Stop calling Trump a “dictator”.
The United States is a democracy.
With or without Trump, 77 million Americans have voted this way – with eyes wide open.
Let me tell you why:
They believe themselves to be the righteous “rebellion” against the evils of decency, peace, human rights, diversity and science (“which are other words for yielding”), but also to “save” a country on the brink of collapse.
Name-calling and ridicule will only make them “rebel” even more.
When Trump has severely reduced their purchasing power, and caused inflation to reach 20%, by imposing import tariffs from China and the EU, they might begin to consider whether his policies are really in their favor.
But that does not change their perception of the world.
It will not change the reason why they voted for Trump.
What the United States needs, in the long run, is education, education and education. To experience and understand that the world is not evil and does not conspire against them.
When you meet an American, meet them with kindness and friendliness.
Tell them that indeed we choose different paths, with different motivations, but all want to reach the same goal: Peace and progress, for a better tomorrow.
Only when they feel more safe in the world can we talk about women’s rights, homosexuals, and other people who they think want to destroy their lives. But that is 20 or 25 years in the future, and only if we meet them with understanding and open arms.
We also have to acknowledge that they are desperate to change a system that is, in fact, broken.
Banks and big cooperations have too much political power, a very few owns too much and too many too little, and they have long time ago been surpassed by many other countries.
They still have to pay for education and healthcare, and it will take a hundred years or more to catch up with more advanced societies.
Freedom – such a common slogan in the US – is only for the rich.
Many Americans are desperate, and a populist politician, who promises to create mayhem, sounds like a good idea, when everyone else have failed them so far.
What in Europe is considered illegal corruption is completely legal in the USA, and actually one of the pillars in the political system. Lobby groups can openly purchase politicians and their votes, so voting for a “rebel” who claims he is so rich, that he can’t be bought, is the choice of the “righteous resistance”.
(Lobby groups include Greenpeace, National Riffle Association, LGBTQ, Christians against abortion, banks and oil companies alike…)
These American Trump voters, who so often scream about “freedom,” apparently hate people who exercise freedom; like those who live in a same-sex relationship, have a different religion, or choose to have an abortion, to name a few.
Like all other hatred, it’s driven by fear.
Those who don’t have much will fear those who have a lot, those who don’t have freedom will fear those who exercise freedom, those who don’t understand will fear those who are different.
But there are also real problems in the US with people on the edge of society.
There are more people in prison in the US than in the rest of the world combined, and the murder rate per 100,000 citizens is more than double that of the Western world.
Combined with the absence of public services and an astronomical national debt, this makes the US a developing country. It is a hard pill to swallow when you were a “world leader” just a few decades ago, and several opinion leaders stubbornly claim that you still are.
Neither the government nor the opposition has the courage to tell the American people that the world’s largest military no longer makes them a superpower.
At the same time, China has more US Dollars in its foreign exchange reserves than there are dollars in circulation in the United States.
If the Chinese (et al) did not therefore keep the value of the dollar artificially high, each dollar would only be worth one-third of a Euro.
For that reason USA is still – on paper (and on paper only!) – the largest economy in the world, with China breathing down their neck.
Telling them that any 3rd grade math teacher can easily explain why Trump’s policies will only make matters worse will obviously be perceived as condescending (and “a damn lie!”).
What these 77 million american voters need is reasurance; a promise that things will change for the better, that the future will be a little brighter, and that some of the paranoia can be calmed.
Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is on a slow steady path towards independence, and this path would turn into a dead end road, if we even consider negotiating the matter. But we could give the Americans permission to circumnavigate Greenland with aircraft carriers to their heart’s delight, if this can put them at ease. After all they have only misplaced one nuclear bomb in Greenland, so far.
If this is what it takes to avoid a full scale war between Europe and USA, we can all sleep a little better.
Trump tells us to be afraid of the Chinese, but the Chinese haven’t announced that they might declare war on us. Trump has.
The Chinese have forcibly imposed their political system on occupied lands. Just as the Americans have tried in several countries and failed, with hundred times the costs in human lives.
Most of the world hopes for a two-state solution in the Middle East for the long-term benefit of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, while the Trump governmant stands firmly on Israel’s nationalistic government’s side.
Now, who were we supposed to be afraid of???
Seeing things from this angle is difficult for those inside the United States, where the walls seem to be collapsing around them, life is getting more expensive and harder by the day, injustice is making life difficult, and a “rebel” who promises to “Make America Great Again” seems like the only way out.
So desperate that they are ready to storm Capitol Hill if he doesn’t win.
People who don’t sleep very well at night, and who until now have not perceived tomorrow as a new hope, but a new threat.
If Trump imposes increased tariffs on goods from the EU to support American businesses, the EU will legislate on imports and exports to and from the US, which will suffocate the country.
If China, for the same reason, imposes the same restrictions on the United States at the same time, the US economy will have a cardiac arrest.
You don’t need a PhD in economics to understand that even though the US dollar may increase in value slightly, the shortage of common goods will cause inflation to go crazy.
Everything from iPhones to plastic spoons may be “designed” in the USA, and carry the logo of an American company, but they are made in China. If an iPhone was actually made in the US, only a very small minority of extremely weathy people would be able to afford one.
I don’t mean to be condescending and mansplain the obvious, but this is what the American voters apparently don’t understand.
It’s not enough to show up for 3rd grade. The teacher has to tell the truth, and the pupils have to listen.
Banning books that tell inconvenient truths is not a good direction in the “land of the free.”
In Europe too, we have voted for politicians who wanted to “unify the population”, “fight for the common man”, “protect family values”, “expose the corruption” and “stop the exploiters”.
We have regretted it every single time; Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Austria, Hungary, Serbia and Germany have dark experiences to draw from.
In four years Trump is out. But he is just a figurehead.
The 77 million voters who chose this path will remain.
No doubt, when the tariffs and threats backfire, the US government will blame the Europeans and the Chinese to keep the voters following this path.
Question is: How do we make them feel safe and at home in the world?