A frightening glimpse of a possible future
Next year's US presidential elections are important not only for that country but for the whole world, so I feel justified in commenting in a Thai newspaper on last Thursday's debate between the top 10 Republican contenders. In a word, it was distressing.
That the clownish Donald Trump could still improve his standing after calling women fat cows and branding Mexican migrants as mostly criminals and rapists speaks volumes of the quality of much of the electorate.
Meanwhile, all candidates want to repeal “ObamaCare”, a sincere effort to bring affordable healthcare to the poorest Americans that has reduced the proportion of those who lack health-insurance coverage from about 17 per cent to 11 per cent.
All candidates would reject the nuclear deal with Iran, whose only alternative seems to be bombing Iran. Their warmongering rhetoric would merely bring the world a step closer to war.
The views of this “elite” group on abortion border on the unbelievable: Faced with a case in which a pregnancy endangered the mother’s life, one candidate would rather sacrifice the mother than allow for the foetus to be aborted. Another holds that, at the moment of conception, DNA “proves” that abortion would equal murder!
One of the most outrageous statements made during the debate was that “God wants America to be strong.” The arrogance of this sentence is without peer. Even if we were to grant the possibility that such a god existed, why would this supreme being privilege the United Sates over any other country? How about nations that do not believe in God – are they inferior to the US? This candidate’s stated belief characterises his attitude to the rest of the world – which is a mirror image of that held by extremist Muslims who believe in their supremacy. Heaven forbid that one of these senators becomes president (with the possible exception of Ben Carson). The world would be a far worse place.
Egon
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