Saudis, like just about everyone else not an American citizen, are following the train wreck commonly referred to as American politics. And in quiet horror we are observing the rise of Donald J. Trump as the apparent Republican Party nominee for president of the United States.
On Tuesday, Trump swept up most of the states in the primary elections, much like Sherman’s march to the sea that virtually assures him the nomination. For many Saudis, and especially Europeans, who are frequent visitors to the United States and love their open society, friendliness toward visitors and a system of government that makes them the envy of every developing nation, Trump’s victories are surreal. A vote for Trump is to vote for a demagogue, an endorsement of racism, bigotry and bully diplomacy.
It’s difficult to pinpoint the motives of the American electorate to cast votes for a man who clearly has no inkling how governments are run and diplomacy is conducted. How does one rationalize that Americans elected Barack Obama twice as president?
Obama’s foreign policy includes engagement with enemies of the United States instead of saber rattling and opportunities for Americans, regardless of color or religion that are all-inclusive. And now we have the polar opposite in Donald Trump.
The argument among many Americans is that they are angry. They are angry that they missed out on the American dream. They are angry that they don’t have financial ability, like their parents, of owning their own home. They are angry that jobs are disappearing in America and sent overseas. They are angry the wealthy are becoming richer and they are left with crumbs. The deck, they say, is stacked against them. These complaints consistently come from middle-age and older white Americans.
This is what we hear on news television. What we don’t hear is they are angry that there is an African American president. They are angry that the demographics in the past two decades have changed dramatically in some regions of the United States that give African Americans and Latinos parity in jobs and the ability to buy a home. The sheer numbers of ethnic minorities has changed so much that black and Latino, and yes, even Muslim, candidates are elected to town councils and state legislatures. The changing face of the United States is frightening a lot of people. America today does not look like mom and dad’s America of a generation ago.
For many of us who observe this drama played out on the other side of the world, we see an America suffering from a collective nervous breakdown. Or maybe it’s simply lashing out like spoiled children who don’t get all they think they deserve.
Here is what we see: A government that is transparent. Election that is free and honest. A standard of living that is beyond comprehension for most people living in the poverty of developing nations. We see individuals living in a country that never had it so good, yet to hear them talk, one would think the whole world is against them.
They blame the political establishment for ignoring their wants and needs, but they let corporations slide when they export jobs to other countries. They completely ignore the epidemic of gun violence and the mass shootings that occur almost weekly because they cling to their second amendment rights as if it’s the dearest thing on earth. Yet Americans are angry that their president tries to provide medical care for all citizens. They are irrational in their fear of socialized medicine and Republican politicians in particular hate the idea of Social Security. There are some serious priority issues here that the American voter has difficulty reconciling.
So at the end of the day, many American voters think that Donald Trump, who hasn’t offered a single comprehensive plan on any issue and continues to spew rhetoric that would make Huey Long, Father Charles Coughlin and John Birch cringe with embarrassment, is the answer to their problems.
Well, good luck with that.
