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Greetings America, from a tiny voice from "the world". Before I say what I've been holding down for weeks, a quick sentence on where the voice is from, so you can keep that in mind when interpreting (and to excuse in advance any language gaffe, as I'm not a native speaker).
I'm a 29 year old white male from a tiny all-white country called Slovenia in the heart of Europe. I lived in the US for 2 years finishing high school and doing some college time in the south and midwest. I've lived under Yugoslav socialism as a child, lived through the horrors of the Balkan wars, and am now clawing through life in what is aparently the "modern capitalist" state. I'm a liberal politically, with some pinko socialist dreams intimately.
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Now, that out of the way... I've stalked these boards for a long time now, and never before did a US election concern me as much as it does today. Ok, sure.. it was pretty big in 2004, but Bush couldn't possibly be reelected, so we didn't pay much attention. The joke would be on us, if it was the least bit funny. Lesson learned, and these past few months I've kept a close eye on both the greater picture and the tiny snipes in the primaries, from what I could gather on global media and DU, and I just can't help myself anymore. There's much to be said and the floodgates gave in. I'll just take it from the top and try to keep some structure to it:
The world is looking at you. Yes, you.
The US loves to call itself the greatest country in the world. The land of the free, the home of the brave. And God most certainly should bless America, and maybe some other countries later if he has the time.
The world looks on with a mix of emotion, partly envious of the worldly comforts the average american enjoys, partly in the cautious way you'd look at a spoiled 14-year-old with a gun. Like it or not, the world for the most part agrees that America is the superpower of its time. The Empire. The State of States, the strongest kid in the yard that decides if the game of the day is football or baseball. It's a sensitive mix of emotions we have, mostly compounded by the fact that America has the power to change our lives. Through economic interests, pressures, political weighing, military might, America can change my life if it decides to do so.
Until a few years ago, the peoples of the world were thinking this quietly. Recently, when the US foreign policy (a.k.a. "the wars") have reached a level of absurdity rarely seen, the international chatter picked up. The world is becoming a global playground, and recently, my acquaintances from other countries, as well as some in the US, have felt the need to debate the global situation with me. Increasingly, the international community is uniting in the opinion that an unhinged, unbalanced USA is a cause of concern. Increasingly, people care about who's the next US president. Increasingly, people take a defensive position towards the concept of American international activity and assume the worst until proven otherwise.
Shrub has taken your global reputation to the lowest point immaginable. Choosing the next president could be a turning point, if the next one is along the same lines, many little voices like me out there will have had enough.
The presidential candidate must have experience and know all policy answers.
He or she, any exclusively male references below are simplified for readability.
Bullshit, excuse my French.
The president is like a company CEO. He needs to be a leader. He needs to posess the people skills to sell his direction, his vision, his passion to the taxpayer. He needs to be able to choose a professional team of advisors and professional staff, secretaries and assistants, who are going to act in line with his vision. He needs to delegate the professional decisions to the people who will, as a collective, help him realise his greater vision for the country.
Looking at my company, my CEO doesn't know the first thing about tax legislation. He doesn't know how our product is made in detail, and he doesn't know exactly how much money I make. He knows what the product does, who needs it and how much it's worth, and most importantly, he knows in which direction the product should evolve over the next few years to stay desireable. He also knows that a happy employee is a good employee, and he knows that chatting to me about lunch matters more than pretending to understand my answer on weekly deadlines.
The president has to lead and inspire. He has to be the type of person that pushes for the good of the people, the type that cares and kicks his professional staff to keep their priorities in line with his. He has to be a person you believe in. A person you see talking in your direction, and you instantly feel like he's looking at you. Yes, you.
Now... Who is "the world" hoping for?
I would be presumptuous for me to assume they all agree with little ole me. However, some facts stand out in all the discussions I've had with my globally-aware peers as of late.
It seems like the next president will have several daunting tasks ahead:
- Pulling out of Iraq in a way that minimises further damage to the soldiers whose youth was stolen, and to the Iraqi people.
- Taking a thoroughly broken US economy and primarily dodging the impending collapse, then putting it back on its feet.
- Finally providing the American people with a safety net in the form of modern healthcare, job security, equal opportunity, and... well... freedoms recently lost.
- Reconciling with "the world".
As far as those points go, you can't put a bottom-line policy finger on any of them. You can't really say that one healthcare plan is ultimately better than another, they're both tiny steps in the evolution of the nation for decades to come. You can't realistically say either candidate can really do any of the above in 4 years. What they can do, however, is set a trend. A benchmark that will have to be lived up to either in his/her second term, or by their successor. A benchmark the people will notice, embrace, and demand for the future.
Now this inevitably brings me to the Obama "speech on race", which was so much more than that.
From the standpoint of the outsider, he embodied all of the presidential traits one could wish for. The complete lack of detailed policy was not only irrelevant, but very welcome. Policy is too often used to cloud or avoid the spirit, the persona of the candidate. He took up the call, and stood on the podium. He assumed the moral high ground, and did so not condescendingly, but tolerantly. He reached out to everyone, selflessly, and in many inspiring words stated what I was baffled to hear. That he, as one man, would be honored to invest his time, life, and effort, to help people work toward their goals. Not his goals, the goals of the people. For a better world and a better future as he understood them. This was a man so great that he resigned his momentary position of greatness in favor of the little people he was asking to represent.
Around the living rooms of other little people in "the world", one could sense the same impression. The man that just gave that speech sees beyond the numbers and the issue of the day. He sees beyond nationality and affiliation. With some luck, he sees beyond the borders of the US and understands that for this global society to have a future, we need to find a common ground. A partnership as opposed to the constant conflict. Wouldn't that be just too good to be true? Is such a shift even possible after the last 8 years?
We dare hope it is possible, and we all hope, with all our people-loving hearts, that you dare as well.
*this was a 2 am post of a tired and increasingly emotional mind, excuse me if it reads erratically, but I just don't have it in me to go over it all once more.
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