To our American Friends Who Will Vote Soon

Here you are: in a few short days, it will be up to you, American citizens, to vote and choose. Trump or Biden.

Seen from abroad, the perspective is different from yours. But a few points can safely be made and who knows, might be of interest to those of you who will cast a ballot on Tuesday.

What should be made of the last four years ?

What should be expected from the next four ones ?

Let’s start with those years just past.

Seen from overseas, three things come to mind.

For starters, the image of America has dramatically deteriorated. Dramatically. We have been the involuntary witnesses of some kind of second class Reality Show with second class actors. Members of the Cabinet leaving months sometimes weeks after having been appointed. All of them writing cruel (but true?) books about the nightmare they’d just been trough. Revenge, muscle flexing, gesticulations, doors slamming day and night like in bad soap operas. Ill manners left and right especially during international meetings. How can a president ostensibly refuse to shake hands with a democratic leader like Angela Merkel? The question many ask is: what happened to the American Dream the world used to dream about?

Secondly, many international accords that had been painfully elaborated since WWII have been thrown into the wastebasket of History without any consultation of any kind. The point here is not to figure out if these treaties were right or not, the point is that the United States of America had entered these contracts freely and they have been unilaterally discarded. What will be the diplomatic legacy of all this unnecessary mess ? The younger voters should think about that. It is their future that is at stake.

Thirdly, the sanitary crisis. No matter how you look at it, the management of this epidemic has been bad. Too many people have died. Too many people have been mistreated and abandoned. Is this the record the Executive Branch of Government of the most powerful nation on Earth should leave behind?

Looking forward now.

Four more years of what ?

If Mr. Trump is reelected, he will have a free rein. No reelection in sight.

One of his intentions is to have the US get out of Nato. Mr. Bolton, an age long insider of Washington’s ways and means, wrote that the US political system will allow the next president to do just so. Is this an desirable prospect? Think of this, American Voters: Turkey has been an important member of Nato for decades. If the US pull out, Mr. Erdogan for sure will feel free to do as he likes. And intervene in the Eastern Mediterranean affairs at will. Can this bode well for the future of peace let alone of Israel?

Secondly, the sanitary crisis is far from over as is evident in Europe with the surge of a dangerous second wave. Can a man who has not be able to manage half way decently the first wave still be in charge for a second ordeal?

Thirdly, the image of America will plunge further. But there is worse than that. For all we know, with the recession, China’s economic performance has catapulted its GDP way past the American one. An unprecedented situation for over a century. China is a dictatorship. We all know that. What will be the consequences of having such a Moloch parading as number One on this planet for the years to come? No one knows. But, in all likelihood, this cannot bode well for all of us. Including you, voters of this American election.

These are some of the issues that History has dropped on your plate for Tuesday. Some degree of honest and humble soul searching might be advisable.

Happy Voting, America.