As a warm supporter and defender of western democracies, including the United States of America, I must confess my severe doubts about own faith for the better of the year about to ebb, mostly due to last summer’s Brexit, as well as the U.S. presidential election and its discouraging outcome – and the rise of European right-wing parties everywhere, as if we have succumbed to a global disease, spreading at staggering pace.
I know I’ve distributed more than my fair share of displeasure with Donald Trump’s 8 November victory, most likely to be confirmed by today’s electoral college assembly, but rest assured that it’s all to do with a growing concern for the world’s collective development, just as much as fear of a fascist setting up house in The white house.
Donald J. Trump, America’s President-elect. Photographer: Gage Skidmore/Flickr.
Of course that fear remains intact, but who are we to talk, electing and keeping a government and a PM appointing sexual abusers, racists and homophobes as cabinet ministers, while retracting former years’ critique of China’s human rights violations for the sake of mutual trade, as if our own financial wellbeing somehow trumps (I know …) human rights.
Even more interesting: Norwegian media do not seem to question the ethics of the matter – at all. Which in itself speaks volumes, but comes as no surprise, as, after all, the only future that matters is our own.
Dear American reader, we have no right to point our indignant fingers at you and your future president while acting like crazed far-right extremists ourselves, for which I hereby offer my sincere apologies.
Top illustration: Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg (Conservative). Blogger’s own drawing.
Although I’ve been expecting Donald J. Trump’s victory since long before his nomination, I took no pleasure in being right. Truth be told I’ve been a rather sombre sight ever since.
Two days on, however, my fears have subsided day by day, as I’ve gradually come to realise that America’s counterpart, Russia, too, has been lead by a totalitarian regime for the better of two decades, displaying sporadic bouts of fascistoid features, quickly accompanied by radical forces in a growing number of European countries, receiving a boost of confidence with last Tuesday’s American election – not to mention last summer’s British fit of madness:
Nigel Farage, Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen and Vladimir Putin. Blogger’s montage.
With far-right movements on the rise in several European countries, a similar development on the American side of the Atlantic really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Even my own country, one-time moderate and oh so humane Norway, sports a government made up by ministers warning against an ongoing Islamisation (according to them), while closing our borders for refugees in need.
With fascistoid leaders in our two superpowers you might expect a heightened level of threat, but as we know bosom buddies Putin and Trump have both declared their mutual admiration, paving way for improved understanding and, ultimately, a lasting peace between Russia and the west.
Norwegian poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson’s passage, from his poem I choose April, inevitably springs to mind:
[…] however peace is not the best
but that one something wants
(very loosely translated)
I’m sure you’re beginning to wonder where I’m going with this, but consider this:
How certain are we that peace on earth is preferable over freedom for all? Of course you may argue that if anything, Donald J. Trump is a champion of individual freedom. For the well-to-do, mind you, but what about the rest of us?
Are we prepared to sacrifice all consideration for the less fortunate, to close our borders and build walls, to silently accept the promotion of oligarchs and corrupt politicians, all for the sake of Trump and Putin’s bromance, however peacekeeping it may be?
Truth be told I’m leaning toward the Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson persuasion here, rather than accepting a society resembling the imagined outcome of a Nazi German victory.
Peaceful? Perhaps. But depraved of everything even remotely similar to freedom and democracy.
Of course I could be wrong. Donald Trump may be the soul of decency, democracy and humanitarian values, for all I know, but if he is to be taken at face value, which I think he should, he is, much like his Russian counterpart, everything but that.
Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with his «Peace for [not in] our time» letter at the Heston aerodrome on 30 September 1938.We’ve seen peace chosen over confrontation before, which brings me back to the blog post’s headline, although even that didn’t bring about peace, as our immediate ancestors soon came to learn.
We’d be fools to follow Chamberlain’s example, accepting Hitler’s … nay, Putin and Trump’s dubious reigns, but democracy being what it is, I’m afraid we’re left with no option but to wait out the upcoming presidential term – provided Trump’s idea of democracy isn’t too much like Putin’s.
It is, of course, early days, and only time will tell if I am in fact right, but I wouldn’t be very surprised if I am.
Will he deport illegal aliens? Will he erect a wall on the Mexican border (and charge the Mexicans for it)? Will he prosecute and imprison Hillary Clinton? Will he reject Muslims arriving in the U.S.? Will he wage a trade war on China?
Let’s just silently observe the charade as it unfolds, in the hope that Americans and Europeans alike have come to their senses by the respective countries’ next elections, because let’s not be too cocky:
Although our leaders may not be the pussy-grabbing kind, with rape accusations looming over them, they and the U.S. president-elect may have more in common than we like to admit, deserving closer scrutiny.
As such this week’s American election may well serve as a wake-up call for us all.
Man, do I feel sanctimonious today, but I mean every word. Peace does come at a price. I’m just more than a little curious as to whether or not we’re prepared to pay this one.
Top illustration: America’s president-elect Donald Trump and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. Blogger’s own drawing.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Blogger’s own montage.
That’s what I called the two candidates – of which one now president-elect – the other week, completely omitting the fact that they both qualify as criminals.
But with 75 lawsuits pending and a presidential immunity you really cannot blame the man for trying so hard.
(Also there’s been much talk of the urgent need to completely renovate several inner cities, for which the Trump Organization and/or its business associates undoubtedly stand to «qualify».)
It may strike you as more than a little odd that, as Norwegian as I am, I could sleep my way through a Norwegian election night, like a baby, whereas an American one is more likely to deprive me of same.
Which only goes to show how inconsequential Norwegian elections really are, in the greater scheme of things, as opposed to the one taking place on the other side of the Atlantic today.
While refraining from encouraging votes in favour of any candidate in particular, especially today, I simply hope today’s turnout turns out to be considerable, fully aware there’s every chance that in any event, tonight will indeed be sleepless.
Whether I get a brief shut-eye or not, in the hope that, unlike the day following Germany’s very democratic federal election in March 1933, we all wake up to a relatively safe world tomorrow, I can only say Godspeed, American friends.
And for Pete’s sake vote.
Illustration: Vote button, single-handedly drawn by yours truly this morning, before I even managed to finish my first cup of joe (and yes, folks, that is how much this means, to every single individual on this planet).
We all remember how the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972), interfered with politics during the early (and later) stages of the cold war, such as his fervent campaign against Martin Luther King jr. and the civil rights movement, not to mention the sensitive audio tapes he claimed to possess, of President John F. Kennedy having sex with a woman he described as «an East German Communist».
James Comey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Present FBI director (and Republican) James Comey’s disclosure of «new» findings in the Hillary Clinton email probe last week, followed by yesterday’s FBI release of 15-year-old documents pertaining to Bill Clinton, only goes to show Comey’s resolve to prevent the eventuality of a Clinton victory – or to secure Donald Trump’s, which ever is the case (albeit one and the same).
Far be it from me to imply consequences for said bureau director, but I think it’s safe to claim his actions highly undemocratic and, therefore, illegal – even if the target of his disclosures themselves were criminals (as there’s every reason to believe they indeed are).
What we do know, however, is that an election, most likely rigged or unlawfully influenced by one, both or any party, probably shouldn’t be held in the first place.
Nevertheless it will, for what ever it’s worth. Let’s just not call it democracy (because if it is, I will have no part in it).
You cannot help but feel sorry for the average American voter this year, even if there’s no denying the Americans brought the whole thing on themselves. With that said it is rather fascinating that the vast country’s huge population failed to produce a single worthy, able and unsullied candidate, wouldn’t you say?
James Comey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Only days left before the election it would seem that FBI director (and Republican) James Comey’s untimely disclosure last Friday rid Hillary Clinton of her modest poll advantage, leaving the Americans with what appears to be a nerve-racking close race – and an outcome that could go either way.
And still more revelations may yet remain to occur, steering the opinion in one direction or the other, but boy am I glad I’m not American. Should I, however, be one, I expect my attitude towards all kinds of isms to be the same, be it Nazism, Communism, Putinism or Trumpism (even if the latter two may be hard to distinguish).
Seeing as I have yet to hear of Clintonism – and taking America’s long overdue need for a female president into account, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that Clinton, despite her numerous flaws and crimes, ought to prevail. Cosindering, after all, the alternative.
Should the scale however tip in favour of her opponent, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised. Granted I never thought the Americans would elect George W. Bush president, certainly not a second time. Then again who would have thought the Italians willing to keep themselves with a PM the likes of Silvio Berlusconi, for years on end – or that Norwegian voters would secure a right-wing government?
I never did, but that didn’t prevent the inevitable outcome, as I’m sure it won’t this time around, but I do know this:
Various isms have risen, just as certainly as they have fallen, even if they invariably wreaked havoc, just as I’m convinced Trumpism will. Only difference, of course, is that no nation of such immeasurable power ever succumbed to isms, which is going to be an interesting experience, to say the least.
![Britain's Prime Minister Neville with his "Peace for [not in] our time" letter at the Heston aerodrome on 30 September 1938.](https://nedtegnelser.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/neville.jpg?w=1075)
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