s staunchest allies, Israel and the Philippines; estrange Turkey, a major NATO partner; pay Iran hundreds of billions to pretend to delay their nuclear programme; preside over the loss of a war in Afghanistan that had already been won; lose classified military equipment to the terrorist organisation ISIS; restart the Cold War with Russia; cause Japan to re-arm and square off with China; and encourage a million potentially hostile refugees to pour into Europe; would you have believed it?
Even more confusing is that all this happened in the wake of Obama’s pledge of ‘smart diplomacy’ and restoring American prestige.
That, along with lowering ocean levels and fixing ozone layer holes, was a cornerstone of his policy.
Okay, let’s consider Obama’s internal policies.
His pet project, Obamacare, aimed at bringing free health care to all Americans has been a disaster. It is a noble idea, but in a country of 300-million, simply unmanageable. Many states are trying to opt out of it.
Fracking irony
Ironically, his greatest achievement – creating more jobs – is coincidence. That there are more jobs is thanks largely to Obama’s pet hate; the oil industry.
America has more oil than Saudi Arabia, but it can only be extruded by a controversial method called fracking.
Obama, who relies on the vociferous green lobby, is vehemently opposed to fracking. Yet his administration is claiming this as a victory.
Obama’s disciples, in other words most of the mainstream media, say that the litany of tears I have listed above is too nuanced for average folk to fathom.
Obama is one step ahead of the rest of us and his policies of either doing nothing or paying enemies millions to maybe do nothing is in fact smart strategy.
Maybe. I’m not a genius and would be a terrible politician. But even I can see that the rise of a firebrand such as Donald Trump is partly due to an overwhelming desire by many ordinary Americans to punch the smug ruling elite in the face.
The leftwing seems to think the world can only be saved by ‘people of destiny’.
The rightwing, on the other hand, think the world can only be saved by ‘people’. And American history – in fact its constitution – is geared towards ‘free people’.
The people now think they have been hijacked by the elites and they are spitting mad.
I have no idea whether Trump or Clinton will be the next president. But does it matter?
Consider the words of a wise old man who died recently. Shimon Peres was a founding father of Israel and also a good friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Obama’s current nemesis.
Peres was interviewed recently and said he had asked Putin what he hoped to achieve by poking the American giant with a sharp stick.
Putin turned the question around and asked Peres what he thought.
Peres answered, ‘America will win, because it is lucky and you are not.’
In other words, it is the character of nations rather than decrees of leaders which chart the outcome of events.
America may not seem lucky with its current choice of presidential candidates.
But in the long run, I think Peres is right.
