I suppose I ought to be more interested in their election. However at the moment it seems that Trump is rinsing it! Biden should never had stood for a second term despite a very successful first term. Harris will find it hard as a black woman – as anyone who has left the cities in the USA, beyond the city limits, and often within them, America is a mix of high tec and almost medieval thought processes. If a British politican had been shot in the ear and then claimed some divine intervention the majority of the public would find it fucking hilarious! And as for sticking sanitary towels to ears – what are they thinking!
Of course there are a lot of very nice Americans (just about everyone that I met was basically OK!) – howeverbthe red necks! And then the tech mega rich have been pouring money into Trumps campaign. Definitely time for Europe and the rest of the world to get there act together and create a viable opposition to them. The trouble with X is that it is just too good and easy to use despite Musk attempts to fuck it up!
It seems to me that America is in an even darker place regarding democracy? The Senate, whilst honourable in intention has surely outlasted the 19thb century let alone today. The democrat and republican parties are also too large and unwieldily for any proper scrutiny? And I can see the point of creating a balance, but when the two parties merge in the centre it leaves a gap where people feel unrepresented, a gap which the right wing and Maga have exploited very successfully.
Trump will no doubt be going all out against migrants without an ounce of irony that all americans are migrants (Ok Americans-indians is another discussion). The misogyny of the anti-abortion lobby is, to a liberal minded Western European, ridiculous. Back to the 18th Century! I have also read a few trash American novels, they often talk about a very assertive rich male “owning” a woman! In the novels this is without the violence of domestic abuse but the culture is clear.
So America is not our forever Allie, in fact I have reaffirmed my long term belief that Europeans, especially Western Europeans are very much like me! I say me here to stop generalisatoons creeping in. I have been to parts of Spain where no one spoke English (how rude!) and I speak no Spanish but felt “at home”! We have a similar history and have endured religeous fanaticism and political extremism (Nazi’s) but have also similar roots of history. The colonies (and Australia and NZ are subject to this too) have attracted migrants from across the globe (Australia and NZ from a smaller pool?) who have a very different mind set. Many were fleeing religious persecution, some abject poverty, but all will have had a desire for less state control and belief in the individual? America in particular offered migrants land and freedom from government for the most part! Now as society has occupied most of the land and people are sunject to the laws of society, the deep seated beliefs of some americans are being questioned, and they do not like it.
Is the following true? America has been built on the cheap labour of immigrants, often with 2 or 3 jobs each. Cheap labour has undermined the ability of the poor to organise via Unions. Subservient womaen are seen as part of the culture, exemplified in the 1950-80’s by the western of gunslinging heroes. The gun culture of America is an underlying disease that cannot be cured! America has lost, is losing its place of pre-eminence in the world?
And now to be controversial! My dad said that the Chinese would over run the world! Yes he was a Daily Telegraph reader (the excuse was the crossword!). However it is my hope/belief that those of Chinese extraction who are now British Citizens are now assimilated into our society? Have I just revealed to my self what I guess others have known for ages? The fear , expressed to me yesterday, that Britain would be 50% Muslim in 2050 (by someone who will not make it! that far despite reading the Express), is that they will be like the Jews and not give up their religion? I would guess that there are more people commited to their religion that are not Christian in the UK. Personally I do not give a fuck about this until they try to influence decisions made in the UK, for the UK. Like it seems some Jews (not all) are trying to influence decisions this government makes regarding Israel. Israel is an abhorrent state which needs to be brought into modern democracy and the modern world! If a jew or muslim wants to pray to their gods, fine, as long as it has no impact on the rest of us. I would ban all religeous schools (including those supporting capitalism!).